We need not think alike to love alike

10/25

The day begins with Kimberley. She shares with me that her Unitarian roots go back not only to 19th century New England but to 16th Century Romania an the court of King John Sigismund whose preacher Frances David preached  We need not think alike to love alike.

I share our conversation with Jane about relating to the New Thought religious movement. How they are not faith communities per se, but communities of faith practice with no commonly held theology but a shared practice. And that is why collaboration has been difficult to define. The interfaith project, as we have experienced it, has been predicated on relationships between/among particularities. For theologians like James Cone and Gustavo Gutierrez, this is a dialectical relationship. For Sharon Welch, it becomes more a multilectic (my word). 

In community’s like Sanctuary NYC, that encounter is already taking place internally as the community seeks to live out its life inter and intrafaith.  This would seem to call for new models of collaboration. 

KImberley’s focusing her energy on planning  next weeks’ read through of the Book of Revelation.

Martin continues to be anxious about our contract. Soledad has spent the day working with the Ukrainian Figure Skating team attempting to help them take flamenco onto ice through their skates. This is not easy.

Crisis. Someone has told our attorney that we have  serious structural and systems issues. That it is surprising we haven’t been shut down. That it will cost millions simply to be safe. And that he has ethical concerns being involved.

As angry as this makes me, I have to focus. Call on Ann Friedman of the Landmarks Conservancy who crafts a detailed e-mail reviewing the Matthew Gottsegen 10 year plan, the priorities for restoration, etc. But most importantly, that after dozens of investigations, no report has ever suggested that there were serious structural and systems issues and that it would be a waste of time and money to redo what has already been done. 

Of course it takes another high level meeting to resolve this, but Ann’s report does what is needed. Negotiations back on track. But why does this happen? What end is served  in seeking to derail our project? I don’t have time to engage in that analysis.

I’m late for our Interfaith Assembly meeting and a conversation with RL.

Back at the church, there’s someone new at the piano. Kara from Queens. The smile, the laugh, the familiarity just a little too intense. But she plays the Beckstein well. 

The St. Agnes boys are hard at work. Marc wants to get to the sermon recordings. martin is anxious. RL is waiting.....

Unconditional affirmation

10/15

Mim brings Pipp by. Grew up in the neighborhood, just a block or so away. Trained in theatre and music. Just back from years in Paris. Interested in doing a theatre/music piece on a scene from Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. Could this be the right place? We do the tour and look at all the possibilities.

While I’m finishing with Mim, RL pops his head in to make sure we know about his anniversary celebration tomorrow. Thirty-six years, I think.

Jane and Karen and Lynn are arriving for our sit down meeting. Jeremy will arrive shortly thereafter and Mim from the Center and Marsha and Hope from West-Park. Peter Matthews, a United Methodist (formerly African Methodist Episcopal) pastor from Cincinnati, and for just one among so many other things, most recently author of Dreaming With Audacity: King, Obama and Me, is joining us as a participant/observer to reflect on what he sees. He's committed to the uniqueness of urban spirituality, Thurmond, King. 

I set up the conversation. Ever since Jane first showed up here over a year ago, she has expressed a keen interest in the vision of the Center and a consistently expressed openness, desire, for collaboration. I have always felt that connection, but have been unsure what to do with it. And the congregation has not felt it, while liking the Sanctuary folk as people who share our space.

Mim asks the tough questions both about faith and function. As  I ask it, on what does Sanctuary hang together?  And what kind of organization, institution are we working with?

So we hear Jane’s journey. Raised Presbyterian. Left over PCUSA exclusion of LGBTQ people. (Though ironically, her brother Paul, openly gay ministry candidate, stayed.) Her life on stage and screen. Her journey as a white woman through the AME church, then Claremont Theology School and ultimately the United Church of Christ. LA. Coming to Sacred Center. Coming to worship and feel safe at West-Park. The end of Sacred Center, the birth of Sanctuary. Finding Jeremy at West-Park. (Still wish I had the money to keep him with us...)

And Sacred Center’s place within these new categories of Interfaith/Intrafaith, New Thought, Religious Science... all on the peripheral edges of our awareness, understanding. On that level, contemplating partnerships with Muslims is easier. 

Of course the by now usual discussion of religious vs. spiritual comes up and I share the roots of religion, in the word for ligaments. Religion is re-knitting the ligaments. We can  spiritual alone. But religion requires a community. And we all seem to long for community. Which I find the most sacred.  I also share some thoughts on the theology of built environment, the theological meaning of what, why and how we build. 

