War Tapes and Veteran Saints
June 1, 2007
After Wednesday night’s showing of The War Tapes at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (see 2 posts down), I wrote an article that includes some questions I’ve been bouncing around for a while… about finding religious responses to this war, perhaps even from soldier saints of the past. It’s been posted to Episcopal Life Online as an Opinion piece.
Sabbath Poem (Anne Carson)
February 16, 2007
Literary sculpture, originally uploaded by davosmit
“A group of books in the moorland near the Bronte village of Haworth”
THOU
The question I am left with is the question of her loneliness.
And I prefer to put it off.
It is morning.
Astonished light is washing over the moor from north to east.
I am walking into the light.
One way to put off loneliness is to interpose God.
Emily had a relationship on this level with someone she calls Thou. She describes Thou as awake like herself all night
and full of strange power.
Thou woos Emily with a voice that comes out of the night wind.
Thou and Emily influence one another in the darkness,
playing near and far at once.
She talks about a sweetness that “proved us one.”
I am uneasy with the compensatory model of female religious experience and yet,
there is no question,
it would be sweet to have a friend to tell things to at night,
without the terrible sex price to pay.
This is a childish idea, I know.
by Anne Carson, from The Glass Essay
post inspired by…
* The Sabbath Poems on Samir Selmanovic’s Faith House blog (Samir is moving back to NYC this summer to start an interfaith emerging community)
* Our V-Day conversations about God blessings erotic love, but also being lover for many Christian celibates through the ages… (see posts below)
* My delight with Glass, Irony, and God (from whence this poem came)
Valentine’s Day Transmission
February 11, 2007
2/14 @ 7pm
* Readings from Song of Songs
w/ pomegranates, figs, apricots, honey & wine
* Body Prayer
* Dancing
* Dinner, dessert & more
~ feel free to bring chocolates, wine, flowers and friends
LINKS
St. Valentine
Romantic Love
The Song of Songs
Bowie’s column on the S o S
Sexy Jesus (track 9) by Wayne & Wax
EASTER @ AVALON : dreams of resurrection
February 6, 2007
Jenn & Isaac facing back of hall, originally uploaded by bowiesnodgrass.
Hi. We’re planning to do an Easter Service at Avalon (used to be Limelight), in Holy Communion Episcopal Church – which was founded by William Augustus Muhlenberg
AVALON – Avenue of the Americas @ West 20th Street
6pm – all are welcome
Come join us for an experimental melange of ritual celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. We’ll be touching on the story of King Arthur and Avalon
We will also be focusing on Mary Magdalene’s role in this tale. Mary was one of Jesus’ best apostles, both during and after his time on earth. In the early centuries of Christianity, the church conflated Mary Magdalene with prostitute characters in the bible – and for the next millennia and a half, most christians believed Mary was once a worker in the world’s oldest profession. Maybe she was. Jesus hung out with a lot of hookers.
And so did Muhlenburg. In the 1870s, this priest set up a network of Episcopal dioceses to participate in the Midnight Mission , a radical outreach effort for sex workers (which for him included both mistresses and brothel workers). In a very 19th century way, his effort was to help these fallen women find new homes in wholesome, Christian houses in the country…
130 years later, we find ourselves in a very different NYC. But in America 2007, sexuality is still a great divider and money something we don’t like to talk about… so it’s time for us to start living a little more like Jesus. Let’s have a party for Easter and celebrate the first women who knew that Jesus was no longer dead, but alive… again!
Please contact us if you would like to participate in this effort.
Our first planning meeting will be held on February 21st (Ash Wednesday). We will have a short ritual to kick off Lent, followed by a meeting with food. More details to follow.
kimball, macarthur, and me
January 27, 2007
So John MacArthur, a radio evangelist, recently released a fundraising letter/diatribe against the Emerging Church. Among other things he claims that the Emerging Church is a “threat” and that “the danger is real.” Dan Kimball, a pastor who identifies as emerging, wrote a lengthy refutation to this. Go read it at The Ooze.
The thing is, I actually find MacArthur’s portrait of the EC to be much more compelling than Kimball’s, which seems to be indistinguishable from traditional church (rigid authority structures, 45 minute sermons, modernist doctrinal statements, etc). If presented with a choice between the two, I’d take MacArthur’s Emerging Church any day.
