Living in coronavirusworld 36: We are all learning

4/28

Love

A beautiful sunny spring day….

 I go to check out the food program at Wadleigh High School, just across the street from me.  Originally designed to replace the school lunch program for this whose only melas came from school, Wadleigh is  providing breakfast and lunch for any on the neighborhood who need. 

Free meals

A long talk with my friend and colleague Jane Galloway who shared the West Park building and ministry with me through some of the most challenging times.  She is the author of The Gateways, The Wisdom of 12 Step Spirituality: Dynamic Practices that Work. (https://www.janegalloway.com/blog/2016/12/5/the-gateways-the-wisdom-of-12-step-spirituality-audio ). Starting with the proven success of the 12 step approach to addiction, Dr. Galloway recognizes that AA can sometimes, despite its openness, feel too much like the evangelical Christian culture from which it was born.  She is able to bring her broad and inclusive spirituality, informed and accessible theological approach and years of practical ministerial experience to bear on developing personal pathways to spiritual growth.  Raised Presbyterian, ordained Assemblies of God, licensed United Churches of Christ and experienced in New Thought, she has literally been there. But for me, she’s mainly a friend. Someone to explore issues of forgiveness and reconciliation with. Someone who’s been there.

I meet with musical colleagues on ZOOM to talk about my “Lockdown Showcase” scheduled for Thursday night.

My first ZOOM show

Although we frequently perform as a band, tomorrow night we’ll need to be together alone. We will need it keep it simple.  I’ve been struggling with internet issues, my audio breaking up. Endless buffering. Sometimes service drops. I call Spectrum  and somehow manage to get through and they can actually send someone. One thing I could not do without in this pandemic is internet service at home. I can’t do a show under these circumstances. A tech support worker comes to my house.  And it seems to work. We’ll see.

I walk in the Park. Enjoy the sun. The flowers.

in the park

Sit and talk with my mom.  Mainly about my (great)  Uncle John Laird,  who for over 50 years served as Pastor of the Frankford Presbyterian Church in what was one suburban but is now urban Philadelphia. My mom wonders if the church is still open. I d some research and find amazingly, thanks to an endowment started by my Uncle John, the church still open. And engaged in a neighborhood to him on his 50th anniversary now sits in my dining room. 

Presbytery General Cabinet is working on how to facilitate it’s first all virtual meeting. This will be a first.  We all are learning.

Days 9 and 10 of Easter: Communists. Landmarking. Homeless.

4/28

A very quiet day. From the sanctuary, I hear Karen in deep concentration as she plays the piano, singing her own songs. She is not conscious of anything else, her voice rising, dancing with the notes flowing from her fingers.

On my way to midtown to experience Jane’s new venture, T.R.I.B.E.: Transformation, Realization, Inspiration, Belonging, Expression. (www.tribealive.com)

4/29

Haven’t seen Jamie in a long time. She’s in to see Danielle with another possibility. She doesn’t give up. Even when she feels like it’s long past enough. It’s been over a month. I don’t have much time. Conversation not easy.

The Revolutionary Communists have been all over the place all day. Planning, strategizing their upcoming event. Very particular, middle aged, fastidious women. Media people come later. They’re negotiating a deal with Marc. Their program will be where we are in the Revolution. They could be a subcommittee of the Landmarks activists or the Central Park  Conservancy though they sincerely believe themselves to be the vanguard of the coming Revolution.

Clergy friends gather to meet with city council member Helen Rosenthal and enter into a dialogue around landmarking. Something downtown has necessitated her having to cancel. Some of my colleagues have a cynical response to this news.

Even though he’s been here 5 years, Father Larry from Holy Name has not heard all the stories we have about landmarking. All I was told is that councilmember Brewer made promises and you got landmarked and the money never came, he says.

Long story short. I say. Then I  tell him the long one.  Pastor K from SPSA has his story to. His journey went all the way up to the Supreme Court who finally decided not to hear the case. Their vitality and presence is both a tribute to their creativity and passion and the presence of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in their building. And Pastor Alistair and Rev. Peggy now feel themselves in the crosshairs.

Our conversation soon turns to our relationships with the homeless people of our neighborhood. West End has no issue, they are surrounded by iron fence and gates.  Holy Name has recently closed their steps after a slashing incident. There has been increasing violence. But the chains across the steps bother him deeply. Pastor K closed his steps after someone tried to set fire to the church doors.(They've left their affidavit that allows the police to move people on lapse. Must be renewed with the attorney general every six months.)  Good to know I am not alone here. We all agree that in the late years of Bloomberg’s luxury city, things got rougher. More violent and intransigent. We all, however, are boundlessly thankful for the work of Goddard’s Project Outreach and their success in getting people housed.  We couldn’t do it without them.

On the other hand, I am comforted to know that Father Larry has had his own confrontations with the Midnight  Run folks who for all their good intentions  don’t realize that they often create scenes at the churches they visit that they leave for us to deal with. Father Larry has permanently banned them from Holy Name. If only they’d consult with us, have some  dialogue, work with us, not think they know it all because they deliver clothing  and sandwiches. They don’t live here. With the homeless. We do.

Liberal romanticization of homelessness does little to change anything for the individual homeless person/object of charity or our city in its failure to respond politically. Yes, they bring a sense of cheer, of caring, of compassion. But action without reflection is ultimately an exercise in self-gratification.  

Creativity is resistance

7/15

Jane and I meet at Starbucks (adjunct office 2 or 3). We like the sense of a growing shared ministry in the neighborhood.  Talk about the service she and I and Jeremy could create for Wednesday nights.

Back at the office, just a short break before heading to talk to a couple about a wedding. Then, back again, way too much to do in way too little time. Press blurbs, contracts, church growth strategy, Sunday service....


Deacon James walks in. How's he doing? Better than yesterday. Another day at the hospital. More chemo. Says he needs a senior legal specialist. Why? After 50 years, a medical DNA test for his son revealed that he is not the father, biologically speaking. 50 years made him the real father. A shock to his sense of reality. Doesn't change love, but there are Social Security implications. Who can help? Tough question. Legal Aid came up short. Maybe WSSFSH can help? See you Sunday, he says, and is gone. 

An issue. Leila has come in. She and Berik filled the walls of Mc Alpin Hall with art from their New York Realists group, to add beauty during our concert series. Hoping for an exrtended run, a real opening, etc. Now Woodshed has converted the space into a work shop. The hall will soon be converted into a Parisian cafe and courtyard.  Lack of communication re. expectations, needs, etc. Not good. Will have to work this out.

I go to look for Stephen. He’s in the backyard. A young woman from the Times is interviewing he and Teddy. Stephen introduces us. She asks me why the church would want a secular theatre group to take over so much space, for so long a time. I talk about how we were closed. The beauty of the counterintuitivity of urban homesteading in your own home, raw urban space in a gentrified neighborhhood. The vision of the Center, reintroducing the space to the community, the city. It’s four sectors of intersecting activity: arts and culture, intergenerational education, social change and spirituality. How the church always worked to live at the intersection of beauty and justice, ethics and esthetics. 

She says she doesn’t see much social content. Teddy speaks of wonder, bringing awe back to a deadened culture. The spirituality of that task. Stephen of the interaction between audience and physical space, what this building is ontologically, a church. And I speak of 9-11, my experience of the power of negation, destruction, death, non-being. And my realization that creativity, participating in the ongoing work of creation, of re-creation is an act of resistance against those powers. 

Back upstairs, Leila has been joined by Hope. We talk about where communications broke down, what we we need to do better. We can work this out.  Enough for today.