Eighth Day of Christmas! This Wednesday! 8pm!
December 28, 2008
Hello, Transmissioners!
Until the 1970s, it was called the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord.¬† After that, it was called the Feast of the Holy Name.¬† Most people today just call it New Year’s Eve.¬† Whatever you want to call it, we’re celebrating it this Wednesday!¬† Between 8pm and 9pm, we’ll do a short ritual based on the Eighth Day of Christmas and the Bris of Christ, and from 9pm onwards we’ll just be partying – drinks, games, music, you name it.¬† If you have a friend you’ve been meaning to invite to Transmission, this would be a great week to do it!¬† All are welcome.
Liturgical Chaos
December 18, 2008
On the train ride home from Transmission last night, we somehow got into a discussion of the various denominational backgrounds of our members, especially the Episcopalians and the Baptists.¬† Well, this morning, our friend Emily Scott posted a piece on that very topic, and it’s well worth reading.
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/liturgy/holy_chaos_or_what_episcopalia.php
An Advent Ritual From Home
December 15, 2008
Here’s a ritual that Bowie led us in last Wednesday.¬† It’s loosely based on a Lessons and Carols service, and involves distributing the verses of Veni, Veni Emmanuel around texts and meditations.¬† Copy it down and do it with your community, or just do it here!
Sing:
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Silence…
Sing:
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Watch:Blessed by Juli Allen and Jon Birch
Share Stories About Waiting
Sing:
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Waiting for the Miracle, by Leonard Cohen:
[audio: waitingforthemiracle.mp3]
light candles while listening.
Sing:
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Postlude: Waiting in Vain by Bob Marley (performed by Annie Lenox):
[audio: waitinginvain]
Advent Transmission on waiting…
December 2, 2008
This Wednesday, December 3, is the first Transmission of Advent.¬† We’re meeting at Isaac’s place (email for directions), Sarah is cooking, and Bowie is leading the ritual:
A quiet, meditative evening to reflect on waiting… in silence and darkness, and waiting… for a miracle to come. ¬†We will read Luke Chapter 1 and selections from the Prophet Isaiah, interspersed with songs, silence, sharing, and activities.¬† Music ranging from O Come O Come Emmanuel to Coldplay.
Network of Ministry Innovators
October 25, 2008
Well, I’m back from an invigorating week in New Orleans, picking brains and sharing stories with other intrepid church mavericks from around the country.¬† Transmission even got a nice mention in Episcopal Life:
“Trying to lead a new community can be confusing,” said Isaac Everett, of the Diocese of New York. “So finding others is really invaluable.”
Everett is co-founder of Transmission, an emerging liturgical community in New York City.
It’s great that they gave us link, although I wish that I came off as a little less clueless.¬† Oh, well, you can never control what the press will right about you and, in all honesty, I can be more than a little clueless at times.
In any case, I have all kinds of ideas I want to share with the group, and I think we’re overdue for a “future of Transmission” talk, anyway, so maybe we can discuss on Wednesday.¬† Bowie was at the conference, too, so I’m sure she’ll have lots to contribute.
Now I’m off to the Congregational Church of New Canaan to perform in a bibliodrama in which Cain’s wife takes Eve to weekend spa getaway in order to figure out why Cain is tormented with nightmares.¬† No, I’m not making this up…
5th Wednesday Singing
October 23, 2008
This Wednesday, the 29th, we’ll gather around the new piano in Bowie’s apartment for a marathon psalm reading and antiphon signing session, testing out the antiphons Isaac has been working on for the Emerging Psalter. ¬†Readers and singers and knitters and listeners all welcome.
Bowie will be preparing a home-cooked autumnal meal, but folks are welcome to bring drinks and treats!
Women’s Retreat for Abuse Survivors
August 23, 2008
We got this in the Transmission inbox a few days ago and thought it worth passing on. Most everyone knows survivors of abuse, whether they’re aware of it or not, and we at Transmission are no different. Blessings on the work CFM is doing.
Committed to Freedom Ministries will hold a retreat for women who are survivors of childhood abuse in the Bronx, Riverdale area. The retreat does not focus on the abuse experience, but on practical spiritual tools to move beyond the damage of abuse.
The retreat begins at noon on Friday and concludes at 3:00 pm on Sunday. The cost is $400, which includes lodging, meals, retreat curriculum, and retreat materials.
Please call 1-800-713-7837, visit our website committedtofreedom.org or e-mail information@committedtofreedom.org for more information or a registration form. Registration forms are available for download from our website. Registrations must be received by August 22nd.
Emad Youssef is my hero
August 23, 2008
Gothamist recently reported on an Egyptian food cart vendor who returned a $100 bill to a woman who dropped it.¬† When they asked him why he did it, he replied, “I’m Christian. In my religion, if I take somebody’s money, it’s haram.”
Although up until now I’ve only heard Jews and Muslims use the word haram (i.e. forbidden), I was super excited that Christianity is getting some positive press in NYC.¬† Woo Hoo!