Take this one juicy bit:
“The result is a movement that thrives on disorganization, lends itself to mysticism, distrusts authority and dislikes preaching, feeds intellectual pride and recognizes few (if any) doctrinal or moral boundaries. You can see why the movement is so appealing to college-age people young people - it is fleshly rebellion dressed in ecclesiastical robes.”
Yup, this pretty much describes me to a T, minus the bit about the ecclesiastical robes - I can’t say I’m interested in dressing my fleshly rebellion in anything other than what they’re already wearing. I like it so much that I kind of want to paste it in the “about us” page…
Yes, we thrive on disorganization. We have abandoned rigid, top-down authority models in favor of a lateral authority model. Emergence is a term borrowed from Self-Organizing Systems Theory. I recommend everyone go read The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.
Yes, we lend ourselves to mysticism. Mysticism has been in the Christian Tradition for a very, very long time, and anyone who contests this should go reread Augustine, Anselm, Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Thomas Keating, and Richard Foster. It is precisely the lack of mystery which makes traditional church unappealing to so many postmodern people.
Yes, we distrust authority and dislike preaching. When our culture is telling us what we need to value (wealth, power, status), advertising campaigns telling us what we need to buy (iPods, cars, soda), and our government is telling us who we need to bomb (usually people whose per capita GDP is less than a tenth of ours), do we really want our churches to be training us to be passive towards authority? Churches ought to be training us to be active thinkers, to critically engage each other, and to read our Bibles for ourselves.
Yes, we feed intellectual pride and recognize few moral and doctrinal boundaries. Well, sort of. We love it when people begin thinking for themselves and value intellectual diversity. We distrust systems of moral and doctrinal boundaries precisely in the way that the New Testament distrusts religious legalism. We rely on grace while we try to follow Christ: feeding the poor, caring for the meek, and welcoming the marginalized into our homes.
We are a fleshly rebellion. We affirm our bodies as good creations (good enough for Jesus, at any rate). We acknowledge that a Christian can be spiritual AND earthly in the same way that God can be immanent AND transcendant, Jesus can be incarnate AND redemptive, and communion can be body AND bread. We recognize that drawing closer to God does not entail a denial of the body. Dancing, yoga, exercise, and sexuality can be profoundly prayerful.
There was recently quite an active discussion around one of our early posts about what it means to be emergent, and I agree with our Lurker that the term is becoming less and less useful as it gets tossed around more and more. I think we’re going to need a new word to describe those of us on the radical fringe of Christianity.
Karate Chop for Jesus!
January 24, 2007
So Transmission hasn’t started evangelizing en masse yet, nor are we likely to. We’re a small group, word passes by word of mouth, and people are slowly finding us. That said, if we ever do decide to start an evangelizing campaign, I recommend Karate For Christ!!! Hmm, I’ve heard that ninjas can walk on water…
No, seriously, there seem to be at least four teachers in NYC, including the Warriors of the Light Christian Martial Arts Center on Eldridge Street. We should take a field trip.
Personally, although I have tremendous respect for the martial arts, it seems to me that it might be more Christ-like to practice a physical discipline focused on healing rather than one focused on combat. Yoga, for example. Then I found out that protesting yoga seems to be the only thing that brings Christians and Muslims together these days. Yeesh.
Well, I say to heck with that. We’ve used Yoga in Transmission services before and I wouldn’t mind doing so again. The Genesis story leads me to believe that we ought to love, cherish, and care for our bodies rather than denying all things “of the flesh.” Fortunately, at least one person agrees with me…
Baby Jackson Gets a Bris!
January 18, 2007
Excerpt from letter: John to Jackson, Jan 13, 2007
To read full text, see more pictures, and read more letters, visit
www.myspace.com/thomasjsnodgrass5
Dear Jackson,
Tears and laughter, blood, betrayal, singing and dancing, Hebrew and primal scream - this has been your second week.
I guess this biggest news of this week is your conversion from Animism to Judaism. The Jewish midwife, who was good enough to assist with your birth on the Sabbath, recommended I call 1-800-BABY-BOY, which connected me with a really nice Rabbi named Jehoshua Krohn who exclaimed that you needed a Bris right away, and offered us a cut rate for letting you be a quick stop between other gigs.
