The Church as Sanctuary

A week ago, Jeanette Wolfberg reported in The Columbia Paper and The Upstater that a sanctuary for the homeless has opened in the First Reformed Church on Green Street: "New warming center opens in Hudson." This is the lede from that article:

A warming center with beds and meals opened in Hudson, October 17, as the Blanche Hotaling Memorial Mission. Located in the First Reformed Church of Hudson on Green Street and staffed 24/7, it will welcome anybody with no other shelter who comes to it at any time of the day or night.

Photo: Jeanette Wolfberg

The entire article can be read here.

Blanche Hotaling died in July 2023. Her obituary, which appeared in the Register-Star, shared this information:

Blanche was a member of the First Reformed Church, Hudson, serving as a Sunday School teacher and Superintendent; she was a Deacon and an Elder in the church. She had hopes of making a homeless shelter in the church and had been working to make that happen.

It's lovely that what she had worked to achieve has become a reality.