West Park and Landmarking: My testimony

 6/16

West Park Church

The issue of West Park Presbyterian Church, a church I led for 22 years.. and landmarking is once again before the city. It's been an ongoing twisting, turning struggle. And this time, like Yogi said, deja vu all over again. I find the acrimony and accusations pointless and unhelpful. Sooner or later we've got to find a way to work together. After holding back from public comment, I finally submitted a statement to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.  Here is that statement...

To the Landmarks Commission

I am writing to you as the former Pastor of West Park Presbyterian Church and the current Moderator of New York City Presbytery. I have not until this point spoken publicly about the hardship petition of West Park to remove the landmarks designation of its building because I have relationships with and profound respect for persons on both sides of this issue. This issue is not new. It has been going on for over 30 years. However, through the public hearings and other presentations  over the last several weeks the amount of misinformation has grown to the point where I must respond. The Commission needs to make its decision based on accurate information.

In our faith tradition, erecting a building is never an end to itself but a means to living out its mission. Throughout the life of a congregation, that must always be its purpose. When a government imposes a landmarks status on a building without also providing means of funding the maintenance of that building, it forces a congregation to devote its resources to the preservation of a building not its primary mission. This in essence  violates  the First Amendment  allowing the government to, in effect,  determine the mission of a church.  To state it most graphically, government does not have the right to require a church to give up its life to preserve a building. If a community has determined that a building is an essential part of its cultural heritage, that community has an ethical obligation to support that preservation.

These are the most egregious misunderstandings:

1. That West Park has done nothing to preserve the building.

      West Park returned to a badly damaged building due to a broken pipe water flow that had gone on for 8 days from the top floor down to the bottom.  The congregation bravely worshipped  in a building with no heat and no restrooms. West Park has spent over a half million dollars to maintain and restore the building.  This required selling of the Pastor’s home and ultimately, necessitating the retirement of the Pastor. The church has spent down to its last penny to preserve this building. 

2. Following landmarking and the promise of financial help from local politician and knowing that government could not fund churches, the church, with interested community members founded the Center as its own 501c3. It was to be not just an “arts center” but a community center dedicated to the transformation of the individual and society through arts and culture, intergenerational education, social action and spiritual exploration, in collaborative partnership with the church. The Center was an outreach creation of the Church.

3. The most well noted productions at West Park were church productions, not Center productions. 

4. Over the last ten years, the church has repeatedly sought to find a significant partner for the building. The church secured a real estate person expressly for that purpose. There were several potential partnerships reaching serious levels of negotiation and development. These included a synagogue, a  significant Muslim civic association, two major dance companies and a theater company. All backed out over the costs of renovation that would have been required. West Park never stopped seeking a partner. 

5.  Our time at St. Paul and St.Andrews was not because the building was no longer safe. We left on a Friday in May 2008 because a redevelopment project was set to begin the following Friday. Late in the day, a council member put in a stop work order. Even though we had the necessary paper work done in 48 hours, it took 18 months to clear DOB.  At that point, the landmarking  process had begun and the development partner abandoned the project.

6.  As to the diminuation of the congregation, on the one hand, it’s certainly part of national trends. On the other hand, this building issue has undeniably had a great impact. As it began, we were actually growing  dramatically  in membership. Seeking solutions led to internal struggles and over the years, the never ending dominance of building issues over everything else had a very negative effect on members. The struggle to keep the building going exhausted many people emotionally and spiritually.  People left.

Nevertheless, a determined dozen or so has continued in weekly worship, Bible Study and hosting a most popular weekly open mic at the Church.

7.  New York City Presbytery is not wealthy. It has had to drastically reduce its staff and office space. Its 88 churches have  12000 members in 88 churches, over half of whom belong to only 5 churches. Over 40, especially in black and  brown neighborhoods, cannot afford a pastor. The pandemic years have eliminated rental and offering income pushing many churches to the brink of extinction.  The vision is to give West Park an opportunity to be reborn and further to seed selfdevelpment projects  throughout the 5 boroughs as a true extension of the legacy of this congregation over the years.

In conclusion, it is your duty to determine if West Park has met the legal requirements for hardship relief. If you determine that it has, so be it. Then rule as such). But if not, you have the moral and ethical responsibility to do everything in your power to encourage and facilitate the necessary  collaboration for a realistic and sustainable solution.

The you for your consideration 

Sincerely

Rev. Dr. Robert Brashear

Moderator, New York City Presbytery

Pastor Emeritus West Park Presbyterian Church

Reply Reply All Forward

Seventh Sunday in Easter: ...that they may be one...

