Reflections on Marissa's memorial

11/3

Russ and I go to lunch to talk about the upcoming dialogue  between Bob Avakian and Cornell West at Riverside Church. The dialogue between revolutionary Christianity and Revolutionary Communism. ( An effort to establish BA as a public intellectual. The dialogue with Cornell West giving a sense of public legitimacy ) Seems like a perfect time to invite those who are interested in this dialogue to come to West-Park to work on creating a community inspired by that dialogue. A place to explore radical spirituality, radical discipleship. I’m going to work of putting this into words. Making the invitation.

Karen is playing her music. And has a contractor friend who wants to look into the pigeon tower clean up project.

The Revolutionary Communists are busy as worker bees using Mc Alpin as their command central as they work on getting the word out about the dialogue. A real dedicated and highly organized cadre.

Tom Bo is in and we’re working on the music for the November 23^rd Sunday concert and service. He’s got a new poem inspired by the Matthew 25 theme that comes on Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday. By the same young poet who wrote the Prophecy from the Refrigerator Box poem. And the music is emerging.

Finally get to talk with Jeremy and the Seed group about their experience with Marissa’s memorial service. How they had been called and asked to help organize something. Their presence as a community in a  spiritual setting inspired the call. Jeremy’s theatre experience in theatre gave him confidence in organizing a liturgy. And the Grotowski experience helped see the deeper connections. And the group saw an opportunity to serve. Their own unique practice gave them the opportunity for others to actually participate through movement and song in the memorial. To be physically and spiritually engaged. I explained that this was liturgy. Mario had said that these songs have a purpose. And the group had discovered their purpose.

Two members were part of religious communities, one Episcopalian, the other Unitarian. I talked about the liturgical significance of the popcorn and prosecco eucharist and their breaking of bread following the service, which was a service to the gathered community. And the offerings of music and word that so many brought.  And my interest in nurturing  new communities of spiritual practice. And how they are becoming one.

One woman said that she was surprised that a church would open itself up for this kind of event by a group not members of the church. And at no charge. And that when I said, that’s why we are here, all of a sudden she realized, I am affiliated here. I am part of this. This is my (spiritual) home. Heads nodded in agreement. And I spoke of my desire to create a community of communities. And that nearly 1200 people from around the world had read about Marissa’s memorial.

The conversation will continue.

...and you even get free music...

10/13/14

Jeremy G and Rishika stop in before their open choir to talk a bit about Marissa’s memorial. Rishika had a perspective I had not thought about. Marissa’s death was a tragic event for their small community. They took on the role of organizing and producing the time of grieving and remembrance for what turned out to be a very large group of people. Who needed to be together. Nevertheless, in some ways, it prevented the community from dealing with its own grief. Rishika’s own needs were  subsumed in the needs of the larger group. So there remains work to be done. Jeremy is still somewhat amazed at how this all came together and is sorting out its meaning. I look forward to talking with the Seed Group and processing this more. Questions for building a community.

The Session meets to review the latest news which seems to throw all the puzzle pieces into the air again. We need to keep in front of us all the work that is moving forward, the reconstruction ready to begin. Need to keep our eyes on possibility.

Upstairs in the Papp (balcony) theatre, Jessica’s production of Brian Friel’s Lovers has its opening night.

10/14/14

Stephanie J is a friend of Jeremy M. She’s looking for some space to hold some small choir rehearsals for a new project she’s working on. Turns out she has had some Grotowski theatre training as well. During Occupy, she collaborated with Jeremy trying to create chants and songs that could unite people while in the midst of demos and marches. She’s working on song as a force to unite people in work for social change. Creating then new world we are working on creating. Or at least new reality. She spent most of last year doing a series of house concert/conversation events across the country around issues of lgbtq inclusion. Her partner has moved on so the next step is still coming into view. (You can check out her work here: http://www.stephaniejohnstone.com/) I take the time to give her the full West-Park tour because I want her to understand what this place is and has been. And that what she is working on s very much at the center of what we are working for. So we’re talking about a trade of rehearsal space and time for sharing her work in worship and/or in other ways. I feel like this is a beginning of a conversation. Or another part of the conversation.

Karen is back from Hawaii. We haven’t seem her in awhile. She’s in the sanctuary,playing music. As she plays a piece from the classical piano canon, I say to Charles, …and you even get free music..He and Leila are hard at work on getting a grant proposal done.

Pat O is in and there is a lot of clean up work to be done in the wake of a city decision. Carefully. Very carefully.

Jessica stops in. The first night of Lovers went very well. She’s heard that the theatre she’s working in was created by Joseph Papp and is blown away to learn that it’s true. I share with her the whole story of Papp’s Shakespeare Center. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shakespeare_Center) Pieces of the Helen Hayes Theatre and the set of the Royal Shakespeaere Company’s Nicholas Nickleby went into building this theatre, later excavated and resurrected byteh Frog&Peach Theatre Company. (http://frogandpeachtheatre.org/) I look forward to seeing her production.

Marissa Provenza: just people she loved...

10/6

Thanks to my cousin Suzanne and her son Gordon, we are able to quickly replace the stolen computer. Family, extended communities, that keeps us going.

The police come to interview me about the old one, the one that’s gone. Two uniformed police. Male and female. Friendly. I tell the story again. Slowly. For the third or fourth time. And yes, we are working on the security cameras.  Saturday, I visited the precinct detective squad and spent an hour going through mug shots on a computer. Pretty depressing. Went through nearly 500 photos. All looking, angry, anxious, depressed, defiant, broken or….Only 3 or 4 were maybes, the other hundreds clearly no. But the faces haunted me.  RL, of course asked me, what did I expect? Smiles?

Geoffrey is asking for a blanket. It’s getting cold out.

