Christianity Lite!
May 22, 2008
This is cute…
Transmission this week! and lots of news!
May 18, 2008
It’s that time again! We welcome back Bowie who is freshly arrived from her recent wedding/vacation/pilgrimage to India. She’ll be celebrating her return to Transmission by leading us in our ritual, and she had this to say about it:
the ritual will be planned around St. Thomas, who brought Christianity to India in 52 AD. George and I visited the place where he landed and the Pontifical Shrine and hospital that have been built there. We will also talk about the two main stories about Thomas in the Gospel of John - 14:5-6 and 20:24-29 (the story that got him dubbed “Doubting Thomas”). I like the idea of “doubting, yet doing” and of “not knowing the way”…
Transmission will be Wednesday, 7pm, at Bowie’s place. If you get lost, feel free to call me. I’ll be cooking.
We’ll also have four pieces of business to discuss:
- Our beloved Katherine has moved to Chicago to be with her family, which means that we need someone else to step up and replace her as co-facilitator. I think it’s really important to have two people putting Transmission in the front of their brainspace, not only because it’s a lot of work but also because a community shouldn’t become centralized around one person.
- Starlight Ministries, another church-ish group that has a peculiar calling to sex worker ministry, wants to sponsor a program with us this summer called Exotic Dancer, MBA, which basically gives basic business and personal finance education to people in the sex industry. It’s very important work, and I think it’s exactly the sort of thing we should be involved with. You can read about it here: http://starlight-ministries.org/wp_blog_1/
- Mabel and Paul want to organize a trip to the Creation museum in Kentucky in August, which I think could be a great time. Note that this is *not* an endorsement of creationism…
- We’re meeting this Tuesday, 2pm with Intercession to discuss the possibility of inhabiting their currently vacant rectory, which would be a big move for Transmission. Anyway who wants to come and meet them, see the space, and be a part of our initial conversation should totally come, just let me know.
Congrats to Bishop Bob Rimbo
May 18, 2008
The New York Synod of the Lutheran Church elected a new Bishop this weekend, and I was lucky enough to get to be part of the voting process. There were a bunch of great candidates, and in the end the winner only won by four votes: 236 to 232. I can only imagine that it must be tremendously humbling way to begin a term as Bishop.
I have high hopes for this guy. He mentioned the emerging church in some of his introductory remarks and seems hip to a lot of emerging concepts. He also seems open to new models of ministry and expressions of church, so I’m hoping we might be able to count on some support from the Lutherans as we continue to evolve as a community.
Like many mainline denominations, the Lutherans are facing a severe drop in attendance and many of the churches in NYC are failing. Many of the candidates for bishop talked about closing churches and consolidating congregations, which means that the Synod might have some extra real estate on its hands, and there are LOTS of ways I could imagine Transmission putting those to use…
Chris Hedges at Union Theological Seminary
April 29, 2008
As you’ve no doubt noticed, there’s no Transmission this week because there are five Wednesdays this month. In lieu of a standard Transmission, therefore, I’d like to invite you to come hear Christ Hedges to a reading from his new book, which is about the recent prominence of Atheist discourse. I think this guy is definitely worth listening to - his previous book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, was a very smart and critical look at the culture of conservative Christianity, and I’m very interested to hear what we has to say about the New Atheism.
Chris Hedges will be reading from and discussing his most recent book “I Don’t Believe in Atheists.” In this book Hedges responds to contemporary prominent athiests Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris, arguing for the importance of faith in our world and challenging a form of athiesm that can be as intolerant and bigoted as religious fundamentalism. He offers an important voice for progressive Christians today. You can learn more about Hedges on the Union website here: http://www.utsnyc.edu/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=992&srcid=256 or on posters around campus.
See you at 7 p.m. Wednesday evening! Oh… and there will be cookies :)
Bill Moyers and Jeremiah Wright
April 26, 2008
These are worth watching. Catch the whole show on PBS if you can!
