Fall leaving you frayed? Come refuel!
November 6, 2007
October and November are busy months and some of us are feeling frayed – so this Wednesday, November 7 from 7-9pm, join us for refueling! Bowie likes to cook and clean when she needs centering, so come over to her place to share a home-cooked meal and good company.
Please also think about sharing one of the ways you get back in touch with God and your center. George, who is a conductor, plays piano or opens a score (including some that he returns to time and again). Some of you, who are dancers or do yoga, may have stretches you could share with us. Others may have a book of the Bible or a collection of poetry that sits by your bed or favorite chair…
Please bring an activity, anecdote, or meditation that you can share in a few minutes. Where do you find stillness, inspiration, or Sabbath moments?
We will also allocate some portion of the evening – 5 to 20 minutes – to sit together in silence. And, as always, we’ll have time to socialize with each other, pray, and eat!
Please email back if you can bring food or drink to share – or need directions to Bowie’s apartment.
Blessings! Transmission
PS On Wed, Nov 21, we’ll be doing a ritual on “Exorcisms and Invocations.” Bowie, Isaac, and George shared this ritual with an emerging group called CityLights on Oct 27th (you can see what they had to say about it below). Please plan to join us! Location TBA.
“We had a pleasure to welcome Transmission and Forum people last week and together to take part in the worship that Bowie and Isac prepared. Thank you for introducing to us and leading us through your creative and original ritual. It asked us to be personal and trusting and stimulated us to confront our fears. We do hope that we will worship together many more times.” - CityLights
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!
Contrapuntal Theology
October 21, 2007
So for Transmission last week, we based our service on the passages in Matthew and Thomas in which Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” There are a variety of christologies present at Transmission - we have people who love Christianity and are proud to call themselves Christian, we have people who love Jesus and want to model their lives after him but who feel alienated or threatened by the term “Christian,” and we have people who are extremely skeptical of the ability of words, theology, and ideas to fully encompass God. With a group as diverse as this, we were more interested in asking the question than in coming up with a definitive answer.
After meditation, discussion, and prayer, we needed a song with which to end the ritual. Are there any songs about Christology that leave room for a diversity of theologies? I couldn’t think of any, so I asked j. Snodgrass to help me pen something.
We came up with a three-part chant, similar in style to Taize music. Instead of having multiple parts written in multiple languages, however, we wrote multiple parts in multiple theologies. Usually hymn lyrics assume that everyone present can agree to the same thing (or at least that they’ll temporarily sign on to the lyrics for the purposes of group singing). With this piece, on the other hand, we hoped that everyone would find a part they were comfortable singing, and that we can have a worshipful moment without making anyone sing anything that made them uncomfortable. It was very successful.
If you like it, feel free to use it - click on the image above to download.
Who do you say I am?
October 15, 2007
This week we’re having Transmission on a Tuesday. Yup, you heard me right, it’s on TUESDAY. The reason for this is that a guest from UK, John Bell, is in New York this week and wanted to come but wasn’t free on Wednesday. He’s also a member of the Iona Community and one of the most influential church musicians alive, so if you want to ask him about either topic, please come.
We’ll be meeting at Bowie’s place - email us if you need directions. Our ritual, led by j. Snodgrass and me, will be focusing on the relationship between “Jesus the Nazarene” and “Christ the Son of God.”. Is there a difference between being a Christian and being a Jesus-follower? What kind of baggage do these terms carry, both for people in the church traditions and those outside them? What effect do these labels and ideas have on our lives and on our relationships?
As usual, we won’t be providing any answers, but I’m sure we’ll have some great discussion. Oh and, of course, we’ll also have great food, so come out to party and pray this Tuesday night, 7pm, at Bowie’s place. See you then!
Simchat Torah + St Francis Day = Transmission on Oct 3rd!
October 2, 2007
Yup, you heard it here first, folks. In a strange alignment of two calendars, this Wednesday night will be both the eve of Simchat Torah AND the eve of the Feast of St Francis. If you don’t know, St Francis was a proto-hippie who wandered around Europe and the near-east talking to animals, kissing lepers, and telling rich people they should renounce materialism and consumerism. Simchat Torah, on the other hand, is the day when the entire Jewish world hits the rewind button on their Torah scrolls, going from the death of Moses in Deuteronomy to the creation of the world in Genesis in one day, and resetting their shabbat readings for the coming year by picking up their scriptures and dancing around the room with them.
