This week we’ll be joining up with our brothers and sisters at Radical Living, a very cool intentional living community in bed-stuy for food, worship, and fellowship.¬† Our worship will focus on transitions, callings, and mid-career crises of faith.¬† The folks at Radical Living are very cool, and seeing what they’re up to will be well worth your time.

We’ll meet at 7pm at 622 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. The closest stop on the subway is probably Myrtle-Willoughby on the G train. For those of us who live in Upper Manhattan and other far-flung places, make sure to leave enough time to get there.

Finally, out of consideration for our hosts, please send me a note if you intend to come so I can give them an accurate headcount.

See you then!

If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml

If you want to to listen to it on iTunes: click here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=322056809

If you’d rather just download it, the link is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/epp014.mp3

If you want to stream it from the site, click the big gray button below.

This Friday, we’ll be joining a bunch of other emergenty, house-churchish people downtown for a vigil, witnessing for justice for non-documented immigrants and other marginalized people.  Afterwards, we’ll probably go out for beer.  You should come!

Join with others concerned with the plight of the immigrant as we stand in solidarity with immigrants and native-born during the monthly Vigil on Varick Street, located in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Facility in lower Manhattan.

Members of the Catholic Worker, the New Sanctuary Movement, Families for Freedom, Radical Living, Justice For Our Neighbors, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, and various individuals and congregations throughout the city join together the second Friday of every month to pray, sing, and stand vigilant for our brothers and sisters who are behind bars, across the border, and who suffer under the weight of unjust immigration laws.

More than 400,000 people a year are detained by immigration officials in the United States – including undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants who run afoul of the law and asylum seekers who come fleeing persecution. Immigrants can be detained for months or years without any form of meaningful review of whether their detention is necessary, and 84% of detainees are unable to obtain the assistance necessary to present viable claims in an adversarial and complex court process.

Many members of Congress have called for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and now is the time to be present and to call for a just immigration policy.

"’When foreigners reside among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigners residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God." Leviticus 19:33-34.

Committed to Freedom Ministries will hold a retreat for women who are survivors of childhood abuse in the Bronx, Riverdale area. The retreat does not focus on the abuse experience, but on practical spiritual tools to move beyond the damage of abuse.

The retreat begins at noon on Friday and concludes at 3:00 pm on Sunday. The cost is $400, which includes lodging, meals, retreat curriculum, and retreat materials.

Please call 1-800-713-7837, visit our website committedtofreedom.org or e-mail information@committedtofreedom.org for more information or a registration form. Registration forms are available for download from our website. Registrations must be received by August 22nd.

Also, for next week’s Transmission (Aug 20), we’ll be heading downtown to see a dance performance of our own Sarah Godbehere.¬† More information to come!

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Thanks to Allen for sending this to me.

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.

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.