Past Always Changing, Creation in Proverbs - 10/25
October 22, 2007
THE FUTURE IS CERTAIN - IT’S THE PAST THAT’S ALWAYS CHANGING
Another view of Creation in Proverbs 8:22-36
- Gather for dinner & social time 7pm @ Floridita’s, 3219 Broadway (1 train to 125th, cross 125th St, Floridita’s is at end of block)
- Due to Mr. Snodgrass’s academic schedule, the Bible-study will begin at 8:15
Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. - George Orwell.
Scholarly studies have demonstrated that Genesis 1 is not the oldest creation narrative in the Bible. At least half a century before the Torah took its final shape, the book of Proverbs showed our familiar patriarch assembling the Earth - with the help of a feminine partner. This Thursday’s Bible Study will focus on the Bible’s first creation story (Proverbs 8:22-36), with an eye toward how it shaped the Genesis creation, the creation in John 1, and our understandings of the patriarchal “way of the world.”
TRICK OR TREAT - TWO CHANCES to participate in EXORCISMS & INVOCATIONS ritual
- Bowie is working on a Halloween Ritual for Wed October 31st exploring the power of language to impact reality! More info to follow.
- SATURDAY, Oct 27th from 11am-1pm, she’ll be doing this ritual with City Lights, another emerging church community in NYC, and would LOVE to have a couple other Transmissioners come along! If you’re available on Saturday and would like to help out with the planning for our Halloween ritual, please email bowiesnodgrass@gmail.com. Thanks!
An invitation from the Congregation of St. Saviour at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. Lead by the Reverend Victoria Sirota, Canon Pastor and Vicar.
Saturday, November 3rd
9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m
Cathedral House, 1047 Amsterdam Ave
Itinerary
9:30-10:00 Registration and Breakfast
10:00-10:15 Opening by Reverend Sirota
10:15-11:45 Isabelle Silverman, Environmental Defense: “The Science of Global Warming”
11:45-12:45 Lunch
12:45-1:00 Spiritual Meditation with Reverend Sirota
1:00-1:45 Elena Lomicky, Green Living Consultant: “Things We Can Do at Home to Reduce Our Carbon Footprint”
2:00-2:45 Bob Muldoon, Sierra Club: “Environmental Advocacy at the Community and National Level”
3:00-3:45 Frank Morris, Ecological Advisors: “The Spiritual and Economic Case for Environmental Investing”
4:00-4:30 Closing Service
People of all faiths are warmly welcomed to attend. We request a $12 donation. Serving wonderful organic, vegetarian fare. RSVP required. Please contact education@saintsaviour.org
Bible Study is a Go!
September 24, 2007
Ok, Transmission has spoken, and for the next month we’ll alternate the Bible Study between an uptown and a downtown location. We’ve also officially chosen to have our study sessions on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month.
This week, we’ll be meeting at Mi Floridita, which is located at 3219 Broadway, just north of 125th. That’s this Thursday, September 24, at 7pm. I’ll be leading us through the first chapter of Ruth, which I think is one of the most interesting books of the Bible. I encourage you to read the chapter ahead of time and come with some thoughts.
Also, we need a name for this thing we’re doing because “Bible Study” sounds kind of nerdy. Personally, I’m a fan of “text and the city,” but that joke is dated. Have any suggestions? Post them here!
Bible Study - uptown or downtown?
September 15, 2007
So our Pub Crawl was a lot of fun. We had seven Transmissioners show up, but never more than four at any given time, which made for an interesting evening. In any case, there was quite a bit of discussion about whether we should have this Bible Study uptown or downtown.
Uptown has the advantage that many of us live in upper New York. It might lead to Transmission being redefined as a localized community - one that primarily draws its members from and does its mission work in Harlem and Washington Heights. We also have a nice place picked out - a locally owned Dominican restaurant called Floridita which has lots of space and a calm atmosphere. On the downside, it’s tremendously unwelcoming to the Transmissioners who live in Brooklyn as well as the Brooklyn residents who are thinking about joining our community.
Downtown has the advantage that it’s midway between Uptown and Brooklyn. We might gain a larger crowd if we were located more centrally. The downside is that downtown bars and clubs tend to be crowded and noisy - difficult for holding serious discussions. I also suspect that fewer of our uptown regulars would want to make the trek on a weeknight.
So what do you think? I want to hear your opinions! Brooklyners - would you come regularly if we had it downtown? Uptown guys - would you make the effort to come downtown?
Pub Crawl this Thursday, 7pm, in Union Square
September 11, 2007
Ok, Transmissioners, now that I have your attention, I wanted to give some highlights from our meeting last week for those of us who couldn’t be there, as well as give a few announcements:
- There’s been some strong interest in starting a bi-weekly Bible study, meeting on the weeks we don’t have regular Transmission. We’re hoping to do this because a) we want to see each other more often and b) we want to study the Bible outside of worship contexts. The consensus was that we would choose a public space downtown, likely a bar, lounge or coffeshop in order to be more friendly to the Brooklyn Transmissioners. So this Thursday, 7pm, several of us will be meeting in Union Square to go lounge-hopping with the hopes of picking a location. Let’s meet by the Mohandas Gandhi statue in the traffic island at the southwest corner of Union Square Park. The yet-to-be-named Bible study will start in two weeks, on Sept 26. More info to come.
- There are several other small-scale emerging churches, house churches, hospitality houses, and radical Christian living communities forming in New York, and we’d like to put together an event at which we could all meet one another and share what we are doing. The danger of non-hierarchical, unaffiliated groups like Transmission is that they can grow disconnected with the larger community. We have set a tentative date of Thursday, November 1 and we’d like to begin inviting other groups to participate.
