Transmission Tonight - CHANGE OF PLANS
January 16, 2008
Katherine had to postpone her house blessing due to medical incident (please keep her in your prayers!).
So, we’ll be meeting tonight at Bowie’s place @ 7pm
Please email transmissionchurch@gmail.com if you need further directions.
This evening we’ll be looking at -
* ourselves - owning less, not being owned by our consumption desires
* our city and world - looking at the scandal of domestic poverty in the USA
* and doing something - bring non-perishables that we’ll donate to a food bank
I know this is last minute, but if you are at home before Transmission tonight, look through your cupboards and pull out any non-perishable food that you bought and just haven’t eaten - and bring it tonight. Bowie will transport our offerings to a local food pantry.
There are too many hungry in NYC and the food pantries are running low.
All items to be donated must be:
* In their original, unopened packages
* Within the expiration date on the package
* In plastic jars or containers, not glass
RITUAL PLANNED with a little help from:
* Rev Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping
* Sabbath ideas from Wayne Muller
* Jonny Baker’s Worship Tricks
* Christian Churches Together
CCT News Release
January 15, 2008
Here is a news release about the Christian Churches Together meeting Bowie attended last week.
Please especially note these “Scripture Soundbites” on poverty, compiled by Ron Sider –
In remembrance of the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, Dr. Ron Sider of Evangelicals For Social Action, a CCT participant, provided “God, the Poor and Us: Forty Biblical Reminders,” 40 biblical texts that highlight God’s special concern for poor people. The document is available here.
Wallis & Sider Book Giveaway
January 11, 2008
Dear friends, I have received free copies of two Jim Wallis and one Ron Sider book through my involvement with CCT. I would be happy to share them with people interested in the important perspectives of these two progressive evangelicals.
If you would like a copy of the books below, please email epiphany.ny@gmail.com with your request and postal address. You do not need to be a regular attendee of Transmission, or even anyone I’ve ever met before.
Blessings, Bowie
Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America
by Ronald J. Sider
God’s Politics: A New Vision for Faith and Politics in America
“Why the Right Gets is Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It”
by Jim Wallis
The Call to Conversion (Revised and Updated)
“Why Faith Is Always Personal but Never Private”
by Jim Wallis
CCT Quotables
January 9, 2008
My favorite quotes from last night and today…
“To see yourself as you truly are is a greater miracle than raising from the dead.”
- Father Leonid Kishkovsky, Director of External Affairs and Interchurch Relations for the Orthodox Church in America, quoting a Desert Father
“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”
- African Proverb, made popular in Ecumenical circles by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches
“… in the presence of plenty and all he asks for is crumbs.”
- Dr. William Shaw, President of the National Baptist Convention, USA, preaching on Lazarus and the rich man
“Movements are what turn the impossible into the inevitable.”
- Jim Wallis, Editor-in-Chief/Chief Executive Officer of Sojourners
“We’re not doing it because we want them to be Catholic, but because we are Catholic.”
- Fr. John Adams, President of SOME (So Others Might Eat), in response to a question about proselytizing and serving the poor
“An expression of the church on special assignment with the poor.”
- World Vision self definition
“I know the LORD will get justice for the poor and will defend the needy in court.”
- Psalm 140:12
Meeting with Christian Churches Together
January 8, 2008
One of the hats I wear as an “ecumenical Episcopalian” (my third “e” identifier would probably be “emerging”) is as a member of the standing committee for Christian Churches Together, the broadest ecumenical group in our nation’s history.
Today I arrived in Baltimore for the CCT Annual Meeting, which includes a day in DC addressing domestic poverty (see the CCT Statement of Poverty that was passed by consensus last year) and discernment about how we can evangelize together. Yup, you heard that right!
This meeting also has personal meaning for me, because it was at last year’s gathering in Pasadena that I met the Rev. Dr. Peter Heltzel, who lives ten blocks from me in West Harlem, and at whose party in April I met my (now) husband, George! Goes to show you never can tell.
Come to think of it, I also met Samir Selmanovic at last year’s meeting, who has since moved to NYC, is in the process of starting Faith House, an interfaith community in Manhattan.
I am also excited that two other women from exciting NYC organizations are here this year: Lisa Sharon Harper from New York Faith & Justice and Onleilove Alston from the Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary.
Please read a little about this group on their website (www.christianchurchestogether.org) and keep us in your prayers this week.
Thanks and blessings, Bowie
Stand With Sex Workers on Mon. / ‘Lessons & Carols’ on Wed.
December 15, 2007
Monday, Dec. 17th - International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
Transmission, PONY, $pread, and friends teamed up this April to plan Easter at Avalon, which celebrated the role of Mary Magdalene in Christian and Sex Worker history. This Monday, we’ve been invited to stand together again.