Salt Lake
August 18, 2008
Hey, Transmissioners! We’re doing something different this week. Transmission’s own dancer-in-residence, Sarah Godbehere, is performing this Wednesday at the Lafeyette Street Theatre (45 Bleecker St at Lafayette) in Salt Lake, a ballet in 3 acts which the choreographer describes as “ballet meets performance art.” We spend a lot of time at Transmission talking about the relationship of ritual and performance, so we’re going to use this as an opportunity to watch an artistic performance through the lens of ritual analysis. This promises to be a really great evening. This would also be a great Transmission to bring friends to, especially friends who might be intimidated by our more typical house church stuff.
The show starts at 7:45pm, although we’ll probably get there early to make sure we can all get seats together. Tickets are $15 and can be gotten at the door. We’ll be going out afterwards to talk about the performance so feel free to meet us for food and drinks if you can’t make it to the show! You can read more about the performance here: http://www.s6k.com/page.cfm?id=60680703
We also have some community news! First of all, Dan Marrin is kind of urgently looking for a room to rent. If you need a roommate, let us know! You can write here or contact him directly.
Secondly, after a year of course work, Katie Shapiro is getting certified as a Paramedic and has invited us to her graduation, which will be next Wednesday, the 27th. Come support one of Transmission’s two medical professionals! The ceremony will be at 5pm in the NYU Kimmel Building, 60 Washington Square South. As usual, food and drink will follow.
Peace.
Some Thoughts on Ritual Installations
August 13, 2008
I recently had lunch with my friend Clay Morris, who also happens to be the chief liturgical officer of the Episcopal Church, and he gave me an interesting thought puzzle. How could one do a low budget but meaningful morning prayer for a community of people who work together in the same building, but who don’t necessarily arrive at the same time?
First, it seems that the ritual should allow people to spend as much or as little time as they wish, preferably delivering a significant ritual experience whether someone gives it five minutes or thirty. The most obvious way to do this is with an art installation – unlike a traditional liturgy which has a fixed a beginning, middle, and end, an art installation allows participants to manage their own experience. An installation can also be left up all day if folks would rather experience it during lunch or on their way home.
The ritual installations should be useful both for those who want to participate every day and those who would only participate occasionally. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to do a series in which each day is predicated on the one before it. Further, each day ought to be different enough from the preceding one that it’s worthwhile to come back each day, which means that the installation either needs to be replaced each day, change each day, or have a high repeatability factor.
I think the best way to accomplish this would be focusing on user-generated content, a method that a lot of websites use to bring in traffic. Basically, the website puts up a story, article, or something similar and then allows visitors to the site to either comment on it or alter it. Occasionally visitors to the site just read the articles, but others come back multiple times a day to check on conversations, etc. It started with blogs and webforums but it’s become mainstream – even CNN.com is allowing comments on its stories these days.
Thinking in this way would allow the design team to create weekly installations rather than daily ones, saving time, money, and energy, and it also creates a very emergent atmosphere in which the participants become co-creators.
What would this look line in practice? Here are some ideas:
Simple installations:
- place a pad of yellow stickies on an altar and write a prayer request on the top sticky. When a person comes to the altar, they tear off the sticky and take it with them, promising to pray for that thing throughout the rest of the day. They then write a new prayer request on the next sticky down. This extremely low-budget option allows folks to come back as often as they wish and builds community by getting the entire building praying for each others concerns.
- Buy one of those “make magnetic poetry” kits, the kind in which you can write your own words, and make a magnet for every word in that week’s psalm. Put them up on a white board, along with all the left over blank magnets, and allow folks to write their own psalms with the magnet poetry. You might need several kits for this since some folks will be hesitant to destroy someone else’s creation and replace it with their own. The majority of folks will probably just stop in each morning to read what others have created, but some inspired people will go nuts with this.
- Display a large print out of the week’s gospel reading, along with a poster-sized piece of paper with the word “questions” written at the top. Invite folks to write down the questions they are left with after reading the scripture (and discourage answers). I’ve seen these sorts of question lists become brilliant discussions as each question is influenced by the ones written before it.
- For a penitential season, Build a wooden cross (or more, if you need them). Leave little slips of paper on which participants can write an anonymous confession. Leave a hammer and nails so that they can nail these to the cross. Encourage them to read the other confessions and pray for absolution for those who have come before them.
Complex installations:
- For All Saints Day, create a flickr account and leave instructions for how folks can upload pictures to it. Set up a projector and an internet-connected laptop that projects a slideshow from the flickr account. During the work day, folks can take a five minute break from what they’re doing to look around on google for a picture of someone they consider a saint and upload it for the rest of the community to see. Since the slideshow would be constantly changing, there’s plenty of reason to come back each day.
- Set up a wiki online with pages for the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. In the chapel, set up three projectors, one for each page. Hand out the url for the wiki and encourage people to change the creeds to reflect what they actually believe, including the option of resetting it to the original. This could also be done with a white board and erasers, or it could be done by allowing people to annotate (rather than edit), the text.
- For Advent, borrow ten sets of computer speakers (shouldn’t be hard in an office building) and set them up in a circle around the room. Also set up a recording station (like a confessional) in which participants can record the hopes they have for God’s plan in the world. Send these recordings as separate channels, one to each speaker, so that participants can walk up to individual speakers to hear what they have to say, or stand in the middle and hear it all as one big cacophony. Note that this requires an audio interface with multiple outputs, like a MOTU ultralite, as well as an audio program that can manage multiple channels, like Live or Logic. You could also go low-tech with 10 walkmans.