Reblogged from Land of a Thousand Hills blog:

This week we bring you a great article on our friends at 8th Day: Coffee and Culture. We love what Shane is doing there! If you’re in Phoenix, check them out HERE!

Drink Coffee, Do Good

Coffee Shop Aspires to Bring Community to Downtown Phoenix

By Alicia Canales

Perhaps the building’s former life as Just Breathe Wellness, a yoga studio, gives it the relaxing atmosphere. Maybe it’s what the building, now 8th Day Coffee & Culture, stands for that provides a sense of peace and calmness when entering through the black outlined doors.

Eighth day stands for “eternity,” or the “eternal day” in ancient terms, co-owner Shane Copeland says. The definition creates the purpose of the coffee shop’s 4,000 square foot space, which is to convey light, creativity and relationship.

“There’s enough darkness in our world,” Copeland says. “Creativity is a beautiful thing. As a place, we want music and arts and culture to be present and relationship is at the heart of it.”

The eighth day meaning carries on when 8th Day closes on Sunday. The building hosts St. George’s Anglican Community, of which Copeland is the pastor. The coffee shop and church are separate entities with some relational connection. The same calming ambiance is present when people in the building gather to worship God or gather over a cup of coffee.

A sense of community drives Copeland as a co-owner and pastor. St. George’s met at Roosevelt Community Church for four years before leasing the 8th Day building. Copeland says reconstruction began in April 2012 and took four months. The main room used to be a yoga workout room. Copeland says workers removed mirrors, knocked down some walls and installed fire sprinklers. Now, his congregation has a place of its own.

“We kind of felt nomadic and not settled,” Copeland says. “Having been able to move in here on Sundays has given us a sense of home.”

For 8th Day, it’s a place for good coffee and to connect with friends. Amber Hunter, a barista with curled strawberry-blonde hair, said she enjoys having a front row seat to watch relationships form or grow as people drink their coffee.

“I think this is a space you really have to come in and experience for yourself because I do think there’s something special here,” Hunter says. “We’re just at the very beginning of what this space is going to be, so I’m excited.”

Eighth Day, located on the corner of Second and Garfield streets, is welcoming from its exterior. Its warm red paint exudes an air of cordiality that draws a person closer. Trees, ordained with strings of lights and white paper lanterns, are planted in the middle of the patio.

Opening the door, a rich aroma of coffee beans invites the customer in. To the left, people talk amongst each other or type on their laptops. To the right, a barista behind the coffee bar greets regulars as old friends.

The baristas interact in a familial way, talking and joking amongst each other during a lull in the day. It’s rare to look over at the bar and not see the employees smiling. Hunter, also a St. George member, says the employees avoid gossip so no bitterness is between them.

“We’re very quick to work through that stuff with each other so that we can continue to support each other and that makes a huge difference,” she says.

Their love and connection with each other extends over the coffee bar. Alexandra Korsick, an Arizona State University justice studies major, comes to 8th Day twice a week with friends. She says the customer service is the friendliest she’s ever seen, and she appreciates that Copeland works behind the bar every so often.

“He’s so nice. I think it’s not often you meet an owner,” Korsick says. “You can tell he cares about it, which is a good thing to see.”

Throughout the work week, sofas, cushioned chairs and wooden tables fill half of the main lounge area. The other half is closed off by folding, black-trimmed dividers. Between the cracks, it’s possible to see sound equipment. Eighth Day encourages local artists to contact its art director or sign up for its open mic nights.

On Sundays, the dividers come down. Members rearrange the furniture and bring out chairs. The congregation faces the back of the room, where a table covered in white and purple cloths and a wooden cross stand. Copeland, who wore jeans and a blue-white plaid shirt two days earlier, dawns a white robe with black sleeves and collar. The wardrobe change seems to be the only difference in Copeland. His shoulder-length, curly black hair frames his oval face. His powerful tone draws his congregation members to listen just as the baristas cannot ignore his orders. As he leads the sermon, he uses the same hand gestures and smiles as he does when welcoming customers.

Shirts showing 8th Day’s slogan line a corner in the coffee bar area: Drink coffee, do good. This is the motto of its coffee provider, Land of a Thousand Hills, which allowed 8th Day to also use. Land of a Thousand Hills provides community-trade coffee from Rwanda, Haiti and Thailand. Eighth Day pays twice the fair trade amount. Three dollars go to the third-world farmers instead of half that price, so farmers can make a sustainable living.

“There’s something really powerful about being able to go and buy something you use every day, like coffee, and know that you’re making a difference in the world,” Hunter says.

The building also offers a back room for studying or conferences. St. George’s church creates a nursery from a separate room during Sundays. On the patio out front, customers bask in the sun in wooden chairs. Copeland says more people, regardless of faith, discover ways to inhabit the building.

“We’d want the community to be able to use it across the spectrum of life and, obviously, that would include spiritual as well as other components because we believe in the holistic need of people,” Copeland says.

Copeland says everyone has opinions around religion, and he doesn’t desire to argue with those upset about 8th Day hosting a church. Both entities, while separate, build community, he says. The Christian perspective of loving God and your neighbor as yourself motivates Copeland and workers, some whom are members, in the shop and church.

“We just want to be present at the table, in the community doing good, blessing the community,” Copeland says. “For people who think that religion doesn’t benefit community, all I can say is this is what we’re doing.”

Article Source: http://www.ecollegetimes.com/student-life/drink-coffee-do-good-1.2822302

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