“December 17th is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Join $pread and SWANK (Sex Worker Action New york) on Monday for a candlelight vigil to honor and mourn the sex workers who have died this year and raise awareness of the violence faced by our community. Current and former sex workers, friends and allies all welcome.”
5-7 pm (Bowie will be there at 5). On the steps of Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, New York, NY. Wear red or bring a red umbrella.
Wednesday, Dec 19th - Transmission: Lessons & Carols
Five days before Christmas, come sing carols and listen to lessons that tell us the story of Advent and Christmas! The service of ‘Lessons and Carols’ has been celebrated since the late 1800’s and we will be sure to include some processing around, incense, and a bidding prayer to add extra cheer.
There are nine lessons and nine carols. Please email bowie at epiphany.ny@gmail.com if you would like to read a lesson, re-write a lesson (or do some other creative rendition thereof), accompany a carol, or do a performance of one!
Cookies, treats, dinner items, beverages, plus your friends & loved ones are most welcome! Location TBA
BAZAAR - looking for Christmas gifts? Buy a subscription to $pread Magazine: Illuminating the Sex Industry. Or check out Thistle Farms. Thistle Farms products are made with the most natural products available whenever possible. Magdalene is a recovery community for women with a criminal history of prostitution and addiction. Thistle Farms is a non-profit business. All proceeds go directly to the program and the women.
Advent is my favorite season
December 7, 2007
Practically speaking, I love how appropriate it is to the season of the year. A festival of light and dark in a time of death and expectation. A pregnant time of awaiting the birth and coming of Christ as the days dwindle and another year draws to an end.
What do we know of the baby-boy Jesus, the “reason for the season”? That he was humbly born in occupied Israel two thousand years ago. That he is with us still today and that each year we yearn anew for his return and reign of love and peace.
O come, thou Dayspring from on high, and cheers us by they drawing nigh; disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadow put to flight. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!
This is also a time of going out into the world, of reaching out to loved ones and going visiting! I have spoken to family members this week on the phone, visited sick friends, and had my house church community over for dinner.
This week’s Transmission ritual that involved lots of arts and crafts. I’ve included two of our Advent calendars here. Other people made wreaths of fresh cut branches and crocheted string, chain-link calendars, and other inspired works with their hands.
Best of all, we gathered once again into a community, as we do week after week, year after year, believing that when two or three of us gather in your name, you are there. Jesus, our Christ, we are glad to travel with you through the year and to prepare for your return.
Yay, It’s Advent Transmission Time Again!
December 3, 2007
This Wednesday, Dec 5, from 7-9 pm, come to Bowie’s place for Advent Transmission.
* Advent “Arts & Crafts” Stations. Make Wreaths! Calendars! Collage! And More.
* Read a part in jSnodgrass’ short skit – “Nativity Mystery: The Elephant in Question”
* Come Sing “O Come O Come Emmanuel” (beautiful, ancient, haunting hymn…)
Please email if you need directions to Bowie’s apartment.
Cookies, drinks, dinner side dishes, and RSVPs welcome!
Shane Claiborne w/ NJ Faith & Justice, SUNDAY
December 1, 2007
NY Faith & Justice is bringing Shane Claiborne to NYC this SUNDAY. Shane is the author of The irresistible Revolution and on the forefront of the New Monastic movement. Isaac and I have both read his book and seen him speak and recommend him whole heartedly!
He’s the media-subversive, politically-radical, dreadlocked-hippy St. Francis of our day.
If you’re free on Sunday evening from 7:30-9:30, GO! And if you want to learn more about the NEW NY Faith & Justice group, they are having a service at 5 with meal following. All FREE wtih RSVPs.
———- Forwarded message ———-
Advent begins this Sunday!
Advent is the season when the church waits for the arrival Jesus.
This year NY Faith & Justice invites you to enter the season asking one question…
“Is Advent just a celebration of the time when Jesus first came as a baby or is it a current day prayer for Christ to come today?”
THIS SUNDAY December 2, 2007
NY Faith & Justice @ All Angels Church!
251 W. 80th Street @ Broadway
Keynote Speaker Shane Claiborne (author of The Irresistible Revolution)
The Bridge (@ 5pm) AND Christianity and Transformational Development Seminar (@ 7:30pm)
Sabbath Poem (Fall)
November 29, 2007
Fall into Night
by Bowie Snodgrass
Written last year for a time longer ago.
That Fall, I felt like I got thrown into the ocean –
All waves, rocky cliffs, unknown chaos reigned,
But you were my great beacon of hope, my lighthouse.
When Christmas tide came, the days became short –
You turned out your light, and turned me away,
Set me out to find my own way, row my way home.
And thus the metaphor began: when no wind, row –
So I picked up my oar, enjoyed calm days, starry nights,
And made it through winter storms, waves, and hurricanes.
When the last waves washed me up, pummeled me into
The shore, I looked up and saw bright rays at night –
Realized I was on dry land and there before me, Light.