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.
3,000 Soldiers Dead, Including One Friend
January 5, 2007
My brother Sgt. A. Peter Snodgrass, who is serving his 2nd deployment as an Army Medic in Iraq, was friends with a soldier who was killed last week (the same week we passed the 3,000 US soldiers casualties mark). They had served together in South Korea and on both Iraqi tours.
AP Article w/ Photos: http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_003072103.html
“22-year-old Sergant John M. Sullivan of Hixon, Tennessee died last Saturday in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device went off near his vehicle while on combat patrol. Sullivan was just days away from returning home from his second tour of duty in Iraq to be with his wife and newborn son. His family said Sullivan volunteered for the patrol when a fellow-soldier got sick.”
from http://fox21news.com/Global/story.asp?S=5891680
“Hours after SGT John Michael Sullivan was killed in Iraq, his wife Michele gave birth to their little boy at Fort Carson. News of her husband’s death had sent Sullivan into labor.
‘I got a knock on the door and I told them, ‘don’t tell me,” said Sullivan. Her husband had been killed when a roadside bomb hit his Humvee. SGT Sullivan and his wife had planned to name their son Johnny Walker. Sullivan said they both thought it was a strong name everyone would remember. When SGT Sullivan died, his wife chose a different name so her son would always be remembered… and her husband would never be forgotten– John Michael Sullivan Jr.”
from http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/5080596.html
* Please pray for his soul, his wife, newborn son, parents (he was an only son), and unit in Iraq.
newyears-day
January 1, 2007
newyears-day, originally uploaded by pinholepirate.
Many faiths and traditions,
my tradition and faith:
lately I can’t seem to have
one without the other.
Like the communion wafers
passed out as a meal,
and the unfrozen pita bread,
church has grown stale.
Too many 18th and 19th
century quarter notes.
The pipe organ was once
a technical innovation.
I’m not anti-establishment,
but let’s also establish
new mysteries to assure us
of Your Holy Presence
by Bowie Snodgrass
Spiritual Resolution Questions for 2007
December 26, 2006
What will be your spiritual and wellness disciplines?
Where will you seek wisdom and creativity?
How will you strive for justice and peace?
How will you be hospitable and big hearted?
What will be your ministries in the world this year?
WIS-TIPS the wake down
December 18, 2006
by Bowie Snodgrass
these short days are pregnant with expectation
of what is real, unrealized, and unrealistic
John proclaimed bold and true
the coming of the kingdom
- and ended up beheaded
the dangerous call of the gospel
- is unsettling
enough of settling down
I am poised for adventure
and like a lion – persistent in its pursuit
we are called – to roam and roar
he walks with a limp -
his eyes sparkle with insight -
she plays Bach with her feet -
hands strained behind her back
in New York City
we carry our worlds
in pockets and bags
enough of being earnest
it’s time to entertain
when it’s GAME OVER
agree to PLAY AGAIN
I am throwing down
- I am standing up!
preach in broad strokes
and live in the nuance
traditions are meant to be kept
stories are meant to be meant
something new is about to begin
now is a time to dance and sing
note: written after David Fleenor’s ordination; Bp. Packard preaching