Read the rest of this entry »
Featured on Village Voice Blog
April 18, 2008
Bowie Snodgrass, beloved community member, had a great interview for Naked City, the Village Voice’s blog on sexuality, as part of the series Sexiness, Next to Godliness: Religion and the Sex Industry. Go check it out: http://www.nakedcity.com/2008/04/god_loves_sex_workers.php
Reflections on Rev Wright
April 15, 2008
I suspect that Paul, our token UCC member, could speak on this more eloquently than I can, but I’ve been stunned at the way the controversy over past sermons over Rev. Wright simply won’t die down. Jeremiah Wright is, in my mind, a modern day prophet in the biblical sense of the word - an eloquent outsider who speaks truth to power and, just like the biblical prophets, he is now being persecuted for it.
The best, most concise articulation I have seen regarding why progressive Christians should be defending Rev Wright was written a week ago by Adam Clark. A sample:
Wright, however, is a preacher; his oath is not to the Constitution but to the Gospel. The statements of Wright may be out of step with the presidential politics of the Obama campaign, but they are not out of step with biblical faith. The forceful denunciations of America’s invasion of Iraq, her support for the unjust practices of foreign governments as well as the invocation of God’s wrath for the inhumane treatment of blacks and people of color are not the crazed anti-American ranting of an old uncle, but statements about the meaning of faith in a God who upsets the powers through identifying with the poor and marginalized.
San Diego workers for Justice
April 14, 2008
A friend sent me a link to this. A bunch of USCD hospital workers are struggling and demonstrating for fair compensation, and a bunch of church folk (including the Interfaith Council for Worker Justice) got together to wash their feet. Awesome.
So here’s a video chronicling the event. Observant folks will notice that the music is the track Lamentation, from my first album! It’s pretty nifty when you chance across cool people who are using your music, and this is exactly the kind of prophetic work I would want to be associated with.
Communion by Numbers
April 9, 2008
Bowie and I spent a lovely three days in West Cornwall Connecticut last week, hanging out with a bunch of other young church leaders as part of a consultation sponsored by Trinity Wall Street. There were a lot of really exciting conversations taking place and I found it incredibly invigorating to be surrounded by intelligent, passionate kindred spirits. Kudos to Trinity for being so forward looking.
On one of the nights, Bowie and I led the group through the Eucharist which we led at Easter at Avalon last year, a communion by numbers based on a ritual developed by the Grace Community. A lot of people asked us for the text, so I’m including it here below the break.
It also led to some very interesting conversations regarding Eucharistic theology, Episcopal ecclesiology, priesthood of all believers, and the emerging church. It occurred to me that Transmission has largely dodged these questions by not incorporating communion into our practice, but this isn’t a decision that we ever discussed. Eucharist is one of the few practices shared by virtually every Christian tradition (except the Quakers), and yet very few traditions agree on exactly what communion is and exactly why we do it.
Would there be interest in doing a 3-4 week series on Eucharistic theology on the non-Transmission Wednesdays? It would help many us develop our understanding of communion as individuals and it might lead to us forming a policy on communion as a group. We might decide that having communion is an important symbol of our connection to the larger Christian community or we might decide that we shouldn’t do it for theological reaons, but either way we would have reached an informed consensus as a group.
New York Faith and Justice this Weekend
February 21, 2008
One of the things we discussed on our retreat is the fact that Transmission doesn’t have strong justice and advocacy activities. We’ve got community and worship in the bag, but we’re still working on mission! Well, there’s a very, very cool group in NYC called New York Faith and Justice with whom we should consider forming a relationship. They’re having an event on Saturday - anyone want to go with me?
Come to The Bridge! Experience God through monthly worship gatherings that touch the soul and offer practical ways to do justice in our city. This month’s talk is on Shalom and the Fall by executive director Lisa Sharon Harper.
How has our world come so far from God’s original intent? How were the relationships God established at creation corrupted and the Fall? And what is God’s plan for restoring and redeeming His world? Come consider these questions and more throughout the Spring as NY Faith & Justice launches The Shalom Series
12-2pm, Third Christian Church, 46 Hamilton Place, Manhattan