Best Contemporary Theology meme
January 16, 2007
Bob Carlton tagged me on this Contemporary Theology meme project. The idea is to list the best “theology” books written in the last 25 years (i.e. since 1981). Here are Ike and my lists:
Isaac’s List
- Liberating Rites by Tom Driver
- Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne
- Sexism and God-Talk by Rosemary Radford Reuther
In terms of “things that might be less recognizable as theology,: Ike says:
- Deeply into the Bone by Ron Grimes
- The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time by Douglas Adams
- The Concubine by Elechi Amadi
Bowie’s List (caveat: I never did like systematic theology all that much, but here are three books that I’d include)
- Liberating Rites by Tom Driver
- Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web by David Weinberger
- The Wedding Dress by Fanny Howe
My three brothers would probably insist that the Ishmael series by Daniel Quinn be included on such a list (in a heartbeat)… so I gotta give them a nod too.
Hey, yo, Transmissioners - what would you list?
TRANSMISSION resumes + field trips
January 13, 2007
MON, Jan 15 : MLK field trip!
Some of us are planning to go to St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in the South Bronx, where the new Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will be preaching at the annual Bronx MLK Day Service starting at 10am. * John was born in the rectory of this historic church and hopes to bring along baby Jackson. Isaac and Elaina both work at a Lutheran church in this area. * Please email epiphany.ny@gmail.com you’d like to join us.
WED, Jan 17 : Transmission resumes! Baby Blessing & Avalon Vision
We are hoping to do a short baby blessing ritual for Thomas Jackson, followed by a discussion of our vision for Avalon. Isaac and are drafting a vision statement/project proposal that we’d like to workshop with you all (in small groups and as a whole group), and we’re inviting a few people who are also interested in helping us develop the project. * Please let me know if you’d like to bring food or drink to share.
BACKGROUND ARTICLES
* Background on Avalon “Twilight for old Limelight as owner shops mall idea”
* William Augustus Muhlenberg, founder of Holy Communion Episcopal Church
* Muhlenberg’s 19th Century “Midnight Mission”
UPCOMING
MON, Jan 22 – field trip!
My web guru friend from the west coast, Bob Carlton (who keeps up an excellent blog) will be in town and we’re going out to dinner. Any and all Transmissioners are invited! * Please rsvp if interested.
SAT, Jan 27 – field trip!
MOBIA @ the American Bible Society is putting on a concert which will feature a commissioned piece by Mario Diaz de Leon. I know Mario from working with the 20/30 Connection at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and plan to attend to support this amazing young composer. I will also be inviting members of the 20/30 Connection. The event is free and I’ve reserved some spots. * Let me know if you’d like to come.
Wed, Jan 31 – next Transmission!
* Anyone want to plan the evening, our ritual, or the food?
3,000 Soldiers Dead, Including One Friend
January 5, 2007
My brother Sgt. A. Peter Snodgrass, who is serving his 2nd deployment as an Army Medic in Iraq, was friends with a soldier who was killed last week (the same week we passed the 3,000 US soldiers casualties mark). They had served together in South Korea and on both Iraqi tours.
AP Article w/ Photos: http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_003072103.html
“22-year-old Sergant John M. Sullivan of Hixon, Tennessee died last Saturday in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device went off near his vehicle while on combat patrol. Sullivan was just days away from returning home from his second tour of duty in Iraq to be with his wife and newborn son. His family said Sullivan volunteered for the patrol when a fellow-soldier got sick.”
from http://fox21news.com/Global/story.asp?S=5891680
“Hours after SGT John Michael Sullivan was killed in Iraq, his wife Michele gave birth to their little boy at Fort Carson. News of her husband’s death had sent Sullivan into labor.
‘I got a knock on the door and I told them, ‘don’t tell me,” said Sullivan. Her husband had been killed when a roadside bomb hit his Humvee. SGT Sullivan and his wife had planned to name their son Johnny Walker. Sullivan said they both thought it was a strong name everyone would remember. When SGT Sullivan died, his wife chose a different name so her son would always be remembered… and her husband would never be forgotten– John Michael Sullivan Jr.”
from http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/5080596.html
* Please pray for his soul, his wife, newborn son, parents (he was an only son), and unit in Iraq.