Somehow I left out what Sekou calls organic theology. Well, maybe only in word. I do talk about location, community as calling, not circumstance. And for all the Upper West Side gentrification, we are just around the corner from an SRO and there are public housing projects just up the street. The poor and marginal cannot be invisible. We have to a place where people meet, where paths cross.

Peter helps us find places of connection. The Center must get its 501c3 act together, for starters. But the common areas begin to emerge.

Martin has stuck his head in and out and now pulls me out to meet his friend Wendy, an actress, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He’s led the tour. I give the Center vision rap. I can see something here is peeking her curiosity. What can we do to continue the conversation?

My friend Diana, a journalist with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, has arrived with two friends from the  Lower East Side. We shared a circle in Tulsa, though not at the same time. She got me writing again with her 'zine, started in the midst of a newspaper strike, the Recession Supper Digest. (.http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=1993(0213&id=eIRIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=x24DAAAAIBAJ&pg=1740,4530613 )

We share passions for the Pirates, good beers, Nicaragua and good soups in cold weather. (Not to mention she plays a mean set of spoons.) I do my tour then we retire to the B.

I carry with me our conversation about Dan Allen, the former priest who founded Neighbor for Neighbor in Tulsa. His contempt for liberals, unrequited passion for justice for the poor, making his place one where it was considered an honor to be accepted as a volunteer. And famous for the strategy of when resources grow short, increase services. His philosophy was imply stated: unconditional affirmation of the person and Give a damn.  It was my knowing him that made know that leaving the basement of SPSA and sweeping the steps everyday was the right thing to do. It’s a reminder to stay true to what is authentic and right. 

(http://danallencenter.org/)

Dumplings in a dream

8/22

Some days...we wait all day long...waiting for the word...a day late...but...we’re sure ...but...

The text comes from Jamie....They have decided not to proceed....There’s supposed to be an explanatory e-mail coming...I call...the funder wants to raise money to buy, not lease....I try to explain that the idea itself was so right, so necessary to the moment...can we be creative, can we......  Answers are inconclusive.

The Session meeting we had called to discuss the deal will now have to have another purpose. My heart is sinking. 

Steve drops by. He has completed his report on social media. OK, we’ll still discuss it. I’m having trouble focusing. 

Outside, Edward is asleep on the steps. Not today. I tell him he’s got to go. He stands. Wavering back and forth. And goes.

The full session arrives. Anxious for news. I’ve only begun to explain the situation when I realize that it’s time for Steve’s presentation. He’s prepared slides. A power point. Very professional presentation. So we break off our conversation. Hear the presentation. The Session is impressed. We’ll have to form a committee. Now back to the matter at hand...

There is disappointment. As to the bigger picture, there is some denial. But mainly acceptance. It would be easy to throw in the towel, but....Hugo is adamant that we need to go back to the community. Politicians. Promises, made, still unfulfilled. Our position has not changed from our first negotiations. What we needed then, we still need. The missing bridge has never materialized. That has to be made clear. We need to shake every tree. Follow up every lead that’s been out there. And it must be done. Fast. The sands in the hourglass....

I remember an old Yiddish proverb, dumplings in a dream are a dream, not dumplings.

8/23

Nate is hard at work with Martin. I’m trying to swing back into action after yesterday’s disappointment. The Center Board wants to see if something significant might be salvageable.  The vision was that important. 

I’m on the phone again. 

RL and Michael his attorney are at RL’s office. (The Gate.) I go to join them to talk about how to secure a space for RL to have his studio/rehearsal space. Since yesterday, that’s now easier. Sadly. But RL’s another piece of the puzzle. Wish the rest would fall into place. And I’m anxious for him to get his open mic night started. I need to play. 

The off to see the Private Theatre Company’s production of Strindberg’s Playing  With Fire at a SOHO club. The play was prepared at West-Park, the young cast lunching in the steps every day. Their trailer filled with West-Park (uncredited) and Berik’s painting, amazingly fitting. Somehow the title is also fitting.

The video:

http://www.theprivatetheatre.org/what-were-doing/productions

When I stop by after the play, Rachelle is there. And Damaris. And two shiny smiling young people. Rachelle is going  about these marvelous beautiful young people. Turns out they're from one of those churches that causes (for us) brand confusion, don't ordain women and certainly don't welcome gays. I still don't get it. Rachelle is going on and on. No, not tonight.

8/24

Last day before going back home for a few days. Trying to keep my spirits up. Melisa will come back from her time away to further develop her proposal. Upset to find two men I don’t know asleep on the steps. And it’s after noon. I tell them they’ll have to leave. Call Teddy. 

