I arrived 20–30 minutes after the start time Hannah had given me, possibly because Beaumont Square is near where I was living at the time and I was trying to squeeze too many things in before walking over. However, I think I was also operating on the assumption that as a matter of ethnographic presence, I would be less disruptive as an outsider at an informal hang-out event if I arrived when it was in mid-swing rather than just getting started.
Beaumont Square is a small park with playground and seating area, located very close to Church of the Resurrection, an important landmark for Tapestry, including Team Z. Hannah, several adults, and possibly at least one youth were seated on a rounded (stone?) bench talking. There in the midst of them on the bench was a warmer for keeping beverages hot. It turned out to be cider, and there were homemade cookies as well. I sat down near Hannah, who introduced me to the mentors (and youth?) she was speaking with.
I learned that the park hangout was just one of the activities on offer at this All Tapestry event. Some teams were visiting a nearby hotel, which each year decorates its lobby for Christmas by turning a portion of it into a life-size gingerbread house. Another team had walked to a nearby business district to get some lunch. I later learned that this team included Liam, Hannah’s husband. I know and like Liam from when I was with Hannah at seminary; he and I played defense together on the flag football team. I think some teams had gone inside the church as well, which is open to the public and is a popular tourist site.
A frequent tension in a “faith-adjacent” community, perhaps especially for the faith leaders, is how / how much to discuss the faith connection.
At some point, a mentor or other adult asked me about my connection to Tapestry, the first time I would have to tackle this always tricky question. Not having formalized any sort of partnership yet, I introduced myself simply as a classmate of Hannah’s (perhaps “seminary classmate”?) who was new to the area and getting to know people. I tried to mostly listen, engaging as needed with follow-up questions or simple answers.
At some point in the event, one of the youth who came by the gathering area was an outgoing white teenager I now know as Zoe. I would also meet two Black teenagers, including Reggie. I accompanied a team, I think Reggie’s, to the hotel to check out the decorations. [Add links to their pages in the Actors menu.]
I heard at least one mentor report that she and her youth had come to the event in an Uber. Toward the end of the event, I believe Liam offered me a ride home, which I didn’t need to accept. He and Hannah had previously lived in the city but had relocated to a suburb. (I would later learn that this happened sometime after it was clear that Tapestry would not be a neighborhood church plant.) I believe he and Hannah planned to take Reggie home as well.
Data collection
- Field notes?: No
- Audio recording?: No
- Photographs?: No
Significant observations
- There is a persistent sense of “going with the flow” at this gathering. Teams arrive, go off on their own, sometimes interact a bit with each other, and generally move in an unhurried way through the space.
Interpretive insights
- Although I would not understand why until much later, all the conversation about coming and going (by mentor car, by Uber, etc.) was definitely not a coincidence. I would go on to learn that for reasons of both child protection purposes and volunteer demographics, transportation of youth and mentors to facilitate outings is one of the biggest challenges Tapestry faces.
Implications / reflections
- Although there wasn’t anything significant about our interactions (indeed, youth and mentors alike would frequently forget they had met me when we later reconnected), this was nevertheless the first time I met Zoe, Reggie, and their mentors—two of the three teams I have spent substantial time with during my study so far.
- The well-known labyrinth at Church of the Resurrection is nearby, and I can’t help but think of it and Hannah’s discussions of the guiding principle of presence as I remember my first experience of the relatively unstructured and unhurried character of this event, which I would come to recognize as characteristic of an All Tapestry gathering.
Image credit: “Playground” by Brisbane City Council via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). For illustration only—not a research artifact.