 5/29

Memorial Day Weekend at Good Shepherd-Faith

On this holiday weekend, I am live and in person  at Good Shepherd Faith Church near Lincoln Center,  At GSF, covid is still an issue .  People are masked and sitting socially distant. My friend Chris who was going to translate my sermon into Korean for me has now been hit by Covid and will not be with me. In fact, the congregation is nearly all Korean today.  I will depend on the Spirit for getting us through...here's what I had to say.....

It’s good to be with you on this Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start to summer.  And this seventh Sunday in Easter, our seven week journey through Eastertide almost complete and Pentecost Sunday, just over the horizon next Sunday. It’s good to  be here.

It’s been a hard week. Not sure why it hit me so hard this time. I mean, according to the Washington Post there’s been 229  school shootings since Colombine.  185 people killed, 369 injured.  Over 311,000 children have experienced mass shootings at their schools. But still….something about Uvalde really got to me. 19 elementary school students.  19 elementary school students. Two young teachers. One’s husband dies of a heart attack when he heard the news. The New York Times printed all their pictures. And their stories. To remind us of the uniqueness of each, that each was a person with a present and a future, a future taken away, not to  be lived. 

And despite our outcries, our thoughts and prayers, these shootings have become an accepted, almost expected part of our life.  Guns are now the largest cause of death for children according to the CDC. In 2020, over 4500 alone..  

Just a week to so ago I was angry over another domestic terrorist shooting  in Buffalo.  

Through all of this, our politicians seem powerless to do anything to stop the madness. The particularly American form of madness  that almost declares occasional massacres of children is an acceptable  price to pay for our freedom to carry automatic weapons around.

As George Carlin once said, as long as you’re in the womb, we’ll keep you safe, but once you’re out, you’re by God on your own. 

So here we are. We’ve had these last seven weeks to reflect on the life of the risen Jesus with us.  And now a few weeks getting prepared for his physical absence.  Already, Thursday was Ascension Day, what we used to, remembering the Girls Scouts, jokingly refer to as Fly Up Day. And might I add  parenthetically that I found  it interesting  that in modern secular European societies like Denmark and Germany, Ascension Day, or in German, Himmelfahrt, heaven journey….is  still a national  holiday.

But our lesson today, from. John 20: 17-26, actually comes from Jesus’ farewell discourse at the last supper. He has just predicted his betrayal.  And now, in language that is almost hard to follow, that sounds strangely like 

I am he as you are he as you are me

And we are all together

I am the egg man

They are the egg men

I am the walrus

(Goo goo g’joob)

Jesus prepares us for his leaving. It’s part of his prayer for his disciples. At the very center is the desire that we all may be one. Glory comes back again. And although he has previously said, Where I am going, you cannot go, this time he prays that the disciples may be with him where he is….where the love of God flows through Jesus to the disciples and through them to the world….

As we look at this, here on the cusp of  Pentecost, Jesus takes us into three time zones at the same time:  

*the past, where he is the preexistent “Word” of John 1

• the present, where the historical Jesus is breaking bread  with his closest friends, the disciples
• And the future, where he will abide with the community that seeks to follow him, namely US

His deepest and most passionate desire for us is UNITY.  So strange and ironic when nothing can be further from the world we live in now. Since the Civil War, this country has never been more painfully divided. Our world is once again broken into camps. We had been living in one world, but not now.

Jesus is calling us into the deepest experience of unity, dwelling in the very heart of God. It is something mysterious…and powerful…

That’s what he wants from his followers…like Paul and Silas in prison, remember?  Like the motto of the United Church of Christ, that all may be one….But yet, is it even possible? How can we Christians preach reconciliation when even the church itself has no unity?  Even those who have the name Presbyterian are broken into different fragments. And oh how I yearned over orthodox Easter that Orthodox Russians and Ukrainians would stop killing one another…

For years the PCUSA tried to be a “big tent” but ultimately, the center would not hold. LGBTQ inclusion was too much for some. The tension between ecclesiastical unity and prophetic witness was too much.

But Jesus’ demand remains. To be part of Christ is to be ONE. In agreement or not.  And in that there is Glory. In Hebrew the word is k’vod, or heavy…glory is as we used to say, heavy…and in Greek it’s doxa, openness, judgment, honor in reputation….there is glory in oneness…

A note…in this passage, Jesus uses the word Father six times..this is about intimacy, relationship, not gender…

But still….oneness?  My senior year s Yale, I was part of an urban core program. 12 of us had inner city church jobs. We would meet for 4 hours every Monday. One hour of a “case study” form our work. One hour of a reflection paper on a reading. One hour of group process. And one hour of worship. At the beginning of the year, there were several in the group I just didn’t like. Found them annoying. At best. But every week I had to pray for them. Yes, specifically. And by the end of the year, you know what, well, I still didn’t like them…but I had come to love them…

So …who can you not be one with? Can you imagine praying  for them?

