Fundraising Update
March 31, 2007
So, friends, we're about a week away from Easter and our fundraising efforts continue. We've received some very generous help, but this event is still pretty far away from breaking even, so please consider helping us out! Remember that we're still a small-time independent church that meets in our member's apartments; every little bit helps.
So first, a big thank you to the following people (please forgive my silly titles):
Pillars of the Church:
Deborah Black
Paul Everett
Faith House and Citylights
St. Thomas Church, Medina, WA
Patrons:
Mel Ahlborn
The Episcopal Church at Cornell
Matthew Pritchard
The Sanctuary Community
Mary Stuart
Friends:
Church of the Apostles, Seattle, WA
Kathy Cheney
Phillipa Currier & Gareth Powell (from Moot, UK)
Anne Ditzler
Abigail Estes
Chloe Silverman
Kelley Smith
Rick Snodgrass
Laura Unsworth
(also thanks to
Tracy Quan
Our budget, meanwhile, looks likes this:
space rental: $2800
musicians: $400
eucharistic wine: $200
graphic design: $100
printing costs: $300
supplies: $200
—————————–
total: $4000
and this point we've raised $2,350 (updated 4.7.07) which means we're a little more than half-way there. Please consider supporting this event!
Holy Week Schedule
March 31, 2007
Hey, guys, some of you have asked about what Transmission is doing for Holy Week. Obviously, with Easter around the corner we won’t be able to throw a service every day of the week, but it would be cool if we could spend some time together. Here’s our tentative schedule for any Transmissioners (and/or transcurious) folks who are looking for stuff to do:
Palm Sunday. Sanctuary, 6pm, 74th and York Ave. T.j.Snodgrass, the one and only, will be delivering his first homily. If you know Snodgrass, you know he’s not a man to be trifled with, so this should be worth checking out. I’ll be doing the music (including a tribute to Depeche Mode). One specific reason to come: almost every church does the crucifixion on Palm Sunday, but Sanctuary is actually focusing on the entry into Jerusalem and leaving Good Friday for Good Friday.
Wednesday. We’ll be having our last planning meeting at Avalon, 20th St and 6th Ave. This won’t be a service, but it will be our only chance to lay out the space, check sounds and lights, etc. The more hands, the better.
Maundy Thursday. Transmission will be gathering at Katherine Lee’s place up in Washington Heights. Good food, evocative ritual, and everything you’ve come to love about Transmission… (see post below for more info)
Good Friday. We’ll be back at Sanctuary, this time for an environmental stations of the cross which will be set up from from 6-9pm. No, it’s not a three hour service; that means that you can show up whenever you want and leave whenever you want. Bowie and I are both doing installations, and I’m also making an audio loop of poetry and music. It’ll be a neat experience of traditional church doing a radically decentralized worship.
Holy Saturday. Down to Time Square for St Mary the Virgin‘s Easter Vigil. Affectionately known as “Smokey Mary’s,” this place does high-liturgy like no one else. It’ll be a very different experience from Transmission, but we also recognize “high liturgy” as being both solidly multi-sensory and very traditional. It’s a long service, so eat before you get there.
Easter Sunday. EASTER AT AVALON! What else do you need?
Maundy Thursday
March 29, 2007
Hey, Transmissioners! First of all, a quick reminder that next week we’ll be having our tech/dress rehearsal for the event down at Avalon from 7-9pm. It’ll be hot. Ok, actually, it’ll probably be a little bit boring, but you should come anyway.
But, since that meeting is supplanting our weekly dose of community and ritual, we’ve decided to celebrate Maundy Thursday as a community. Katherine Lee has volunteered to host (apparently she has a massive apartment up in Washington Heights). Since the other Katie also lives up in that hood, they’ll be doing the food and I’ll be planning some sort of service. If you want to come, just shoot me an email and I will reveal Katherine’s address.
Hope to see you there!
isaac
The Prostitute Preacher
March 28, 2007
I’m currently doing research into a somewhat forgotten 12th century sect called the Waldensians, who are quickly becoming my favorite heresy (ask me to compare them with the Franciscans sometime). Basically, these guys were anathematized and excommunicated for believing and teaching that a) to follow Jesus means radical solidarity with the poor, b) lay people should be empowered to preach and to serve without asking permission of the institutional church, and c) women should be allowed to preach and hear confessions alongside men. That was pretty much all they stood for. They weren’t even separatists; they wanted to stay in full communion with the church and even at the height of their power they still went to their local parish priests for Eucharists, baptisms, masses, etc.
I found one fascinating account in “The Prostitute-Preacher: Patterns of Polemic against Medieval Waldensian Women Preachers” by Beverly Maybe Keinzle. She recounts a story of two women who were reprimanded by their local bishop for preaching in the French city of Clermont. According to Geoffroy of Auxerre, by preaching, these women were acting with such impropriety that they could only be likened to prostitutes. After explaining at length why women should be silent and be satisfied to ask questions of their husbands in private, he busts out this gem:
Who has brought Jezebel back to life, a young woman after 1,000 years, so that she may run through the streets and squares like a prostitute preacher?
Now the Jezebel to whom he’s referring is not the villain of Shakespearean proportions from 1 Kings; this Jezebel was an early church leader in Thyatira – a prophetess, in fact. The author of the book of Revelation has a pretty big bone to pick with her, although it’s not clear whether that’s because she’s “calling herself a prophet,” because she’s “teaching,” or because she is “beguiling servants to practice fornication.” Whatever the case, when I compare the depiction of Thyatira against the modern-day churches which have so misappropriated the book of Revelation, I think I’d rather be in Thyatira.
