Meeting with Christian Churches Together
January 8, 2008
One of the hats I wear as an “ecumenical Episcopalian” (my third “e” identifier would probably be “emerging”) is as a member of the standing committee for Christian Churches Together, the broadest ecumenical group in our nation’s history.
Today I arrived in Baltimore for the CCT Annual Meeting, which includes a day in DC addressing domestic poverty (see the CCT Statement of Poverty that was passed by consensus last year) and discernment about how we can evangelize together. Yup, you heard that right!
This meeting also has personal meaning for me, because it was at last year’s gathering in Pasadena that I met the Rev. Dr. Peter Heltzel, who lives ten blocks from me in West Harlem, and at whose party in April I met my (now) husband, George! Goes to show you never can tell.
Come to think of it, I also met Samir Selmanovic at last year’s meeting, who has since moved to NYC, is in the process of starting Faith House, an interfaith community in Manhattan.
I am also excited that two other women from exciting NYC organizations are here this year: Lisa Sharon Harper from New York Faith & Justice and Onleilove Alston from the Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary.
Please read a little about this group on their website (www.christianchurchestogether.org) and keep us in your prayers this week.
Thanks and blessings, Bowie
Fire at Simple Way: Please Pray and Donate
June 20, 2007
The Simple Way is a New Monastic Community in Philly, PA, founded by Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistable Revolution. Isaac and I both heard Shane speak at Greenbelt last summer and were floored (I cried, maybe we both did). Various Transmissioners have also been deeply moved by his book and by the basic tenents (12 Marks) of New Monasticism presented online.
Please keep this community in your prayers and consider making a cash donation. Transmission does not ask it’s members to pledge, but many of us give generously to Transmission and do other spiritual giving as part of our tithe or giving back to God.
Official Fire Update from The Simple Way in Philly, PA
This morning, a 7-alarm fire consumed an abandoned warehouse in our Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia. The Simple Way Community Center at 3200 Potter Street was destroyed as well as at least eight of our neighbors’ homes. Over 100 people were evacuated from their homes, and 400 families are currently without power. Despite this developing tragedy, we are incredibly thankful to share that all of our community members and every one of our neighbors is safely out of harm’s way.
This fire will forever change the fabric of our community. Eight families are currently homeless, and in many cases have lost their vehicles as well as their homes. One of our neighbors, the Mahaias Family, lost their three cars as well as the equipment one family member uses for her massage therapy business. Teenager Brian Mahaias is devastated not because he has lost his belongings, but because he fears that this fire will force him to move away from this neighborhood that is his family as well as his home.
The Simple Way has lost a community center that was home to our Yes! And… afterschool program, community arts center, and Cottage Printworks t-shirt micro-business as well as to two of our community members. Community members Shane Claiborne and Jesce Walz have lost all of their belongings, Yes!And…’s after school studio and library were ruined, and community member Justin Donner’s Cottage Printworks equipment and t-shirts were destroyed.
We are thankful that we are able to help each other during this time of need, and we will continue to keep your informed about today’s events.
We have established funds to support the families who have lost their homes, the Yes! And… afterschool program, and the Simple Way community.
A fund to support the families has been established through a partner organization, EAPE. Tax-deductible donations can be made online here. Please make sure to put “Kensington Families Fund” in the memo section.
Donations to the Rebuilding Fund can be made via PayPal to contribute@awip.us.
-The Simple Way Community
Roof Gardens of Babylon
April 25, 2007
By Bowie Snodgrass
On the Euphrates, down by the river of Babylon,
they sat down and wept, and wept for you, Zion.
Held captive during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign,
they wrote scripture in the world’s largest city.
But even the most powerful human in the world
did a small good deed for the woman he loved.
As the story goes, Nebuchadnezzar, for his wife,
planted a World Wonder: hanging roof gardens.
I hear they’re thinking of green roofs for NYC;
what a great idea, I say, growing things here.
Imagine flying over that in a plane, a sea of green:
flowers, moss, vine, trees, birds, butterflies, bees.