Jesus wants us  to be with him where he is. Getting there may take you places you don’t want to go. Places of anger, torture, even death…but that’s where we get to the glory..

Look….Jesus has a bottom line  here. In Christianity, there are no lone rangers. We can only do this with each other. It is a basic understanding…we are in this together..

And it works like this…we see God through Christ and the world sees Jesus through his followers…we reveal Christ and through him, God, to the world. 

I sometimes fall into wandering down the quora rabbit hole..,not even sure where that comes  from…but often my feed deals with arguments between Christian believers and atheists. Invariably, atheists have come to that perspective through their experiences with believers…

It’s pretty simple…like the song says, they’ll know we are Christians by our love…or not…I came that they might be one …let those with ears to hear, hear….Amen

Gospel John 17:20-26

20"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

West Park and landmarking...

 NPR covers West Park....

https://www.wnyc.org/story/historic-upper-west-side-church-faces-demolition/

Ever since it was built in the late 19th century, West Park Presbyterian Church has been at the center of progressive and radical politics, including the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement and nuclear disarmament. It was here in the 1980s, at the height of the AIDS crisis, that God's Love We Deliver was born.

The Upper West Side building was landmarked in 2010, but the red sandstone structure -- “one of the best examples of a Romanesque Revival style religious structure in New York City," according to preservationists -- is crumbling. Church officials say repairs would cost $50 million, which means it could be torn down to make way for a high-rise.

“Essentially what's happened is that the congregation of the West Park Presbyterian Church has in fact run out of money by attempting to keep up this landmark building,” said Roger Leaf, a trustee of the Presbytery of New York City, who serves as chair of the West Park Administrative Commission, the governing body of the church.

But elected officials, community residents and artists are vigorously pushing back, saying the church is too important to be demolished. 

Palm Sunday 2022

4/10

Palms on the street

palms for all

On a beautiful Sunday morning, I go to my favorite Venezuelan cafe  to start my day with coffee and the Times. The owner/artist has added one of his wood portraits of Frida Kahlo.  The I make my way to Lincoln Center to lead Palm Sunday services for the Good Shepherd Faith congregation.  There's more of a mix of Korean and English speaking members this time around and I've given my friend Chris enough time to translate my sermon into Korean.   The ushers have cut the palms and there are plenty for everyone.  Here's what I had to say......  

Frida

Palm Sunday.  Childhood memories. Full church.Waving palms. Not sure I knew what jt meant, but it felt good. Opening  the door to what felt like a long week of church going. The Maundy Thursday communion service.  That three hour long Good Friday Seven Last Words service.  And finally two services on Sunday. By the time I got to Easter, I always felt  like I’d had so much church, it was hard to feel the joy except that it was over. 

Which is good background to look at church history a little. For centuries, that was the pattern, I would add that in my church, Maundy Thursday was when the Communicants Class would officially join the church and take communion for the first time after a year’s preparation.  For our Catholic neighbors, there would be the Saturday Easter Vigil with baptisms. That was the pattern. 

Then sometime in the 1970’s, the folks who made up the Common Lectionary began to become concerned that far too many people were going straight from the triumphant entry of Palm Sunday to the victorious joy of Easter Sunday without experiencing the Holy Week journey.  And so this Sunday became designated Palm/Passion Sunday with the reading of both the Palm Sunday passage and the entire Passion story.  Now that’s a tall order for any Sunday.

I must say that I arrived in my  ministry here in time to catch the tail  end of the Upper West Side Presbyterian joint practice  of a Lenten School at West Park, the beautiful Maundy Thursday simple candle lit  meal and communion here at Good Shepherd faith with its quiet  and warmth, and the three hour Seven Last Words Good Friday service at Rutgers. I can say that I actually got to preach each of those seven words twice. Sadly, one by one, these all came to an end.

SO here we are on this Sunday and this year. So relax…we are only going to do Palm Sunday, not the whole Passion. You are responsible for your own Holy Week.  And we begin with a procession. 

I learned something this year that I never knew before.  Reading the book, the Last Week, by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, which systematically looks at each successive day of the last week of Jesus’s life in Jerusalem, I learned that there was another procession that day. 