- We’re really like to do a retreat at some point, probably in January. I work for a Jewish Theatre Company, and twice a year we spend a weekend out of town together to cement our friendships, dream about the future of the group, and to do the things we do. I’d love to see Transmission do something similar, and at the moment we’re looking at mid-January. It would be an overnight (leave on Friday, come back on Saturday) and would be free to all. Are you interested in coming and/or helping plan the event?
Finally, the next Transmission will be at Bowie’s place on Wednesday, September 19, and I’ll be leading the ritual. We still need some folks to volunteer to provide food, and I’d love to have someone help me with the worship. Let me know if you’re interested!
Oh, and best of luck to everyone who started school this week, either as a teacher or a student (i.e. Katie, John, Paul, Elaina, Katherine, Sarah and, well, me).
Transmission featured on Trax16
September 6, 2007
Well, ok, I’m talking about the album and not about the community, but it’s still pretty exciting. If you aren’t familiar with it, Trax16 is a monthly British podcast about alternative Christian culture. Give it a listen here: http://www.trax16.com
First Transmission of the Fall on Wednesday
September 4, 2007
We’re kicking off the fall tomorrow night with out first Transmission of the season. Tomorrow also happens to be the convocation of Union Theological Seminary featuring Katharine Jefferts Schori (the first female presiding bishop of the episcopal church), and since more than a few of us live at Union, we thought we might go and hear her speak as a Transmission activity. The convocation begins at 6:15, Union is at 121st and Broadway, and feel free to call me if you get lost, need help getting in, or feel like chatting - 917.306.2442
After we hear her speak, we’ll be coming back to Katie’s and my apartment to talk about the upcoming fall. Some of the things we’ll be discussing include:
- the possibility of switching to a different night
- starting up a Bible study on the weeks we don’t have Transmission
- a fall retreat to Katherine’s Aunt’s place
- a fall event with other small, missional communities in new york
- general future of Transmission
Hope to see you there…
Transmission - the soundtrack
August 30, 2007
All right, so here it is, a year in the making. The album will be available in a few weeks on Proost, a small London-based boutique label, and in a few months on iTunes.
Proost, by the way, is well worth checking out. For about $120, you get access to their entire catalog (about 15 CDs, several movies, and a bajillion books) along with monthly updates for a year. Well worth the price for any church, church plant, or church goer.
Also, for our Transmissioners and loyal readers, I’m pleased to give you a couple of pre-release singles from the Album. All songs on the album were written by me and j. Snodgrass, whose smashing profile you can see on the cover of the album. Enjoy!
First, we have The Stranger, which is a Eucharistic prayer (kind of). If you listen closely, you’ll hear a preface, salvation history, sanctus, memorial acclamation, and the Lord’s prayer, but I also tried to include all my soap boxes about how Jesus has been misappropriated as a tool for oppression.
[audio:thestranger.mp3]
Second, we have a musical rendition of the Lukan Beattitudes. Although the Beattitudes can come across as a little touchy-feely, I think they contain an extremely radical, subversive message (woe to the rich, etc). So I threw in some riot noises, some police sirens, and generally tried to make the Sermon on the Mount sound as much like a protest rally as possible.
[audio:beattitude.mp3]
Finally, we’ve got a remix of a song you’ve heard on this site before, the Canticle of the Sun, which is based on a poem written by Francis of Assisi in 1224. Basically, there were these guys called the Cathars who were running around telling everyone that the spiritual was good and the physical was evil, so Francis wrote this poem about how he could find God in his everyday surroundings. It appeals to my hippy side.
[audio:canticleofthesun.mp3]
Enjoy!
Aug 15th for Jesus’ Mama
August 14, 2007
Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth - Tapesetry, originally uploaded by Edith OSB.
It’s the middle of August, so we’re keeping it low-key and simple. Come join us on the funky benches behind Grant’s Tomb for a bag dinner picnic and Bible Study.
Since August 15th just happens to be the Feast of Saint Mary, Mother of Jesus for Anglicans and Lutherans, the Assumption for Roman Catholics, and the Dormition of the Theotokos for the Eastern Orthodox, so we’ll be celebrating Jesus’ Ma Protestant-style, with a Bible Study! (No previous knowledge about Madonna necessary!)
About ‘African Bible Study’
Luke 1:39-56 - King James Version - The Message - NIV
GRANT’S TOMB is at 122nd and Riverside Drive. The 1 train stops at 116th on Broadway. Walk 6 blocks north, and 2 blocks west. Call 646 245-7346 if you can’t find us.
FOOD To keep this mid-August meeting simple, we’re asking people to bring food for themselves, plus a little extra to share (e.g. some chips, cookies, drinks, salad, small dish, an extra sandwich). Hopefully, there will be enough extra for those of you who don’t have time or extra cash to pick something up.
If you can, please bring a MARY piece to share –
A cappella or acoustic versions of the Magnificat welcome!
A visual representation of Mary (e.g. image, statue, jewelry) for “show & tell”
If you speak another language, bring a translation of Luke 1:39-56 to read to the group
Stitch-by-Stitch Circle July 18
July 5, 2007
Come to a Transmission Stitch Circle!
Bring yourself and something that needs mending, sewing, knitting, eating or, drinking.
We’ll be hanging out and practicing the slow art of conversation…
Topics for the evening are Pride and Prejudice
last week, for the 4th of July, we discussed Patriotism and Pacifism - so I thought this week we’d continue with the double-Ps and take inspiration from Jane Austen - herself a priest’s kid
Snacks and drinks welcome!
July 18th at 7pm
rsvp epiphany.ny@gmail.com for directions
stitching assistance will be available
Sewing Circle, originally uploaded by stagewhisper.