Transmission

Past Always Changing, Creation in Proverbs - 10/25 October 22, 2007

THE FUTURE IS CERTAIN - IT’S THE PAST THAT’S ALWAYS CHANGING
Another view of Creation in Proverbs 8:22-36

• Gather for dinner & social time 7pm @ Floridita’s, 3219 Broadway (1 train to 125th, cross 125th St, Floridita’s is at end of block)
• Due to Mr. Snodgrass’s academic schedule, the Bible-study will begin at 8:15

Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. - George Orwell.

Scholarly studies have demonstrated that Genesis 1 is not the oldest creation narrative in the Bible. At least half a century before the Torah took its final shape, the book of Proverbs showed our familiar patriarch assembling the Earth - with the help of a feminine partner. This Thursday’s Bible Study will focus on the Bible’s first creation story (Proverbs 8:22-36), with an eye toward how it shaped the Genesis creation, the creation in John 1, and our understandings of the patriarchal “way of the world.”

TRICK OR TREAT - TWO CHANCES to participate in EXORCISMS & INVOCATIONS ritual

• Bowie is working on a Halloween Ritual for Wed October 31st exploring the power of language to impact reality! More info to follow.
• SATURDAY, Oct 27th from 11am-1pm, she’ll be doing this ritual with City Lights, another emerging church community in NYC, and would LOVE to have a couple other Transmissioners come along! If you’re available on Saturday and would like to help out with the planning for our Halloween ritual, please email
  
  bowiesnodgrass@gmail.com. Thanks!

Contrapuntal Theology October 21, 2007

So for Transmission last week, we based our service on the passages in Matthew and Thomas in which Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” There are a variety of christologies present at Transmission - we have people who love Christianity and are proud to call themselves Christian, we have people who love Jesus and want to model their lives after him but who feel alienated or threatened by the term “Christian,” and we have people who are extremely skeptical of the ability of words, theology, and ideas to fully encompass God. With a group as diverse as this, we were more interested in asking the question than in coming up with a definitive answer.

After meditation, discussion, and prayer, we needed a song with which to end the ritual. Are there any songs about Christology that leave room for a diversity of theologies? I couldn’t think of any, so I asked j. Snodgrass to help me pen something.

We came up with a three-part chant, similar in style to Taize music. Instead of having multiple parts written in multiple languages, however, we wrote multiple parts in multiple theologies. Usually hymn lyrics assume that everyone present can agree to the same thing (or at least that they’ll temporarily sign on to the lyrics for the purposes of group singing). With this piece, on the other hand, we hoped that everyone would find a part they were comfortable singing, and that we can have a worshipful moment without making anyone sing anything that made them uncomfortable.  It was very successful.

If you like it, feel free to use it - click on the image above to download.

The Green Retreat: A Quest for Sustainable Spirit, Community, and World October 17, 2007

An invitation from the Congregation of St. Saviour at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. Lead by the Reverend Victoria Sirota, Canon Pastor and Vicar.

Saturday, November 3rd
9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m
Cathedral House, 1047 Amsterdam Ave

Itinerary

9:30-10:00 Registration and Breakfast

10:00-10:15 Opening by Reverend Sirota

10:15-11:45 Isabelle Silverman, Environmental Defense: “The Science of Global Warming”

11:45-12:45 Lunch

12:45-1:00 Spiritual Meditation with Reverend Sirota

1:00-1:45 Elena Lomicky, Green Living Consultant: “Things We Can Do at Home to Reduce Our Carbon Footprint”

2:00-2:45 Bob Muldoon, Sierra Club: “Environmental Advocacy at the Community and National Level”

3:00-3:45 Frank Morris, Ecological Advisors: “The Spiritual and Economic Case for Environmental Investing”

4:00-4:30 Closing Service

People of all faiths are warmly welcomed to attend. We request a $12 donation.  Serving wonderful organic, vegetarian fare. RSVP required. Please contact education@saintsaviour.org

Who do you say I am? October 15, 2007

This week we’re having Transmission on a Tuesday. Yup, you heard me right, it’s on TUESDAY. The reason for this is that a guest from UK, John Bell, is in New York this week and wanted to come but wasn’t free on Wednesday. He’s also a member of the Iona Community and one of the most influential church musicians alive, so if you want to ask him about either topic, please come.

We’ll be meeting at Bowie’s place - email us if you need directions. Our ritual, led by j. Snodgrass and me, will be focusing on the relationship between “Jesus the Nazarene” and “Christ the Son of God.”. Is there a difference between being a Christian and being a Jesus-follower? What kind of baggage do these terms carry, both for people in the church traditions and those outside them? What effect do these labels and ideas have on our lives and on our relationships?

As usual, we won’t be providing any answers, but I’m sure we’ll have some great discussion. Oh and, of course, we’ll also have great food, so come out to party and pray this Tuesday night, 7pm, at Bowie’s place. See you then!