He’s been working straight through, his city job, West-Park, Martin. he needed a break. Slept in. He’ll get the place in shape by tomorrow. Handle the theatre benefit tomorrow night.  Steven comes in to get the keys. To open up for Sunday. Get the church set up. He’s also practicing the music. The bulletins are done.

Jeremy rehearsing with two musicians for his upcoming gig.

Meet Jane for coffee. Still wrestling with what true collaboration would look like. How West-Park would pair with her New Thought faith community.  New thought but ancient wisdom. Roots in the gnostics but also Mary Baker Eddy, Norman Vincent Peale. Religious science.  There is an international Association for Global New Thought. But Jane is really creating something uniquely her, with strong roots in AME, UCC....Interfaith, intraspiritual, with a social ethic....The clearer w are about our vision, the easier that could be. I understand the intuitive more than the programmatic. She says, you'll know by doing...

Barely enough time to get home an change before meeting Katherine. See Edward heading towards the steps. Can’t deal with this now. 

Twenty-first day of Lent: Follow the light, not the lantern

4/1

Cold rain falling. Walking down Amsterdam to the church, my head is still swimming from my travel from  Louisville to Cincinnatti to Philadelphia to La Guardia today. But more so the the General Assembly Mission Council meeting I just left. It’s clear that the sense of crisis has truly been absorbed by this national body of decision makers. Words like radical change, risk taking,boundary crossing have become the working vocabulary. Programs like New Directions have been launched to help congregations assess where they are and envision a a new future. Or death and rebirth. Of course we all agree that strong and healthy congregations are the base for all else must grow. But what is, who defines, a healthy congregation?

Yet our goals and priorities remain general, non-specific and mushy. (Except for a pledge to add 1001 new faith communities. But how?) Although a New Form of Government, ending the exclusion of lgbtq leadership and approving the Belhar Confession all will add up to a new church, what does that new church actually look like, feel like? How do we bring it about?  It’s one thing to talk about coffee shops and tatoo parlors. But what will we do there when we go there? Does anyone know what radical change really is? How we actually  connect with those who have  been hurt, wounded by the church? Our own children? 

How can we continue to maintain a hierarchical corporate form of ecclesiology and at the same time honor Belhar with its call to reconciliation,peace and justice? And even more specifically, as Belhar states:

*  that the church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering and need, which implies, among other things, that the church must witness against and strive against any form of injustice, so that justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream;

• that the church as the possession of God must stand where the Lord stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.

In a world where both conservatives and liberals continue  act as if those with money and numbers know best for everyone, where specifics of budget and program are always to be left to the executive branch, we are living cognitive dissonance as the church that was collapses around us. My guess is that what God wants to be done is already happening . It’s our job to discern  and foster, nourish, support. 

That’s all in my head as I meet Jane Galloway at Popover’s. My own age, she has the shine of a professional actress, which she is. First production of Vanities off Broadway.  She smiles when I say Go MEAT, and she knows I know the play well. Yes, that shining quality, but also a toughness that comes from walking a long journey. With  years engaged in all the struggles that  have defined our years. Which ultimately are the same struggle. 

We share Pittsburgh roots. That reoccurring connection with Portland. And more. She has lived her life as a Presbyterian child and as an adult minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church  (that’s right) and the United Church of Christ. Her mom still a Presbyterian in Portland, a brother who has been barred from called PCUSA ministry by virtue of Amenment B. Tried to create and live out a vision like mine in Long Beach, California and now has been called as Spiritual Director of the Sacred Center, a new thought congregation that worships at SPSA, where  we lived for three years. 

She shares their story birthed by a charismatic leader. Quickly attracting lgbtq folks wounded by traditional church.  You are amazing, you are beautiful, just as you are, was the much longed for message.  And their children. And African-American women blocked out of leadership in traditional churches.  And a vibrant gospel choir. Now in their second stage of life post founder, they called an actual seminary educated ordained pastor see if they can become a real congregation.

Our visions are very much the same. Especially as to what our centre could be, the kind of place it could be.  From my left wing reformed position, I agree when  she quotes the Bahai idea that we should worship the light and not the lantern. How often do we make that mistake? 

I am excited about the idea of collaboration. But have questions. How does a new thought congregation and a community committed to following in the path of Jesus collaborate?  She speaks of Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s mentor, who combined mysticism and social activism. Who said that following  the path of Jesus  was ultimately more important than believing any  doctrinal theological propostion. What do we have to offer that they don’t? To those wounded by the church? Would we be overwhelmed by their size? Are such communities a witness to what we have ignored around us?  How can we be partners in a common  vision, if that vision is a common one? More questions than answers. But worth pursuing.