It’s a Ritual Revue
April 24, 2009
At our retreat on Holy Saturday, Transmissioners decided to begin having an organizational meeting once a month to review the rituals from the month. Tomorrow, Saturday, April 25, is our first meeting. If all goes well, we will be having this review and planning meeting on the last Saturday of every month from 2-4pm. Our Transmission rituals will remain on the first and third Friday of each month from 7-9pm.
If you’d like to take a look behind the scenes and learn more about planning rituals, reflect on your liturgical experiences, or debrief and decompress from the month, please join us. Email for directions! Hope to see you there.
Soapy, Frothy, Ash Wednesday
February 23, 2009
This Wednesday, we’re celebrating the first day of lent by taking a bunch of ashes and…. making them into soap! Ha, that’s not what you were expecting me to say, was it?
In any case, in the grand tradition of Fight Club, we’ll be making soap as a penitential act (although we’ll be using goatsmilk, honey, and palm oil rather than animal fat). We’ll be providing burnables (paper, palm leaves, etc), but you’re welcome to bring things of your own that might having meaning to you – just be sure that anything you bring to burn is free from chemicals, plastic, etc. Through the course of the evening, we’ll turn our confessions, transgressions, and deconstructions into a cleansing, frothy, ritual bar which we can use for the next forty days. Seriously, it’s hard to find time in our busy days for prayer and meditation, and shower time seems as good a time as any.
Also, remember that we’re trying a move to Friday nights after this month, so the next Transmission after his will be March 6th. Finally, we’re on for an Easter Vigil retreat on Holy Saturday, so put April 11 on your calendars, all day and all night.
See you soon!
Unwind this Wedneday
January 20, 2009
This Wednesday we’ll be meeting in a sacred space to spend an hour in silent meditation and worship to clear our heads after the holidays. If an hour sounds like an awfully long time to “do nothing,” fear not! We will have mandalas and icons, iPods and mantras, space for sitting, laying down, walking around, yoga, or dance. Options for everyone to be silent and worship together. Afterward we will break our silence as we break bread (and other good food).
We’ll be meeting in various spaces at Union Theological Seminary at 120th St & Broadway. When you get to Union, give Isaac a call at 917.306.2442 to find out where we are.
bearing gifts we traverse afar
January 9, 2009
On Wednesday, January 7th, Transmission celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, the day when the three Magi brought gifts to Jesus. Actually, there are quite a lot of misconceptions surrounding this tale. First of all, they were not necessarily kings or wise men; the term “magi” is often associated with magicians and astrologers. It’s the same term used to describe Simon ‚ÄúMagus,‚Äù the first heretic, who tried to bribe Peter into selling the “magic of Jesus.” Oddly enough, the story of the three Gentile magicians is found in Mathew, the most Jewish of the Gospels. And here’s another misconception: there is nothing in the Bible that says that there were three of them, it only says that they brought three gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh. It could have been two magi or twenty!
Finally, there is the matter of where and when the three magi met Jesus. We always imagine the magi appearing with their gifts in the manger the night Jesus was born. This may have been true for the shepherds (who are not in Mathew by the way), but it would have been impossible for the magi. Mathew says that the Magi came to Judea ‚ÄúAfter Jesus was born in Bethlehem,‚Äù (Matt 2:1) The Magi do inquire about the location of Jesus’s birth, and are told it was in Bethlehem, but instead of going to Bethlehem they ‚Äúwent on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.‚Äù (Matt 2:7) Thus they followed the star, precisely because Jesus was not easily locatable in Bethlehem, and because the star told them where he was, presumably in Nazareth. The journey of the magi, which started at Jesus‚Äô birth, must have taken years, so it is most likely that the Magi arrived with their gifts when Jesus was about two. This also explains why Herod wanted to kill every child around the age of two or younger. (Matt 2:14)
To celebrate this occasion we decided to take a long journey like the Magi. And like the Magi we wanted to bring with us gifts. But since we could not bring gifts for the Christ child specifically we decided to bring gifts for his brothers and sisters the needy. We organized a canned food drive and collected cans during our pilgrimage which we deposited at a local food pantry. In all, we collected 39 cans of food!
