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
Ash Wednesday Transmission, Feb 6, 7-9pm
February 4, 2008
This week we’ll be having Ash Wednesday at Paul’s - email if you want to come and need directions. Come ready celebrate your own mortality and kick off lent with style! We’ll also be discussing the possibility of collaborating on a
Purim/Maundy Thurday service with Storahtelling (yes, the two really are on the same day this year) and a Good Friday service with our friends at Sanctuary.
First Retreat!
January 30, 2008
Well, our first retreat was a major success. We had powerful worship, intimate conversations, fun times, and came out of the weekend with a renewed vision of what we want Transmission to be.
Some of my favorite moments:
Walking the Labyrinth. I didn’t take pictures because watching a bunch of twentysomethings walk a labyrinth by candlelight is too stereotypical for the emerging church, but I found it to be really moving, nonetheless. I loved the moment when I finished introducing the ritual, and half of us immediately began doing things that had nothing to do with the instructions; we take liturgical improvisation to a whole new level.
Purchasing lots of healthy food (fruits, vegetables, dumplings, etc) with Sarah, only to arrive at the church and be sent out by the group to make a chips and soda run. Sigh.
Picking everyone up at their apartments, a luxury rarely afforded in NYC. We know we’re a real church now that we have a minivan.
The amazing ritual that the group planned on Saturday afternoon which involved singing, sharing, and flicking water in each other’s faces. Although it only took thirty minutes to plan, it was amazing and several of us were choked up by the end of it.
Many thanks to everyone who participated, and especially to St Mark’s Church in Teaneck for graciously opening their church to us.
And, for those who are interested, here are the things we discussed for the future: Read the rest of this entry »
Epiphany Ritual
January 3, 2008
Thanks for everyone who came out last night to celebrate Epiphany a few days early. The ritual went well, and I wanted to post it in case any readers wanted to mine it for ideas for this coming Sunday, which is the actual day of Epiphany.
The idea for the ritual came from my experiences riding the subway, watching my fellow riders create privacy for themselves by listening to portable music. Music is recorded with artificial reverb, an effect which makes the music sound as if it is taking place in a large space. Different kinds of reverb create different kinds of “virtual space” for the music so that concertos sound like they’re being played in concert halls, arena rocks sounds like it’s being played in an arena, and folk music sounds like it’s being played in an intimate coffee shop. A subway is a public space and during rush hours people are packed into them as tightly as possible with no room for personal space. At the same time, however, each person listening to music bring a virtual space with them, and any given subway car will probably have at least a dozen personal, virtual spaces packed in to it.
Church is another place in which personal space and public space interact in interesting ways, and I thought it would be interesting to see how portable music would affect ritual. Epiphany, a feast day which celebrates a journey, seemed like the perfect opportunity to ritualize my commuting experience.
I set up five stations along a walking route which wound its way through four rooms. Each participant was told to bring a portable music player (i.e. an iPod, a discman, or something comparable). I created five tracks of voiceover layered on top of music and loaded them on to each person’s player, and we began the ritual. Details below:
upcoming Transmissions
December 31, 2007
Hey, Everyone! Happy Sixth Day of Christmas!
We’ve got a bunch of stuff coming up. Here’s the scoop:
Wed, January 2nd: Transmission does Epiphany (i.e. the three wise men). We’ll be exploring journeys, faith, gifts, interfaith relations, immigrants, refugees, and more. I’ll be structuring the ritual around an explored space with accompanying audio work, so I’ll need everyone to bring an MP3 player and/or a discman. If you don’t have one, let me know and I’ll dig one up for you. It’ll be at 7pm at my place: 99 Claremont Ave, #313. Give a call if you need help getting in: 917.306.2442
Sat, January 5th: End Christmastide with style with us as we celebrate Twelfth Night by going contra dancing at CDNY - 13th St and 6th Ave. All the information can be found at www.cdny.org If you’ve never done it before, it’s a lot of fun and easy to pick up. It makes you feel both wholesome and old school.
Fri - Sat, January 26-27: Save the last weekend in January for the first ever Transmission retreat! St Mark’s Teaneck has graciously offered to let us crash overnight in their building, so we’ll be having 24 hours of food, movies, chilling, music, workshops, and planning out the year. It’s free and a great way to take a break from hectic city life to spend time with friends. Please let me know if you’re planning on coming and if you want to help plan.
Hope you can come~
isaac
church tolerates homegrown worship songs
November 26, 2007
As someone who writes a lot of original music for churches (including Transmission), this article is my worst nightmare! I hope folks never feel that way about my stuff…
That said, I found it highly amusing, especially lines like “If I fished with hooks that bad, I’d never get a bite.” Go peruse the site - there’s some great stuff on there…