Thurs, 10/11 – High Priest haute couture in Exodus 28 October 8, 2007

“Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques.” - Wikipedia

Well, that pretty much sums up the excesses of fashion detail in Exodus 28, describing garments for the great high priest. Wikipedia calls this “one of the least readable potions of the Torah”, but I think it’s truly fabulous and can’t wait to bible study it with you all…

This THURSDAY @ 7pm
Coffee Shop, 29 Union Square West

Ask for Transmission or call 646 245-7346

I’ll bring copies of the text (which you can also read ahead of time online), illustrations of the garments described, and discussion points…

• Do we believe making “sacred garments” can “give dignity and honor”? Ex 28:2

• Have you ever head of the Urim and Thummim? Ex 28:30 They were special objects of divination… which make appearances on Yale’s shield (along with their popular Latin translation Lux et Veritas, for Light and Truth), in Joseph Smith’s account of how he found the Book of Mormon, and in Paulo Coelho’s novel, The Alchemist.

• What clothes do you know which incorporate sound in their design? Exodus 28:33-35 gives instructions for pomegranates and bells to be alternated around the hem of the high priest’s robe, that will be heard when he enters the Holy Place, so that he will not die! Today, POM Wonderful just tells us to drink their pomegranates so that we will not die…

• And what are your thoughts on special undergarments, like the ones that must be worn by high priests in holy places “so that they will not incur guilt and die”? Ex 28:43

Sabbath Poem (Mahler 3) October 7, 2007

Last night I saw Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 for the second time this year! This time it was the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Boulez, at NYC’s own Carnegie Hall. This was only my second time there! and we sat in ‘limited legroom’ seats in the balcony, with wonderful sounds of 120 orchestra players, plus 30 women and 30 boy singers reverberating off the ceiling.

The first time I heard Mahler 3 was on July 14th at Tanglewood, MA with the James Levine conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. During the intermission between the first movement and the last five… I got engaged! Yup, George asked me to marry him on the hillside above Ozawa Hall. So this piece has permanent special significance to me…. especially the 6th movement, “What love tells me”.

I was struck again by the text for the 4th and 5th movements again last night and wanted to share them as my Sabbath Poems for this week. Enjoy!

IV. “What Man Tells Me”

Text: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
Translation: Larry Rothe

O Mensch! Gib Acht!

Oh man, take heed!
What does deep midnight say?
I slept!
I have woken from a deep dream!
The world is deep—
Deeper than the day had thought!
Deep is the pain!
Joy deeper still than heart’s sorrow!
Pain says: Vanish!
Yet all joy aspires to eternity,
To deep, deep eternity.

V. “What the Angels Tell Me”

Text: from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Translation: Larry Rothe

Three angels sang a sweet song.
It resounded throughout heaven;
They also rejoiced
That Peter was free of sin.

For as the Lord Jesus sat down at the table
And ate the evening meal with his twelve disciples,
The Lord Jesus said, “Why are you standing here?
When I look at you, you cry.”

“And shouldn’t I cry, you kind God?”
You shouldn’t cry!
“I have broken the Ten Commandments;
I go and cry bitterly.”
You shouldn’t cry!
“Oh come, and have mercy on me!”

“If you’ve broken the Ten Commandments,
Fall on your knees and pray to God.
Just love God always,
And you will have heavenly joy.”

Heavenly joy is a blessed city,
Heavenly joy, which has no end;
Heavenly joy was prepared for Peter
By Jesus, and for everyone’s salvation.

Translation copyright © 2003 by the San Francisco Symphony

Moses & Francis in…Whose Day Is it? October 4, 2007

In celebration of the alignment of Simchat Torah and the Feast of St Francis we bring you…Moses & Francis in…Whose Day Is it?
By j. Snodgrass

(Written 2 October, 2007 for use on 4 October, 2007)

The Cast :
Moses
Francis

Setting : Today. MOSES is sitting at a table, doing a book-signing, with a stack of identical books beside him. There are animals on the stage, milling. FRANCIS walks on, sees MOSES, freaks out like a nerdy
fanboy.

FRANCIS : (Speaking very fast)
Holy Moses! Oh, man! I can’t believe it! I’m your biggest fan! I LOVED your five books. Actually I skipped the ones in the middle, but I LOVED the rest. Will you sign one for me?

MOSES :
Sure. Who should I make it out to?

FRANCIS :
Francis.

MOSES : (While writing)
To…my…good…friend...Francis…Let my…people go…Moses. There you are.

FRANCIS :
Oh, and put the date.

MOSES :
Right. Um…and what’s today’s date again?

FRANCIS :
Saint Francis day, of course!

MOSES :
What?
(more…)

Simchat Torah + St Francis Day = Transmission on Oct 3rd! October 2, 2007

Yup, you heard it here first, folks. In a strange alignment of two calendars, this Wednesday night will be both the eve of Simchat Torah AND the eve of the Feast of St Francis. If you don’t know, St Francis was a proto-hippie who wandered around Europe and the near-east talking to animals, kissing lepers, and telling rich people they should renounce materialism and consumerism. Simchat Torah, on the other hand, is the day when the entire Jewish world hits the rewind button on their Torah scrolls, going from the death of Moses in Deuteronomy to the creation of the world in Genesis in one day, and resetting their shabbat readings for the coming year by picking up their scriptures and dancing around the room with them.

Our very own Paul and Katherine will be planning our ritual this week. I’m not sure what they’re planning, but expect themes of dying and creation, mortality and eco-justice, kissing and dancing, community storytelling and the blessing of household pets. We’re meeting at Paul’s place, which is at Union (121st and Broadway). Give me a call when you show up and I’ll come down and get you - 917.306.2442.

Summary:
Wed, Oct 3, 121st and Broadway, 7-9pm