12/20 xmas cookies!
November 10, 2006
Iced Sugar Cookies, originally uploaded by jessamynnorth.
I just got a whole tin of cookie cutters from my dad, who just moved to Puerto Rico to start a retreat center (so I got a lot of family stuff) - and I think we should make cookies for transmission house church on 12/20!
we can also light advent candles
sing some Christmas carols
and what else?
what are your favorite Christian Christmas traditions?
what do you remember doing with family in Advent?
what should we incorporate into our house church night?
and, do you have a favorite cookie recipe?!
myspace.com/transmissioNYC
November 8, 2006
want to be our friend on myspace?
Nov 1 is All Saints (Come for House Church)
October 30, 2006
Makeshift Shrine for Mamama, originally uploaded by bowiesnodgrass.
overnight the time changed -
a new season of longer nights
and windy days, a brisk chill
in the air while the dead dance
Come Join Us For All Saints’ Day/ Día de los Muertos
This Wednesday just happens to be November 1st, a major Christian holy day. So we’ll be doing a (little longer) 45 minute ritual followed by a hot meal and apple crisp. If you’d like to come, please email epiphany.ny@gmail.com
rough draft for ritual
- song (Isaac lead)
- scripture (john is picking, maybe Ezekiel 37)
- activity – make shrines* and lie dead
- song (What Wondrous Love is This?)
- share about shrines and pray for each other
- song (Katie leads, Old Irish Blessing)
making shrines
We’ll be making shrines this week for a person who has died, someone you admire and whose life has touched your own. This can be someone in your life or someone you never met. If you can, bring some items that remind you of them (a photo, momento, etc.)
Our shrines only need to have three components:
- an object (anything that can represent the subject of the shrine),
- an offering (candle, flowers, etc.),
- and some sort of sign of the season (we’ll have dried leaves, etc.).
upcoming dates
1st and 3rd Wednesdays – November 1 and 15; December 6 and 20
Hallowmas & Heads Up!
October 27, 2006
SAVE the DATES
Upcoming Transmissions: Wed Nov 1 & 15; Wed Dec 6 & 20
If you’ve never been and would like to come or
would like to plan a ritual or bring food/drink
or if you’d just simply like to come –
please email epiphany.ny@gmail.com
regarding OCT 25th
Well, Transmission last night was pretty good, although only about half of us where there. I’ve got a few points of self-criticism regarding the ritual:
1) Both the ritual and the music were designed for a group of about ten people. A group of five has a very different dynamic. For all of my polemic against leader-centered worship, I spent way too much energy trying to make the ritual into what I had in my head rather than letting it unfold as it was.
2) I need to figure out a way to move smoothly from one part of the ritual to another without breaking the mood. It was way too easy for conversations to break out at cusp points during the ritual, which means that I was doing something wrong. Maybe the meal and the ritual should be separate events?
for NOVEMBER
In any case, it was decided that in November Transmission will be on the 1st and 15th, with a possible Brooklyn Transmission happening on the 8th. On the 15th, Paul will lead us in something and on the 1st, Bowie and I will prepare something based on All Saint’s Day.
The last two Transmissions have both followed a “people sitting around a table talking” model and I think I’d like to break out of that a little. Perhaps we could set up a few stations around the room with pictures of saints (Francis, Gandhi, Bono, Granddad, etc) along with an activity (written prayers/reflections, candles, leaving an item of remembrance from someone who’s died, etc). Or maybe we could each take those items of remembrance and share stories with each other of important people in our life who aren’t around anymore.
I want to use music again and I’m a particularly fond of “What Wondrous Love is This” - I think it highlights the whole life/death cycle which is prevalent on this feast day. We’ve been pretty low-tech so far, and in some ways that’s been because I’ve been shying away from the stuff I’m pretty good at because I don’t want to be too flashy, but that might be a mistake. Perhaps I could write some ambient music for the meditation which would bridge smoothly into a backing track for the hymn.
Thoughts?