It seems that the season of the Passover week, with so many pilgrims coming to Jerusalem and celebrating a festival of liberation, was seen as a potentially dangerous time by the occupying Roman Empire. So every year, the Roman governor, would enter Jerusalem to be the presence of the Empire in the city for that week. A reminder of who was in  charge.  So on this day, as Jesus is entering the city through one gate, Pilate is entering through another. 

It is very possible that Jesus chose this day deliberately as a counter procession, a demonstration,  to challenge the authority of the Empire. It’s interesting that since the time  of Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperors were called “son of God,” “savior” and “bringer of peace on earth.” Augustus even claimed that Apollo was his father, his mother simply the vessel for bearing the child of God. So…Pilate’s entry was not only about political oppression but a theological affront to the Jewish people as well. Jesus’ entry was ultimately a proclamation that there is no God but God. 

The Jerusalem of Jesus day was under what we call a domination system. The three parts of which are political oppression, economic exploitation and religious legitimation.  Thus the Romans installed Herod as an ethnarc, one of the subject Jewish people to rule on their behalf.  And it was the job of the Temple to collaborate with the empire in areas like  taxes and a kind of money laundering and a bit of religious cover. And so it always is in occupations from 1940’s occupied France to 1950’s Iran to 1970’s Vietnam to …well it goes on. And I can actually understand how the temple authorities might actually have thought they were helping to protect their people, even as they personally benefited from their collaboration..

It’s interesting that in the Luke version of Palm Sunday, there are actually no palms, and no Hosannas. Luke wants to make very clear that we’ve got a very different kind of king here and a very different  kind of kingdom being celebrated here. So he leaves out the signs and language of empire. 

Two very different processions. Two very different kingdoms.

Jesus’ message is always not about him, but about the kingdom, the reign of God he represents. We are always to look beyond Jesus to God.

Every sermon needs  to teach and to reach. That was pretty much the teach part.  And now to reach. In the language of Jesus’ time, the word believe was not so much about giving assent to some ideas.  It was more about trust and commitment. Whose word do you trust? What is the authority in your life?  What are you willing to commit yourself to?

And that question is a very serious question. For Jesus, his procession was a symbolic denial of the power of the Empire and that would lead to his arrest and execution. For the only crime for which Rome would use the cross was denial of the authority of imperial Rome.

So here’s the point…if we want to call ourselves Christians, then we are called to be disciples.  To be a disciple.  Go with me here. Genuine discipleship means  to follow Jesus.  All the way. We must follow him on his way.  And that way leads to Jerusalem and that leads to confrontation. And ultimately death.  AND resurrection. 

That is the theme of Lent.  And Holy Week.  And all of Christian life. To be wiling  to follow Jesus all the way.

So the question is …which procession are you in?  The procession of Pilate …of the power, glory and violence of the empire? Or the procession of Jesus, of the proclamation of the kingdom, the kindom of God?

Let those with ears to hear, hear…

Ta'u sings...and waves....

One of my favorite singers here is the former NFL football player now opera singer with a burgeoning career, Ta'u Pap'ua.  He sings the Battle Hymn of the Republic bringing new meaning to the words as related to Palm Sunday, waving his palm as he sings, his truth is marching on....

hot cross buns

On my way home, I stop at the Silver Moon bakery for the their traditional hot cross buns. 

And as I walk home down Adam Clayton Powell, the good people of  First Corinthian Baptist are passing out palms on the street. The line stretched down the street. It's Palm Sunday.....

Luke 19: 28-40

28After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

29When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it'" 32So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" 34They said, "The Lord needs it." 35Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38saying,

"Blessed is the king

who comes in the name of the Lord!  (Ps. 118:26)

Peace in heaven,

and glory in the highest heaven!"

39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." 40He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany ...Blessed

 

2/14

"Monkey Cup" cabana in the snow 

After two warm days, the cold has come back. Snow is falling. I enjoy seeing Monkey Cup Cafe'a Venezuelan cabana in the snow. And I meet the people of Good Shepherd Faith once more for virtual worship....here is my reflection...

We’ve got quite a convergence here this morning. Today is the great American midwinter celebration of football, appetizers and friends, Super Bowl Sunday.  We’re also deep into the Olympics. And tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.

As for the Super Bowl, without my hometown Steelers, I have no dog in that fight, as they say. Although  that same  factor makes rooting for the Bengals not an option. Maybe the Lions because their quarterback Matt Stafford, had to labor for so many fruitless years in Detroit. To be honest with you, the only jersey I feel comfortable wearing is Colin Kaepernick’s. As someone said recently, Aaron Rogers lies and gets named Most Valuable Player. Colin Kaepernick told the truth and lost his job. Fact: until Friday, in a league with 70% black players, there was only one black coach, Mike Tomlin, in Pittsburgh, now joined  by  Lovie Smith with Houston.

