Four decades ago, during the heyday of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in West Oakland, hundreds would show up for worship on Sundays. The grand sanctuary of the historic Black church, with its stained glass windows and elegant wooden pews, got so full, if you arrived five minutes late it was standing room only.
These days, as many Black residents have left amid the high cost of housing, the services are largely empty, save for a couple dozen faithful who return week after week, some of them from far away suburbs. So it was that on a Sunday this fall; Pastor Todd Benson stood at the altar in the golden light of the stained glass and, addressing about twenty men and women and a handful of kids, he turned his sermon from the gospel of Matthew to an existential struggle for the Black community in West Oakland, and the future of the church itself: the housing crisis. The average rent of an apartment in the city is now more than $2,700, he said, his voice risin