Day of the Dead candle
Originally uploaded by haruspex.
ritual for first house church
October 2, 2006
Grinning Chris de Burgh, Berlin
Originally uploaded by strangebehaviour.
hey ya’ll -
here’s my plan for the worship component of the first house church next Wednesday, Oct 11th. I’ve love to hear your thoughts and input. if you’re interested in coming, please rsvp to epiphany.ny@gmail.com
life o’ Jesus
birth -
tunes - A Spaceman Came Traveling, Chris de Burgh
pass around icons of baby jesus & nativity sets
life -
participants share stories about the life of Jesus, what did Jesus do? what stories have stuck with you? an exercise in listening and teaching, plus, letting Jesus into your heart, yo.
death -
tunes - Just Another Poor Boy, Chris de Burgh
pass around crucifixes from various traditions
note on CdeB - wrote the hit song, The Lady in Red; has released about 20 albums; has written some rockin’ and epic Christian songs through the years - about everything from the birth of JC to the Crusades, from the death of Jesus from the perspective of Mary M to a trilogy about the apocalypse. weird dude, but brilliant, sincere, and fun. I was introduced to C de B by my former roommate, a Socialist Jewish Lesbian Canadian (now that lefty for you!) who loved Chris as a teenage girl growing up in Calvary!
St. Francis & Storahtelling
September 22, 2006
Originally uploaded by perhapsfairfax.
Yom Kippur 5767 (in the Jewish calendar) is coming up on Oct 2nd. Ike has been gigging with a group called Storahtelling – “a radical fusion of storytelling, Torah, contemporary performance art and traditional ritual theater” – for three years now. Since Yom Kippur is so close to St. Francis’ Day this year, they have invited us (Transmission) to do a littler interfaith component during their day long YK 5767 RituaLab.
Here’s an email I sent to a Storahtelling leader on Sept 11th -
Hi Amichai -
Again, thank you very much for welcoming me in yesterday. What an amazing and wonderful group you have. And so welcoming - this morning Ayelet stopped me in the Times Square subway to say Hi!
I wanted to send you a little more info on Francis, who is arguably the most beloved Christian saint (he is certainly a favorite for Episcopalians, who value their saints for the lives they lived and as role models, more than for miraculous powers).
Francis’ feast day is October 4th, but will be celebrated by Christians on Sunday, October 1st (which is often a ‘blessing of the animals’ service). So incorporating Francis into an Oct 2nd Yom Kippur is timely - and will hopefully be one more way for us to think together about the interplay between atonement and peace - both personal and shared.
Blessings, Bowie
Info on Francis
St. Francis Prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
* this, other prayers by Francis, and many other great prayers from World Prayers
Greenbelt was great
September 10, 2006
I had an amazing time at Greenbelt. So many chill, creative, cool Christians. So many innovative worship experiences. So many ideas and such a feeling of mutual support. And Ike was a great traveling companion.
It was also great to reconnect with Ian Mobsby, whom I met at a conference in March and who encouraged and enabled Ike and I to contribute at Greenbelt. We pitched our tent along with the people from his emerging church in London (Gareth, Andrew, Mike, Carrie, Ivy, Neil, and Aaron) and had a great time with this Moot crew. They are in our prayers and we are in their blog :-)
WORSHIP SERVICES
We attended a lot of services. All amazing, all different. The groups I saw were:
Grace (London)
Ikon (Belfast)
Fuse Factory (Switzerland)
Morph
Sanctus1 (Manchester)
Greenbelt Communion service on Sunday morning, with John Bell from the Iona Community
Very sadly, we missed the Moot “Body Mass”, which happened on Monday, after we left. There are some very cool photos of the service up on their blog. We also missed the Monday service by Foundation in Bristol, but the folks from the group were super friendly and came to our service – big thanks!
Thanks also to Sue from Visions in York for her hospitality!
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
A workshop led by Ian Mobsby on the Emerging Church and Trinitarian Theology Worship (based on Rublev’s icon of the Trinity)
An amazing talk by Shane Claiborne from The Simple Way in Philly
A panel discussion chaired by Jonny Baker exploring mission at Mind Body Spirit Fairs and contemporary spirituality. With panellists Ana Draper, Ben Edson, Steve Hollinghust and Gareth Powell.
The organic beer tent!
beginning transmission…
August 12, 2006
So Transmission met for the first time on Thursday. The adventure begins! Bowie made some excellent summer vegetarian fare, I led a meditation, and (between mouthfuls of food), the group of us discussed our hopes and dreams for Transmission, what we want out of a community of faith and why these things are important to us, and some specifics about our upcoming fashion chapel service at Greenbelt.
Other topics of conversation: where are we going to start meeting once we outgrow Bowie’s apartment? The Bowery Poetry Club? Avalon? We also batted around the possibility of doing a joint St Francis Day / Yom Kippur event with Storahtelling. Stay tuned!