Our very own Paul and Katherine will be planning our ritual this week. I’m not sure what they’re planning, but expect themes of dying and creation, mortality and eco-justice, kissing and dancing, community storytelling and the blessing of household pets. We’re meeting at Paul’s place, which is at Union (121st and Broadway). Give me a call when you show up and I’ll come down and get you - 917.306.2442.
Summary:
Wed, Oct 3, 121st and Broadway, 7-9pm
stitch-by-stitch snippets of internet inspiration
July 9, 2007
new membership, originally uploaded by Princess Valium.
If a ritual is performed more than once, it becomes “official,” or there is a greater sense of permanency, just as the more stitches you use to fasten a button to a shirt, the more tightly it will stay attached.
May we, a little band of love,
We sinners, saved by grace,
From glory unto glory changed,
Behold thee face to face.
from Hymns for the Circle #12 , collected writings that came out of a sewing circle
Her project in the hotel lobby consists of the screening of two video’s and a ‘sewing circle’. The public will be invited to join the making of semi high fashion items for which all materials will be provided. The sewing circle blurs the boundary between public and private space. Historically a very private, exclusively female ritual, the sewing circle as ‘performance’ in a public space addresses an entirely new set of questions and interpersonal connections. Tracey Prehay thus contributes to a complex debate on cultural encounters, the market place and the notion of mimicry.
Scripture on Sewing, Pride & Prejudice
July 6, 2007
Here are some Bible passages I found and may use in our Stitch-by-Stitch Circle. How do they resonate with you? Are there others you can think of? Please comment below!
Some Sewing Quotes
on PRIDE– Genesis 3
* Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Gen 3:7)
* The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (Gen 3:21)
on PREJUDICE – Matthew 9:14-17
* No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. (Mt 9:16 )
Stitch Circle Quotes
on colored YARN – Exodus 28 (it’s worth reading!)
* Make pomegranates of blue, purple and scarlet yarn around the hem of the robe, with gold bells between them. (Ex 28:33)
on a CIRCLE – Mark 3:31-35
* Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! (Mk 3:34)
Pride in Widsom Literature
* When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. (Prov 11:2)
* Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice. (Prov 13:10)
* Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. (Prov 16:18)
in a PSALM – Psalsm 10 (see more below)
* The wicked are so proud that they care not for God; their only thought is, “God does not matter.” (Ps 10:4 )
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.
July 4 Transmission
July 3, 2007
The time has come for our next Transmission, and this week we’ll be breaking into a new borough. Elaina will be hosting at her flat in the South Bronx - it just wouldn’t be the fourth of July without a backyard and a grill.
In the spirit of Independence Day, our ritual this week will be focusing on the problematic relationships between patriotism and religiosity, nationalism and pacifism, and the separation of church and state. We’ll also break out with some Taize music and some hamburgers. Please come and feel welcome to bring food!
For those of us who live in Manhattan, the other boroughs can seem hopelessly distant, but I promise you that Elaina’s place is as easy to get to as anybody else’s - she lives on two different express trains (the 2 and the 5), so it’s a quick trip no matter which side of the island you live on.
Transmission, as usual, will start in the neighborhood of 7pm and end around 9pm.
All are welcome! Contact us if you’d like directions.
See ya’ll on July 4th!
This Wed, June 20th, 7pm, Central Park!
June 19, 2007
Hey, Transmissioners! To celebrate the summer solstice, we’ll be having a picnic ritual in Sheep Meadow in Central Park. It’s on the west side - the best place to enter is around 66th St. The ritual will be focusing on the creation account in Genesis and will be led by our resident dancer/choreographer, Sarah Godbehere, and me. The ritual will be open-ended, allowing for many different levers of participation, and will include elements of contact improv, pilates, meditation, and improv theater. Please wear comfortable clothes. =)
Since the park is pretty far away from a kitchen, feel free to bring food to contribute to the picnic. Also, if you like, please bring a prop to play with (umbrellas are encouraged).
See you then!
isaac