It was not a good night for traveling – the streets were wet with the day’s rain and spurts of water still drizzled down through the sky. The onset of night had shrouded our journey in darkness and the bitter cold began to freeze the water on the streets. Yet we decided to carry through with our expedition.
We all met up at Sarah‚Äôs apartment for some readings, had some hors d’oeuvres, and then we loaded up and headed to Isaac’s. On the way we talked of our own journeys and what gifts we brought into the New Year. When we reached Isaac’s we were welcomed by his wife Katie, and we had a sing along of traditional Epiphany songs, including “Brightest and Best” and ‚ÄúWe Three Kings.‚Äù Then we tromped our way to Union Theological Seminary where we refreshed ourselves with a sort of communion at Paul‚Äôs house before our final stop, visiting an actual newborn baby, courtesy of John and Elizabeth Snodgrass.
It was a night of experiences carrying our burdens through the streets, telling stories on the bus, singing together, and playing with the children. Our short hike through upper Manhattan was surely different from the long trek of the Magi, but in the end I felt the same warmth of community and fellowship that I am sure they must have experienced as they went on their adventure to see the Christ.
Happy New Year!
January 2, 2009
Last night, at Isaac and Katie’s cozy apartment in Washington Heights, Transmission held its 2008 New Year’s Eve get-together. Katie prepared a feast of shrimp in a spicy tomato marinade, Greek style mushroom pie, warm French bread, radishes with apple and celery spice, and flourless chocolate cake and pies for dessert. It was the height of delectability.
Present at the bash were myself, Isaac, Katie, two guests from an emergent church in Canberra, Australia, Mabel and three of her friends, Sarah, and Ula and her friend Steve.
We started out with a discussion of circumcision, December 31st being the Feast of the Circumcision, as well as the Feast of the Holy Name. Historically, this day, December 31, or the 4th of Tevet as the Hebrew calendar puts it, was the day the Christ child was circumcised and given the name Jesus. They actually went against the orders of the Archangel Gabriel who had said “His name shall be Emmanuel.” Emmanuel was Hebrew for God is with us. Jesus was derived from the older Hebrew name Yeshua, for God’s salvation. Though the earth didn’t swallow the family up for not following orders, you wonder whether there’d have been any difference if our savior had been named Emmanuel Christ!
Isaac explained to us that circumcision was, in the Jewish tradition, the way of marking the faithful. It was what separated them from others, and those who weren’t circumcised were to be cut off from their people. According to Genesis, God said that any uncircumcised male “has broken my covenant.”
However, in the years after Christ, the apostle Paul wrote that circumcision was meaningless: salvation came through the spirit, and had nothing to do with one’s skin.  He wrote in Philippians, “It is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.”
Yet there has remained debate over whether circumcision should be required or not. As some members pointed out, circumcising newborns used to be custom at hospitals, often done without asking parents. Only in recent years has that shifted.
Then came Isaac’s question: what for us is the mark of the faithful? What shows that we are Christians? And also what kind of judgment have we experienced from other Christians or have we shown towards others based on an outward characteristic?
Mabel spoke of her inability to sit next to homeless people on the subway, because of the smells. She was reminded of a friend who was able to do so without a second thought. I spoke of the word “saved” and the meaning people seem to attach to it as being a kind of rubber stamp of the Christian, in evangelical circles: it seems like saved is a status, a kind of static title one can hold. For me, though, salvation is a process we live throughout our lives. We can fall away from salvation or we can go towards it, and ultimately we never know whether we’re saved or not until our judgment comes.
After singing a psalm that Isaac had put to music, we enjoyed some good long conversation and singing around Isaac’s guitar. When midnight came, it was actually very casual: Isaac and Katie don’t have a TV or radio, so we just counted down ourselves using the clock on Isaac’s laptop. Afterwards, a brief toast and some more talking late into the morning hours before we all headed home. ( I had a strange journey home. Here’s the story…)
Bono once sang, “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day.” I happen to agree, but that line misses the point. New Year’s isn’t supposed to change anything: it’s meant to summon the hope of change, the hope of renewal. The idea that we can start over and wipe the slate clean, however much time it takes. Our new president is channeling that hope. Whether Obama lives up to his promises or not, these last months have brought many of us hope in a brighter future. What some see in Obama is exactly what the shepherds saw in the newborn Jesus: the arrival of a savior who could shake down unjust kingdoms and renew the earth. Let us rejoice in Him now and forever, and fulfill the promises that He made, whether our new earthly rulers do so or not.
