Valentine’s Day Transmission
February 11, 2007
2/14 @ 7pm
* Readings from Song of Songs
w/ pomegranates, figs, apricots, honey & wine
* Body Prayer
* Dancing
* Dinner, dessert & more
~ feel free to bring chocolates, wine, flowers and friends
LINKS
St. Valentine
Romantic Love
The Song of Songs
Bowie’s column on the S o S
Sexy Jesus (track 9) by Wayne & Wax
EASTER @ AVALON : dreams of resurrection
February 6, 2007
Jenn & Isaac facing back of hall, originally uploaded by bowiesnodgrass.
Hi. We’re planning to do an Easter Service at Avalon (used to be Limelight), in Holy Communion Episcopal Church – which was founded by William Augustus Muhlenberg
AVALON – Avenue of the Americas @ West 20th Street
6pm – all are welcome
Come join us for an experimental melange of ritual celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. We’ll be touching on the story of King Arthur and Avalon
We will also be focusing on Mary Magdalene’s role in this tale. Mary was one of Jesus’ best apostles, both during and after his time on earth. In the early centuries of Christianity, the church conflated Mary Magdalene with prostitute characters in the bible – and for the next millennia and a half, most christians believed Mary was once a worker in the world’s oldest profession. Maybe she was. Jesus hung out with a lot of hookers.
And so did Muhlenburg. In the 1870s, this priest set up a network of Episcopal dioceses to participate in the Midnight Mission , a radical outreach effort for sex workers (which for him included both mistresses and brothel workers). In a very 19th century way, his effort was to help these fallen women find new homes in wholesome, Christian houses in the country…
130 years later, we find ourselves in a very different NYC. But in America 2007, sexuality is still a great divider and money something we don’t like to talk about… so it’s time for us to start living a little more like Jesus. Let’s have a party for Easter and celebrate the first women who knew that Jesus was no longer dead, but alive… again!
Please contact us if you would like to participate in this effort.
Our first planning meeting will be held on February 21st (Ash Wednesday). We will have a short ritual to kick off Lent, followed by a meeting with food. More details to follow.
We see in a mirror, dimly
February 2, 2007
This week marked the first ritual prepared by Katie, and it was really excellent. As I understand it, the ritual was largely about the limited capacity of language (and, by extension, scripture and theology). It’s pretty hard to adequately describe that kind of ritual with words, so instead I’ll just describe my experience of it.
The ritual began by setting up paper lanterns, taping pieces of paper together and setting them around a candle. Each candle had two quotations on it, one from the Christian tradition and one from an Eastern tradition. Not only did this create a beautiful effect, but the texts actually obscured the light - a very important metaphor.
The sides of the lanterns which did not have texts had rorschach inkblots on them (abstract shapes used in psychological evaluation which look like whatever the viewer wants them to look like). Once again, another very important metaphor for the Bible and theology.
After several minutes wandering around them room, gazing at the inkblots, and reading the texts, Katie called us together again and handed out 12 inch square mirrors and dry erase markers. We were told to take some time to express our ideas about God. Trying to write about God while staring at myself in the mirror was surprisingly difficult - I was forced to remember that my conception of God is suspiciously similar to myself (just like Malcolm X’s God seemed quite a bit like Malcolm X, Bonhoeffer’s God seems a lot like Bonhoeffer, etc). So I eventually gave up on being objective and instead just drew a picture of myself with some incarnational words. I thought I was being all creative but two other people also incorporated pictures of themselves into their mirrors…
After finishing our mirrors, we set them up, wandered around, meditating and praying with the each other’s mirrors just as we did with the texts. Finally, Katie brought out a big basin of soapy water and we washed the mirrors clean, reminding ourselves that it is God whom we worship, not our conceptions of God.
This ritual worked for several reasons. First, the activities engaged us visually, verbally, and tactilely. Secondly, although we were given things to think about, we were also given the opportunity to explore our own ideas, share them, and get to know one another just a little bit better. Finally, the ritual made no doctrinal demands of us; Transmission is made of a pretty diverse group of people and the ritual allowed everyone to participate regardless of where they fall theologically.
All in all, a great service.
The texts used are reprinted below…
Katie’s Mirror
February 2, 2007
Katie’s Mirror, originally uploaded by bowiesnodgrass.
Katie planned an awesome ritual last night (which hopefully she or Ike will blog about - hint, hint). One part involved meditating on readings from sacred scriptures and Rorschach inkblots, taped into a rectangle, set over a candle. In another part, we were all given mirrors and dry-erase markers and asked to reflect on our faith in God. We then traded mirrors, and later shared our personal reflections.
* You can check out photos on flickr.
* And here’s my favorite reading from the evening –
Whence all creation had its origin,
He, whether He fashioned it or whether He did not,
He, who surveys it all from highest heaven,
He knows – or maybe even he does not know.
~ Rig Veda