Geoffroy ends his tirade by suggesting that these women should become more like the silent Mary, mother of Jesus, “who bore many things in her heart but uttered few with her lips.” Blech. Nothing against St Mary but personally, I’d love to see the sex worker community adopt Jezebel as an icon the same way that black feminists have adopted Hagar.
Bethesda Transmission
March 27, 2007
Hey guys! This is your reminder that we’ll be having Transmission tomorrow night, Wednesday the 28th. This week Paul Grenier, our very own Tiresias, will be leading us in a meditation based on the pool of Bethesda. Paul’s treatment of healing stories is always exceptional – this is not one to be missed.
Unfortunately our usual gracious hostess, Bowie, will be out of town this week so we’ll be having services at Union instead (where Paul and I both live). It’s only a few blocks away from Bowie’s so it shouldn’t kill anyone to get here. Union is located at 121st and Broadway – closest stops would be 116th on the 1 train or 125th on the A/B/C/D. If you want to hopstop it, the address is 3041 Broadway, NY, NY, 10027.
There’s some big news you guys should be aware of. First of all, if you haven’t checked out the article about us on the Sojourners website (Jim Wallis’s magazine), go look at www.sojo.net Secondly, Time Out New York will be running a piece on us next week, which is fabulous.
We also have our postcards made up, so if you want some make sure to let me know! I’ve got scads.
hope to see you all tomorrow!
Becky Garrison: Easter for the Outcasts
March 26, 2007
Our friend, Becky Garrison, has just posted about Easter @ Avalon on “God’s Politics” – a blog by Jim Wallis & Friends, presented by Beliefnet and Sojourners. Yay!
Go by and see what she has to say in “Easter for the Outcasts” and cast a comment!
Support Easter At Avalon
March 24, 2007
Dear friends, kind Christians, and allies,
Yup, right now all our expenses for Easter @ Avalon are being paid out of our own pockets. We are estimating a $4,000 total budget, $2800 of which is for space rental. We have already received more than $500 in donations, in addition to countless hours of volunteer time (see list of contributing artists and groups in the post below)!
This experimental Easter service (which incorporates ancient elements of Christian worship, in addition to lots of totally 21st-century stuff) is being planned to welcome people who wouldn’t otherwise attend church on Easter, for those who might not feel welcomed if they
did show up, and for those who want to experience an additional resurrection celebration!
Please help support this historic and exciting event! Be a friend and kick in $5. Help pay for our sundry supplies by giving $50. Cover the cost of our musicians by donating $200. Or be a “pillar of the church” and help defray the cost of our space rental with a $500 gift. All amounts welcome. Every little bit helps.
p.s. We will not be charging admission for the event (so your gift will help someone else celebrate Easter), but we will be taking donations (so come! and share your pennies and twenties then if you’d don’t want to give online).
p.p.s. These donations are tax-deductible. Please contact us (click on link in top right corner of this site) if you need a letterhead receipt for tax purposes. We will be declaring these donations to the tax powers that be and will give away any proceeds we make above expenses to non-profit organizations that assist modern day sex workers.
p.p.p.s. Listen to your heart. You know you want to give! Cause giving feels good.
EASTER @ AVALON: contributing artists & groups
March 24, 2007
many thanks to these artists and groups who are planning to participate and share their talents with us – and to the glory of God – on Easter evening! please check out the websites of these individuals and groups who bring so much ‘art and soul’ to this project…
artists
Connie Casserole, dj
Isaac Everett, music
Dara Centone, singer
Steve Hoevertsz, guitarist
Miles Kennedy, drummer
j. Snodgrass, writer
Mike Jackson, artist
Tracy Quan, writer
Malinda Allen, dancer
Noah Fischer, lights
Mel Ahlborn, artist
Hal Weiner, photographer
[Grid::Blog::Via Crucis 2007]
March 23, 2007
[Grid::Blog::Via Crucis 2007 ]
Last year, more than 50 bloggers around the globe came together to share their reflections in a grid blog called Via Crucis during the week often called HOLY WEEK and in the week after EASTER. The name for this rag-tag effort comes from the Latin words for the Way of the Cross – Via Crucis. The response was astounding to this experiment in distributed global media, which was designed to draw on the creativity, diversity, and theological understanding of the blogging community to a moment in the story of folks practicing faith.
With the beginning of Holy Week (Palm Sunday ‚Äì April 1) right around the corner, I am hoping you might join the [Grid::Blog::Via Crucis 2007] – if you are interested please go to http://thecorner.typepad.com/via_crucis_2007/ for a calendar of this year’s grid blog and sign up!
Sabbath Poem (H.D. on Mary Magdalene)
March 23, 2007
The Flowering of the Rod
[21]
Anyhow, it is exactly written,
the house was filled with the odour of the ointment;
that was a little later and this was not such a small house
and was maybe already fragrant with boughs and wreaths,
for this was a banquet, a festival;
it was all very gay and there was laughter,
but Judas Iscariot turned down his mouth,
he muttered Extravagant under his breath,
for the nard though not potent,
had that subtle, indefinable essence
that lasts longer and costs more;
Judas whispered to his neighbour
and then they all began talking about the poor;
but Mary, seated on the floor,
like a child at a party, paid no attention;
she was busy; she was deftly un-weaving
the long, carefully-braided tresses
of her extraordinary hair.
LINKS
* The poem above is from Trilogy by H.D.
* It is based on the story of Mary (presumably, of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, rather than Mary Magdalene) anointing Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair from the Gospel of John 12:1
* Which is related to the story of an unnamed woman anointing Jesus’ head in the house of Simon the Leper in Mark 14:3-9 and Matthew 26:6-13
* The many artistic portrayals of Mary Magdalene holding a small jar of ointment come from the long tradition of identifying her with other Mary’s and unnamed women in the New Testament.