Jeremy and Anthony are the first to arrive to start putting things together for Marissa’s memorial service. Marc has quickly agreed to do the sound on short notice...

                                                           * * * *

Marissa

Marissa Provenza was a  member of the Seed Group. She came every Monday to sing with the Work Center Seed Group singers. They gathered to sing the African -American and southern white songs that are the roots of spirituals and gospel. They said she didn’t want to sing out too much, but everyone heard her voice, felt her presence. She died last week, suddenly. Unexpectedly. Tragically.

Jeremy G contacted me about the group coming together to plan a memorial service for her. Could they use the sanctuary? 
Of course. That’s why we’re here. 
The Seed Group is part of the family.  They’ve asked me to open and close the service. As people enter, they plan on people being greeted with a eucharist of  popcorn and prosecco. There will be a slide show. Music. Later, a video. And a potluck following.

As we are preparing, the parents arrive. From Florida. They tell me they were raised Catholics but became Christians in the ‘90’s. Today they are more spiritual than religious, but they assure me that Marissa knew Jesus.  More an affirmation of who she is than any thought that I needed to know that.

The people keep coming in, the pews keep filling.  The numbers are moving to me. Most from that 25-40 age group. Many from the circle of communal community houses in Bed-Stuy where she lived.

I’m paying attention to details. The altar.

The altar

Photos. Flowers, Remembrances. Poems. A small Mexican craneo. A San Lazaro candle from Latino popular culture. Votives.

Time to begin. I share some traditional words. ….my peace I leave with you…not as the world gives…blessed are those who mourn…for they shall be comforted.. Welcome them all, say that as her voice sang in these walls, it is still here. As theirs will be. And I quote the Dead:

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice come through the music
Would you hold it near as it were your own?
It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken 
Perhaps they're better left unsung
I don't know, don't really care 
Let there be songs to fill the air

And said may your songs, your words, your prayers, fill this air…

I listen closely over the next two hours. To the original songs. The deep, probing spiritual questions they ask, affirmations they make. The poems, spoken word offerings.  One of her favorites, Don Mc Lean’s Castles in the Air.  A singer breaking down, unable to finish Leonard Cohen’s Bird on a Wire. ... and I swear by this song, and by all...by all.... A rousing group sing of another of her favorites, the praise song, Our God is an Awesome God:

Our God(our God) is an awesome God
He reigns(He reigns) from heaven above
With wisdom(with wisdom) pow'r and love
our God is an awesome God…

Testimony after testimony to a woman who embodied unconditional love. No acquaintances, they said, just people she loved. Who drew the bitter and cynical in from the edges. People who knew they had been loved.

The parents were amazed by the number of people. The life of their daughter given witness to.

I been changed...

The Seed Group gathers in a circle, takes off their shoes…starts to sing, I been changed….and the circle grows and the dance goes round and hands clap in rhythm, voices raised in harmony…

And then it’s my turn again. I begin with the  23rd psalm. The Lord is my shepherd... I was expecting a lot of why to be in the air, so I spoke of how my good friend Father John says it remains a mystery. And that at moments like these, God is shocked, surprised. But that he is equally sure that God is there on the other side, waiting with open arms to say, Welcome home with a warm embrace…I say the traditional words of commendation, …ashes to ashes, dust to dust…yet even at the grave…alleluia, alleluia, alleluia….

The chanters come forward, including some who sang Awesome God with one hand upraised, kneel before the altar, Nam myoho renge kyo, nam myoho renge kyo…until a bell is rung…

Anthony, who has been painting throughout the memorial, shares his finished work with Marissa's father.

Anthony's painting

And then, as people move to embrace each other, a lone harmonica plays Amazing grace….

People join together in the breaking of bread. Sharing of food from vegan to barbecue ribs.

Hold your life dear. Live your life. Love your life...
In the name of the living one who created us, Jesus the human one who walks with us as brother,companion and guide, and the wild and untamed holy spirit that sustains us, Amen…

                                         

                                                             ****

I was moved by what they had woven together from who they are. From their souls. Uncensored. Unfiltered. Unmediated. I was ready for why, but not so much of that. Yes, profound sadness. For some unspeakable grief. And the inevitable anger. But more acceptance than why. With all that accepting that means.

These 200 or so young people were for this night a true spiritual community. And my question of course, is who am I? Who are we, as church, in relation to this reality? Do we have any other role than that of a chaplaincy of accompaniment? Do they need anything from us other than a space to be together? Why was it important to be in a holy space? A church? What do we have to offer? All I know is it begins with presence….

After Mario and the Grotowski Work Center brought the Seed group into being, and Mario returned to Italy, I challenged Jeremy

Jeremy

and the group to see if there was a true community in formation. They have done that, rooted in song and spirit. My challenge has been to see where that can go..

I’m thinking of my conversation with Kristen Leigh…so why do we need church? And her answer, It comes down to what’s there when the shit hits the fan…what can I count on….The Seed Group met that challenge.

Again, what is the call here? All I know is that it begins with presence…

                                       ****

Interfaith Assembly pin

Uh, thanks for Ripple, someone says, that blew me away...
Pretty close to perfect lines, I say. Outside on the steps, a neighbor is talking to one of the friends. He’d seen an open door, walked in to

see what was going on. Another I’ve lived here for years, never been inside before's….The friend says, This place is coming back…he points to my Interfaith Assembly pin with the four quadrants, cross, crescent, Buddha, star of David…that’s it, he says….

I’m concerned about the clean up, the remains of the potluck. I see Jeremy. He says, I was worried too, but Marissa believed strongly in recycling, in respecting the environment. Her friends got this covered…

Pat O has stopped by. He looks on, intrigued.