The 14th day of Easter: Reconstruction. Reconciliation. Restoration.

4/3

Girl of Diamond Mountain crew: Caterina Bertolotto, video; Carman Moore and Lotte Arnsbjerg, creators; Kiori and Cara, choreograaphy and dance performance

I am working in my office. Hear the front door open and swing shut. Then I hear this voice from inside the sanctuary: Help! Help! I look I and see an old woman wandering around. 

Can I help you? I ask.

You find me hotel. For girls. Not like you boys. For girls. Her voice has a heavy, Eastern European sound.

There’s a hotel ring around the corner, on 87^th. Called the Belnord.
For girls? Hotel for girls? She is wearing thick bottlelens glasses with the kind of stick usually used by people with visual impairment.
Look I’m not going to find a hotel just for women.

You call. Find out how much cost.

I look up their number, meanwhile checking to see if the YWCA still has rooms for women. Or the 92^nd Street Y?  Starts around $70, I say. And she just looks at me.

I Jewish. I blind. I Israeli. I US citizen.

That doesn’t sound quite right to me. I’m trying to figure out her story.

Need special operation. For eyes.

Where have you been staying?

With friend. Jewish friend. But must get out. Find hotel. For girls.

I feel stumped. When I have a thought. It’s Saturday. Shabbat. People will be leaving services at the Orthodox Jewish Center soon.

Look, I say, there’s a synagogue just down the street, would you like to go?

Yes. Jewish. I go.

So I lead the little woman through the sanctuary. Out the 86^th street door. Down 86^th through the ever flowing stream of shul goers on their way home. Men in kippot, women in hats. And then we reach the Jewish Center. This is the Jewish Center, I say. Would you like  me to take you in?

No. I Jewish. Thank you. Thanks God. Thank you.

I walk back to the church alone.

Cara shows up shortly after. Digs in to help us get ready for tonight’s performance of Girl of Diamond Mountain.

                                                                     ****

I’m over at Columbus at Goddard-Riverside, our best partner for homeless work. Their annual Neighbor to Neighbor awards dinner. This year, the Interfaith Assembly is being honored for its Panim al Panim (Face to Face) program which works with homeless people for job readiness and has a mentor for each participant. We remain the only program in the city I know of  that actually helps people move out of homelessness and engages in policy change  advocacy as well.  I’m proud to continue to be part of what West-Park helped birth over 25 years ago. And I get a phone call.  Carman’s publicist has not shown up. There’s no one at the door. No one who knows the lights. So I take off down the street in the rain to help out.

Though not large, there’s an anxiously waiting audience in the sanctuary. Tonight Carman and Lotte have decided not to talk about the subject matter before. To just let it unfold. As I watch this performance, it feels different.  Still painful, but lighter somehow. Carman and Lotte interweaving, her voice softer in unexpected places. And it feels tighter. At the conclusion, the choreography has been changed. Kiori and Cara in a tableaux. Less pieta, more a sense of peaceful resolution. The child finally home. I feel that peace inside.

Two very different dancers.  Cara with her physical Graham rooted embodiment. Kiori with her almost zen like, ethereal deliberate, measured movement. The final scene stays with me.

My friends Beppe and Liljana have come. She was anxious about the subject matter, but the performance won her over.

Tonight's conversation

We gather for anther conversation.   Petah guides us again.  Tonight there are men who have lived through this experience. We explore the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation again. I quote my old colleague Milton, No hay reconciliacion sin reconstruccion: there is no reconciliation without reconstruction. And reconstruction begins with acknowledging, speaking, the truth.

This is not easy. Attendance has not been what we hoped for. There is a realization that for the average person, spending  a Saturday night exploring child sexual abuse may not be a first choice. This is not entertainment, it’s engagement. And for victims, most may not be ready to embrace or face this moment.Still, this is important work. About healing. Reconstruction. Restoration. 

Lotte, Bob, Carman

I want to talk with my friend Shannon. Our PCUSA national reconciliation catalyst (love that job title) when she gets back form Thailand and the Philippines and her work on child trafficking. This is important work. It will find its way.

Feels good to have a part in its development.

I stay around as Ben the sound guy breaks down his equipment, lugs Jeremy's amp back up to his 4th floor studio. Then he stops in. talk for awhile. There is something about sound guys....
It's late. Time to go home. 

Partners in collaboration

Fog lifted. Smoke cleared. Mist gone.

9/22

Shannon in our circle

The fog has lifted. Smoke cleared. Mist gone.

One of the first people I see is Jeffrey. Looking a bit anxious. Yes, it’s OK.

A distinguished African-American gentleman in a suit and tie waits for the service to begin. A couple waits too and then leaves. Our folks need to learn that when we get serious about expanding the circle, we’ve got to cover those 11 o’clock bases.

Special guest for the day in Shannon Beck, the PC(USA) reconciliation specialist. Once again a blessing to see Rachel here. Today I sing Jesus calls us o’er the tumult..had it give it a try. After the strangest of gospel readings, Luke 16: 1-13. I still don’t get the dishonest steward bit. We’d dig into that but...

My real agenda is to get folks to meet Shannon. Learn about her work. Hers is a new model for the church that is coming into being. Not a national program per se, not a top down implementation, but work rooted in listening. Trying to see what’s going on at the grass roots level and connecting people to people. (My mentor Philip always used to say that If God wants something to happen in this world, it’s already going on. Our job is to find it, call it forth, support it. That’s how he found me all those years ago in Tulsa. And what he did for me...).

She talks about the current focus on domestic violence and a nerve is touched. She has recently called together the folks in Louisville to see who’s doing what, including my community the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA), especially the  Presbyterians Against Domestic Violence Network (PADVN).

Yes,a nerve. I have a friend....And personal memories of abuse within the family. And stories of cries unheeded. Sounds we hope will stop. And cries answered only to have the violence turn outward. One of us was held at knife point for two hours last night. Had a computer,  lifeline to the outside world stolen. Can PDVN get me new computer?,she wants to know. Shannon gets that in this circle, domestic violence is not an issue, it is life lived. What connections can be made. 

After our dialogue, Shannon plays the same song she played for RL last night. Once she’s been on our circle, she’ll remain a part. Our prayers will go with her. 

Session meets after worship to review our various negotiations. How to keep all our family in the house. And how to manage all the work that needs to be finished before we can complete the deal. It’s hard. But the transition is beginning to be felt. 

It’s a bright,cool and beautiful first day of autumn.Fog lifted, smoke cleared, mist gone.