One more fun fact:  in 1990, the youth group of the Spring Valley Presbyterian  Church of Columbia, South Carolina was reminded by  their  then seminary intern that as we celebrate with our abundance, many don’t even have a bowl of soup to eat. The youth group responded by starting the Souper Bowl of Caring, selling soup and collecting dollars in soup bowls. The idea spread like wild fire and since then over 170 million dollars has been raised by churches in all 50 states. (I’m happy that for many years, West Park was one of them.) 

The Olympics, as always,  have been a wonderful celebration, although this morning’s Times sadly reports the experiences of antiAsian hate experienced by so many of the  athletes, especially women, here in the US. Especially Eileen Gu, who chose to ski for China instead of the US, berated by Tucker Carlson and Will Cain on FOX for “betraying her country.”For me the only connection between the Super Bowl and Olympics is that a Super Bowl without the Patriots or Tom Brady to root against is like the Olympics without the Soviet Union…just not as much fun.

So what is Jesus up to today? He’s just finished putting his band together and has been drawing big crowds. Today he’s preaching his sermon on the mount, or is it the plain? Or is it like many preachers, he just used the same basic material twice? When you are there by Capernaum, at the Mount of the Beatitudes, they say that he either preached from the  top of the hill facing down , or at the bottom facing up. Either way, same place.

What’s critical is the difference between the Luke and Matthew version of this sermon. Matthew tends to be more nuanced, poor…in spirit..hunger and thirst... for righteousness. The first part of Matthew’s sermon is all third  person, blessed are they…

Luke is more direct…it’s all blessed are you…and it’s just poor, just hungry, hated, reviled, excluded… and Luke does something Matthew does not…he adds a series of curses…yes curses…the word woe is supposed to be the sound made by condemned souls from eternal damnation. In Greek, Jesus is basically saying damn you who are rich, who are full, who are laughing , who all speak well of. 

And you might say Blessed are you when Tucker Carlson calls you out.

It doesn’t get more direct than that. No nuance there.  An echo of Mary’s Magnificat. And Jesus’ first hometown sermon. 

It’s good to remember that Jesus was talking to his disciples who had left everything, jobs, homes, families…to follow him.  Many in the crowd came from the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the excluded.  And Jesus tells them to leap for joy. 

Thomas Merton reminded us that when we have nothing, we are most reliant on God. Perhaps we appreciate God more. Our connection to God no longer clouded by distractions.  I’ve come to begin to understand that joy is as important as hope in our faith journey. Who can forget Archbishop Tutu, may he rest in peace, and that radiant world lighting smile of his, even in the darkest days of apartheid? Or the joy of African American gospel music?

As I listen to Jesus’ sermon today, here’s what I think…

1. We need to be creative like that Presbyterian youth group and find ways to turn excess into largesse.
2. We need to pay attention when brothers and sisters are excluded or reviled by racist language or acts of hatred and stand with them.
3. Not all of us have Valentines. But all of us who bear the name of Christian have love within us to share, especially for those named explicitly by Jesus. Like the song says, they will know we are Christians by our love. 

Those of us of a certain age may remember these words sung by Simon and Garfunkel…

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit

Blessed is the lamb whose blood flows

Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on

Oh, Lord, why have you forsaken me?

I got no place to go

I've walked around Soho for the last night or so

Ah, but it doesn't matter, no

Blessed is the land and the kingdom

Blessed is the man whose soul belongs to

Blessed are the meth drinkers, pot sellers, illusion dwellers

Oh, Lord, why have you forsaken me?

My words trickle down

From a wound that I have no intention to heal

Blessed are the stained glass, window pane glass

Blessed is the church service, makes me nervous

Blessed are the penny rookers, cheap hookers, groovy lookers

Oh, Lord, why have you forsaken me?

I, I have tended my own garden much too long

                                                                         "Blessed"

So let’s get out of our own gardens…

As they say in my neighborhood, be blessed and Let us be a blessing…

Amen

In the after conversation, people spoke of the importance of recognizing how much we have, ir abundance. When we spoke of our trouble with "the woes," I  said that for me they are not so much a promised future punishment as they are the current reality of separation from brothers and sisters, and the true richness of life...we had the joy if a 102 year old member in worship with us,,, and so on to the Super Bowl....

Gospel Luke 6:17-26

17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

21"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

"Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

22"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

24"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

25"Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.

"Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

26"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.