Fruits of the earth to eat, natural cool and warm,
cleaner air and playgrounds for God’s creatures.
We best never forget the history that happened
nor the dreams that inspire human imagination.
* Read about the Green Roof movement
* Check out the Gaia Institute NY
“The Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the walls of Babylon (near present-day Baghdad in Iraq) were considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. ”
- Read more about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
* Please say a special prayer for my brother, Peter, Ike’s brother, Joel, and all the military personnel currently stationed in Iraq. Please pray for all Iraqis, that they may soon have peace in their lands.
Envision the Ends Times, and Take Action
April 12, 2007
OK, so I’m a little behind the times. I just watched An Inconvenient Truth last night and whoa. It seems the effects of Global Warming will soon be of apocalyptic proportions. I beseech ya’ll to take an active step to reduce carbon emissions, or at least netflick the movie and experience the revelation for yourself. One place to start is climatecrisis.net. New Yorkers, Con Ed offers 100% wind power for your home.
As springtime blooms again, it’s time for us to start thinking about how we can renew the earth, as she renews us.
PS, while I have your attention, check out the Abstract of a paper my friend, Jackie, did at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in 2006.
Averting the Apocalypse: The Horrors of Global Warming and the Rhetorical Power of the End
Program Unit: John’s Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Jacqueline Hidalgo, Claremont Graduate UniversityIn the Fall of 2005, Al Gore lectured in Los Angeles about global warming as part of the production of the new documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Gore compared some of the horrible plagues imagined in John’s Apocalypse to the horrific repercussions of global warming around the world, repercussions which Gore demonstrated in a complex narrative of photographs, tables, and film clips. Through a focus on Gore’s rhetoric of averting the global warming apocalypse, this paper explores the enduring prominence and power of the Apocalypse as it may be encountered throughout the US political imaginary. It is often recognized that Conservative Christians in the U.S.A. have used the horrific imagery of the Apocalypse in combination with the promise of an imminent End in order to shape politics, identities, and cultures. Many occupying different parts of the political Left have likewise turned to narratives of impending environmental doom and/or political totalitarianism. Given that such a variety of groups deploy these counterpoised apocalypticisms, what does this suggest about the social power of apocalyptic narratives over the social realities of different people? Successful deployment of the Apocalypse, and specifically of its horrors and end-time imagination, has been a significant source of social power for those who pursue it, and those who perceive themselves to be in situations of social distress often invoke apocalyptic rhetoric. Gore serves as an interesting example against this backdrop. Although he is part of the political mainstream, his speech comes at a time when many on the political Left feel disenfranchised. Is apocalyptic rhetoric most popular with groups who perceive themselves as disempowered or is it just such a central part of the US cultural imagination that it is hard to conceive of a historical trajectory outside of the Apocalypse?
Fourth Anniversary of the start of the Iraq War
March 15, 2007
Isaiah Wall 05, originally uploaded by bowiesnodgrass. © Hal Weiner.
The Reverends Chloe Breyer and Winnie Varghese and Ms. Bowie Snodgrass at the Great Litany, March 18, 2005. Isaiah Wall opposite UN Headquarters, NYC.
Dear sisters and brothers:
Please join us as we mourn at the Fourth Anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.
The Great Litany chanted in Solemn Procession
- The Fourth Friday in Lent, March 16, 2007 12 noon
- The Fifth Friday in Lent, March 23, 2007 12 noon
Ralph Bunche Park (The Isaiah Wall) NW corner of 42nd Street and First Avenue (across from the United Nations)
Vestments: Cassock, surplice, tippet and hood (clergy are asked to vest, and if lay members of Altar parties in parishes care to vest, please come in cassock and surplice)
Sponsored by: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church - Episcopal Peace Fellowship chapter
For more information, please contact Earl Kooperkamp, (212) 864-4013 or revkoooperkamp@aol.com. Please pass this information on to others who may be interested.
Thank you for your kind attention and may you observe a blessed Lent.