Transmitting 12/17/08
January 2, 2009
On December 17, there was Transmissioning, and it was good. The Transmission group headed to Dan Marrin’s swank brownstone in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Mabel Bermejo prepared an Italian dinner, garlic bread and spaghetti, for our group of seven people, and Isaac led the ritual. He started with group songs and then read us a story from The Way of the Wolf, a collection of stories about bunnies, wolves and nature that start out sounding like children’s stories, but end as provocative and mature parables showing what it means to be Christian.
Then came the fun. Our theme for the night was “free gifts” and the free grace that we’ve been given through Christ. We don’t have to earn or pay for the love of God: salvation has been given to us through his son and our love for Him. So, in that spirit we brought each other gifts that cost us nothing and exchanged them. Each gift had its story, like Mabel’s Israeli soap (which she initially mistook for candy), Paul’s Bible Memory Match cards (random religious stuff- yay!) and Katie’s purple scarf (Who’d think Santa Claus would take the form of an Indian tailor?)
Afterwards, we held prayers for any of us who needed consolation and did a laying on of hands for personal healing.  My roommates came in just as we were laying our hands on top of people’s heads and praying: a few of us chuckled and then Paul, who was the one getting “layed on” started screaming out a chant and we all burst out laughing. Yup, we’re a weird bunch, but in all the good ways.
All of us are going through trials and changes. Though we know our blessings, we pray we can face our challenges with grace and faith, knowing that we have friends we can turn to along the way. 
Isaac announced that he’ll be hosting Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve get-togethers. So mark your calendars for those and keep reading the updates as they come in!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
An Advent Ritual From Home
December 15, 2008
Here’s a ritual that Bowie led us in last Wednesday.¬† It’s loosely based on a Lessons and Carols service, and involves distributing the verses of Veni, Veni Emmanuel around texts and meditations.¬† Copy it down and do it with your community, or just do it here!
Sing:
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Silence…
Sing:
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Watch:Blessed by Juli Allen and Jon Birch
Share Stories About Waiting
Sing:
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Waiting for the Miracle, by Leonard Cohen:
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light candles while listening.
Sing:
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Postlude: Waiting in Vain by Bob Marley (performed by Annie Lenox):
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Advent Transmission on waiting…
December 2, 2008
This Wednesday, December 3, is the first Transmission of Advent.¬† We’re meeting at Isaac’s place (email for directions), Sarah is cooking, and Bowie is leading the ritual:
A quiet, meditative evening to reflect on waiting… in silence and darkness, and waiting… for a miracle to come. ¬†We will read Luke Chapter 1 and selections from the Prophet Isaiah, interspersed with songs, silence, sharing, and activities.¬† Music ranging from O Come O Come Emmanuel to Coldplay.
Salt Lake
August 18, 2008
Hey, Transmissioners! We’re doing something different this week. Transmission’s own dancer-in-residence, Sarah Godbehere, is performing this Wednesday at the Lafeyette Street Theatre (45 Bleecker St at Lafayette) in Salt Lake, a ballet in 3 acts which the choreographer describes as “ballet meets performance art.” We spend a lot of time at Transmission talking about the relationship of ritual and performance, so we’re going to use this as an opportunity to watch an artistic performance through the lens of ritual analysis. This promises to be a really great evening. This would also be a great Transmission to bring friends to, especially friends who might be intimidated by our more typical house church stuff.
The show starts at 7:45pm, although we’ll probably get there early to make sure we can all get seats together. Tickets are $15 and can be gotten at the door. We’ll be going out afterwards to talk about the performance so feel free to meet us for food and drinks if you can’t make it to the show! You can read more about the performance here: http://www.s6k.com/page.cfm?id=60680703
We also have some community news! First of all, Dan Marrin is kind of urgently looking for a room to rent. If you need a roommate, let us know! You can write here or contact him directly.
Secondly, after a year of course work, Katie Shapiro is getting certified as a Paramedic and has invited us to her graduation, which will be next Wednesday, the 27th. Come support one of Transmission’s two medical professionals! The ceremony will be at 5pm in the NYU Kimmel Building, 60 Washington Square South. As usual, food and drink will follow.
