Know Your Neighbors – Neil O’Farrell
Thank you to Clark Semmes for this 7th installment of his 2,361 part series, Know Your Neighbors:
While many members of our community generously donate their time and energy to lift up the lives of others, not many do so as tirelessly as Neil O’Farrell. As the pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in the South Baltimore neighborhood of Brooklyn, Neil is not content to merely run the church and lead his congregation. Neil also spends endless hours reaching out to the less fortunate members of his community and providing grassroots assistance with health care, dependency, homelessness, and other problems that can plague lower income neighborhoods.
Neil grew up the son of the town dentist in tiny Hinton, West Virginia. Lacking money, many of the town’s residents paid for their dentistry with fresh vegetables or patchwork quilts. Neil never dreamed of becoming a minister, but after being released from a job as a Washington lobbyist, Neil decided to follow his heart and was soon enrolled at Harvard Divinity School. A belief that cities are the highest expression of what societies are all about led Neil from Cambridge to Baltimore and his current urban ministry.
The neighborhood of Brooklyn reached its heyday around Word War II when many of the residents worked at the harbor or put cold cream into blue jars at the Nozema factory. Today those factories are closed, unemployment runs high, and the median age of the residents is well above retirement. Not all the members of Neil’s congregation know what to think of a tweedy Harvard theologian with a blackberry and a facebook page, but they all come together at the regular bingo games, bake sales, and spaghetti dinners held to raise money for the church.
While Neil cares deeply about the members of his congregation and the larger community, he knew that his “terrible sense of boundaries” would lead to more stress then he could handle without a place of refuge. Neil loves living in Mt. Washington for its beauty, diversity, tolerance, and friendly atmosphere. When not giving sermons, managing church business, or ferrying those in need to hospitals or AA meetings, Neil can be found at home with his partner Stephen and their beloved dogs, Kinga and Rafe. More information on Neil and St. John church can be found at www.StJohnBrooklynMD.org.
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