Peace, Earl Kooperkamp
The Rev. Earl Kooperkamp serves at St. Mary’s in Manhattanville, blocks from the apartment where we’ve been holding Transmission house church.
quitting smoking for lent
February 24, 2007
By Bowie Snodgrass
Dear God,
I’m gonna miss smoking
So much. Reaching in
The box. Pulling in air.
A last cigarette before bed
To gather my thoughts,
A break between rounds
Of work or play,
Often accompanied by company…
We smokers find each other.
And stick together,
Till someone quits.
I’m going to miss the little high
The little calm, the little heat,
The breaths of fresh air, stepping out,
To fill up my lungs with smoke.
It might sound quite gross,
And we all know it’s bad.
It stinks, it kills, it annoys,
And, by golly, shouldn’t we all
Want to live forever, if we can?
OK. I’m getting carried away.
It’s bad, I know, I know.
But, God,
I’m going to miss smoking.
So please send some other
Daily little pleasures my way.
* I wrote this in August 2005, the last time I quit smoking. Well, I’m quitting again. I started on Ash Wednesday. Now gotta get through Lent… and then the rest of my life. Pray for me.
* Many blessings for all of you and what ever you are giving up - or taking on - in your lenten journey. Please share what you are doing for Lent below…
* Also, check out the newest sabbath poem at FaithHouse, “I just laugh” by Kabir
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)
V-DAY RITUAL
February 15, 2007
2/14/2007
Valentine’s Day House Church
SETTING: 2-bedroom apartment in west Harlem. seven folks arrived, cooked dinner, welcomed our new guest, ate snacks, then started ritual.
* kiss of peace
* ritual reading of Song of Songs
* prayer: bodies – folks strike a pose, everyone follows suit, say a prayer
* prayer: love song lyric – pass out selections from popular love songs that could be read to address a lover relationship with the divine. folks select one, read or sing it to the group. sing alongs welcome
* dinner, dessert, wine and good conversation
SoS RITUAL READING
Instructions –
* prep and procure the props
* make copies of readings in large font for participants to read
* when gathered, explain interactive component before each reading – have people perform the asterisked ritual before, during, or after the reading
* afterwards, invite people to share how they heard God speaking to them in the text
I SoS 1:12-17 (from bible or TJS translation below)
* SMELL – cedar balls and spices
Where you recline in light of noon
I’ll fly to lie beside you soon
With Spices, wine and ripest fruit
Have my desire in finest bloom
Baptized in your divine perfume
The time is right, we’re wise but new
The time is right, desire consumes
Our couch is green, our rafters pine
Our house is cedar beams and grafted vines
The clouds our canopy on high
Our town this Eden ‘neath the sky
Feel your left arm beneath my head
Your right my sheet, your side my bed
But I won’t sleep for love is ready
And I won’t rest till love is dead
II SoS 2:8-13
* VISUALIZE – close your eyes, listen, and see the scene in your mind’s eye
III Song of Songs 4:9-16
* SMELL – light incense
Sunday’s dose of thoughts
January 29, 2007
by Bowie Snodgrass
reflections from today on Isaac’s post below:
We can not just ignore the id
we must bless our passions
G - d made us as animals
who can never know it all
You can’t control the wind
but you can set your sails
Jesus calmed the storm
he walked on the water
We need some original
thoughts about religion
More voices, more vistas,
vantage points and views
Good people with new ideas
calling in this fresh new reign
We Forget.
January 13, 2007
two poems from our Advent stations apt.church. I found them while cleaning up my place. written by two of our participants. collage below by Gareth, our friend from Moot.
In darkest despair
In brightest light
Oh holy star
Oh sacred night
I cry out to you Lord
Take this pain away
Bring unto us
The dawn of a new day
We are a forgetful people.
God is faithful –
we forget. God sustains –
we forget. God provides –
we forget. God delivers –
we forget. God’s ways endure
– we forget. God made us
in His image – we forget!
Peace on Earth originally uploaded by bowiesnodgrass.