Peace.
Some Thoughts on Ritual Installations
August 13, 2008
I recently had lunch with my friend Clay Morris, who also happens to be the chief liturgical officer of the Episcopal Church, and he gave me an interesting thought puzzle. How could one do a low budget but meaningful morning prayer for a community of people who work together in the same building, but who don’t necessarily arrive at the same time?
First, it seems that the ritual should allow people to spend as much or as little time as they wish, preferably delivering a significant ritual experience whether someone gives it five minutes or thirty. The most obvious way to do this is with an art installation – unlike a traditional liturgy which has a fixed a beginning, middle, and end, an art installation allows participants to manage their own experience. An installation can also be left up all day if folks would rather experience it during lunch or on their way home.
The ritual installations should be useful both for those who want to participate every day and those who would only participate occasionally. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to do a series in which each day is predicated on the one before it. Further, each day ought to be different enough from the preceding one that it’s worthwhile to come back each day, which means that the installation either needs to be replaced each day, change each day, or have a high repeatability factor.
I think the best way to accomplish this would be focusing on user-generated content, a method that a lot of websites use to bring in traffic. Basically, the website puts up a story, article, or something similar and then allows visitors to the site to either comment on it or alter it. Occasionally visitors to the site just read the articles, but others come back multiple times a day to check on conversations, etc. It started with blogs and webforums but it’s become mainstream – even CNN.com is allowing comments on its stories these days.
Thinking in this way would allow the design team to create weekly installations rather than daily ones, saving time, money, and energy, and it also creates a very emergent atmosphere in which the participants become co-creators.
What would this look line in practice? Here are some ideas:
Simple installations:
- place a pad of yellow stickies on an altar and write a prayer request on the top sticky. When a person comes to the altar, they tear off the sticky and take it with them, promising to pray for that thing throughout the rest of the day. They then write a new prayer request on the next sticky down. This extremely low-budget option allows folks to come back as often as they wish and builds community by getting the entire building praying for each others concerns.
- Buy one of those “make magnetic poetry” kits, the kind in which you can write your own words, and make a magnet for every word in that week’s psalm. Put them up on a white board, along with all the left over blank magnets, and allow folks to write their own psalms with the magnet poetry. You might need several kits for this since some folks will be hesitant to destroy someone else’s creation and replace it with their own. The majority of folks will probably just stop in each morning to read what others have created, but some inspired people will go nuts with this.
- Display a large print out of the week’s gospel reading, along with a poster-sized piece of paper with the word “questions” written at the top. Invite folks to write down the questions they are left with after reading the scripture (and discourage answers). I’ve seen these sorts of question lists become brilliant discussions as each question is influenced by the ones written before it.
- For a penitential season, Build a wooden cross (or more, if you need them). Leave little slips of paper on which participants can write an anonymous confession. Leave a hammer and nails so that they can nail these to the cross. Encourage them to read the other confessions and pray for absolution for those who have come before them.
Complex installations:
- For All Saints Day, create a flickr account and leave instructions for how folks can upload pictures to it. Set up a projector and an internet-connected laptop that projects a slideshow from the flickr account. During the work day, folks can take a five minute break from what they’re doing to look around on google for a picture of someone they consider a saint and upload it for the rest of the community to see. Since the slideshow would be constantly changing, there’s plenty of reason to come back each day.
- Set up a wiki online with pages for the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. In the chapel, set up three projectors, one for each page. Hand out the url for the wiki and encourage people to change the creeds to reflect what they actually believe, including the option of resetting it to the original. This could also be done with a white board and erasers, or it could be done by allowing people to annotate (rather than edit), the text.
- For Advent, borrow ten sets of computer speakers (shouldn’t be hard in an office building) and set them up in a circle around the room. Also set up a recording station (like a confessional) in which participants can record the hopes they have for God’s plan in the world. Send these recordings as separate channels, one to each speaker, so that participants can walk up to individual speakers to hear what they have to say, or stand in the middle and hear it all as one big cacophony. Note that this requires an audio interface with multiple outputs, like a MOTU ultralite, as well as an audio program that can manage multiple channels, like Live or Logic. You could also go low-tech with 10 walkmans.