NY Faith & Justice is bringing Shane Claiborne to NYC this SUNDAY. Shane is the author of The irresistible Revolution and on the forefront of the New Monastic movement. Isaac and I have both read his book and seen him speak and recommend him whole heartedly!

He’s the media-subversive, politically-radical, dreadlocked-hippy St. Francis of our day.

If you’re free on Sunday evening from 7:30-9:30, GO! And if you want to learn more about the NEW NY Faith & Justice group, they are having a service at 5 with meal following. All FREE wtih RSVPs.

———- Forwarded message ———-

 

Advent begins this Sunday!

 

 Advent is the season when the church waits for the arrival Jesus.

This year NY Faith & Justice invites you to enter the season asking one question…

“Is Advent just a celebration of the time when Jesus first came as a baby or is it a current day prayer for Christ to come today?”

THIS SUNDAY December 2, 2007

NY Faith & Justice @ All Angels Church!

251 W. 80th Street @ Broadway

Keynote Speaker Shane Claiborne (author of The Irresistible Revolution)

The Bridge (@ 5pm) AND Christianity and Transformational Development Seminar (@ 7:30pm)

Read the rest of this entry »

Thanksgiving & Holy-days

November 18, 2007

As the holy-days draw near again, here’s our calendar for the next five weeks. Advent, the season of expectation leading up to Christmas, is one of our favorite liturgical times of year. We’d love to see you at any or all events. Blessings, Bowie

THIS WEEK – from Katherine Lee -

Hi there,

So I’m thinking of doing a ritual Wednesday based around the themes of gratitude and thankfulness, but instead of being thankful for exterior things, which are all very well and good (e.g. family, friends), I’m coming up with a ritual that will hopefully turn our gratitude inwards. It’s not often that we give thanks for our own gifts, and I think taking stock in what we are good at in the context of serving others can be a transformative experience.

Let’s say 7:30-ish at my place? Please email me for directions (kcl232@gmail.com), and I’ll make a main dish. BYOB or sides/dessert welcome.

K

UPCOMING CALENDAR

Thurs, Nov 29th – Bible Study at Floridita’s, 3219 Broadway at 125th Street

Wed, Dec 5th – Advent Transmission, theme and location TBA

Thurs, Dec 13th – Bible Study in Union Square, led by Renata

Wed, Dec 19th – Advent Transmission, theme and location TBA

Rev. Ike’s Words of Wisdom, originally uploaded by Awreye.

 


“It’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice.” – Rev. Ike

This was one of the quotes in the foyer of the United Palace Theater ,where more than one hundred New York City school kids danced tonight to the Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.”

The Rev. Ike restored the art-deco ‚ÄúWonder Theater‚Äù, where tonight’s great gathering happened, and uses it as the ‚Äúcathedral‚Äù for his Christ United Church. But tonight, the palace was the scene of ‚ÄúBerlin in Lights,‚Äù and, as Sir Clive Gillinson said, these kids were dancing with the best ‚Äúpit bands‚Äù possible, the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Stravinsky’s revolutionary orchestral composition, written between 1911 and 1913, was vibrant, alive, and masterfully played. The energy on the stage was electric. The kids captured my full attention and heart in the first moments of their dance.

If you are free tomorrow at 3pm, spend the $15 and travel up to Broadway and 175th Street.

Right in the heart of Washington Heights, there’s music and magic to be seen and heard.

www.carnegiehall.org/berlininlights/ros

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!

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?

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).

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




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…