ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLORADO
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Religious art, gifts soothe souls Creator Mundi offers articles of faith without judgment
Coalition emerges to fight homelessness Change the Trend Network forms amid changing landscape of struggle in Englewood area
BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
After watching a man peer through the window for a while, Hildegard Letbetter welcomed him into her store, a shop that sold religious gifts and was then located on Third Avenue in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood. “I don’t know what I’m doing here,” the man said. He told Letbetter he’s Muslim, not someone who would be looking at Christian art. “Oh — we have the same God,” Letbetter replied. The man replied that he’s a professor of theology and that he’d never seen anything like the collection in the store. He bought a Christian symbol for his wife, also Muslim. Letbetter and the man corresponded afterward. “I knew nothing about, or very little about, the Muslim faith,” said Letbetter, owner of Creator Mundi, a business she started at home and then opened in Littleton, then Denver and now Englewood in 2015.
DEAD SEA SCROLLS: Exhibit allows visitors an up-close view of ancient artifacts. P18
75 CENTS
April 5, 2018
BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
current location at 901 Englewood Parkway, about three weeks from her store’s 30th anniversary celebration. She’s seen growth, change and shifting religious trends over the
Over the past few years, a lone person standing on a busy street corner holding a sign, or resting against a building in public, has become a more common sight in a once unusual place — the metro suburbs. Englewood has been no exception, just a few miles directly south of the homelessness hub of the downtown Denver area. “Ignoring it and saying there’s nothing we can do, it’s not our fault, it’s not our problem, doesn’t work,” said Nathan Hoag, a parish pastor, during a recent panel discussion on homelessness at the Englewood Civic Center. Hoag sat at the table with leaders from nonprofits, faith-based groups and
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SEE HOMELESS, P44
Hildegard Letbetter, owner of Creator Mundi, talks about an art piece in her shop at 901 Englewood Parkway, Suite 112, March 20. Letbetter discussed the history of her business a few weeks before its celebration of 30 years of business April 7. ELLIS ARNOLD But “we together, we’re all trying to go through life with God guiding us, and it doesn’t really matter whether we are Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist.” Letbetter recalled that story from years ago while sitting in her
THE BOTTOM LINE PERIODICAL
‘If only half the population with cancer got treatment, there would be a national outcry.’ Andrew Romanoff, CEO of Mental Health Colorado | Page 4 INSIDE
VOICES: PAGE 14 | LIFE: PAGE 18 | CALENDAR: PAGE 29 | SPORTS: PAGE 32
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VOLUME 98 | ISSUE 7