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

Christmas Eve 2021: Let it be

 

Christmas Eve 2021

We gathered tonight in the chapel. Due to the ever recurring  building issues.  And public safety. Omicron fear is widespread and numbers will be down. Berik and Leila have spent the day decorating and have even found a tree!  The little chapel looks beautiful.  The congregation is small and slow gathering.  Many just come for the party after.  We put our chairs in a circle and share songs....from Russia, Kaakhstan, Bengladesh, Ireland...yes, we are still here....it's Christmas...

Merry Christmas 2021.  For those of you keeping score, this is the 110th Christmas for West Park and the 132nd Christmas for this building. And for me personally here , 26th. We are carrying on a tradition. Though I wish we could be in the sanctuary, nevertheless, we are here.

Where does Christmas 2021 find us? We are living through our second Corona Christmas. Just when we’re beginning to feel a little freer, a little more normal, along comes  Omicron, sounding like some Transformer movie character but wily enough for breakthrough infections with already vaccinated people. 

The airlines have cancelled over 2000 flights globally. The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes’ season has come to an unanticipated end. Our neighbor SPSA has gone to virtual only tonight. In Bethlehem, the Palestinians depend on an annual influx of Christmas pilgrims for economic survival.  Israel has banned all tourism. Holiday parties cancelled left and right. And two members of my family now have breakthrough so our plans have all fallen through. And don’t get me started on the state of politics in our country and the serious division between us that many don’t even want to heal. 

A little later we will sing “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright…”   Well, not exactly….

Tonight we read the old familiar story in Luke. About the census that gets everyone moving.  Fun fact…as near as scholars can tell, this census took place in 6CE.  So Jesus was born six years after his birth date.  Doesn’t matter. 

What does matter is context. This census is taking place because Herod, the appointed ethnarc, has screwed up so badly that Rome is going to take direct control over Judea. And impose taxation directly to Rome. The occupation the people live under is about to get even more oppressive. They will be under the appointed ruler of Syria. 

This is the context into which Jesus is born.  A people living under an oppressive foreign occupation. Jesus is always born in  the midst of difficult situations. We are not politically occupied but we are certainly occupied by a virus.

 Luke goes into all these details because he wants us to know that God’s desire to enter into our world, to live in our midst, experience life like one of us…can only take place in a specific time and place with its own particular socio economic political realities. 

Note Luke’s other particularities.  Jesus is born to a working class family. The poor cousins to Elizabeth and Zechariah. Then. And is born in a stable among animals because there is “no room at the inn..” (How many of our fellow New Yorkers will find no place tonight?)

Matthew brings us kings, but Luke, Luke has the first witnesses be shepherds. (If you were to go there tonight, you would still find Palestinian shepherds in that very field. ). In those days, shepherds were the only ones to sleep outside the city gate. As romantic as our images of shepherds is, in Jesus’ day they were looked on as ah, kinda seedy and crude at best and more likely suspicious. It is to such as these that God chooses to first reveal Godself. Not in St. John the Divine.  Not in St. Patrick’s Cathedral or Fifth Avenue Presbyterian. But in a small town barn with shepherds nearby. And so it is. God chooses to reveal Godeslf tonight within the battered walls of little West Park church to a gathering of what Sly Stone called everyday people, everyday New York people.  That’s what tonight is about…God choosing to take up residence in the midst of our humanity.  Our humanity. 

What are the consequences of that?  How we live.  How we care for  each other. See if God is in our midst, there is that of God in each of us. That needs to be seen, recognized, respected and loved.  What we do here tonight  is important. The sharing of a potluck meal is important. Breaking bread with  one another. Here in the 1970’s, after Christmas Eve services, people would gather upstairs in McAlpin Hall for a bowl of hot soup. Congregation members, peace activists, aging  neighborhood leftists, homeless people would all come together to break bread. And share soup. We continue that tradition tonight in our own unique way. Some of us a community that gathers every Friday for sharing music…and so much more….

I felt the need to add a little to the scripture tonight. Earlier in Luke, when Mary is told what it is she will be called on to do, at first she is taken aback. She’s young. She’s working class. And most of all, she’s not even married. To walk down this road will lead to all  kinds of issues. After she questions all this, the angel gives an answer that is not really an answer. And Mary responds with these words….Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

In all honesty, there are more hard days ahead. You know the serenity prayer: 

God, grant me the Serenity

To accept the things I cannot change...Courage to change the things I can,

And Wisdom to know the difference.

And  Angela Davis’ response “ Help me to change the things I can’t accept..”

We gotta take care of each other out there.   And to not stress about what we can’t change. As they say..

 Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.

This year saw the release of the documentary, Get Back…about the making of the Beatles (last) album Let It Be…

It took me awhile to realize that the lyrics of that song are a riff on Luke, the Magnificat   …the lonely people, the broken hearted and what comes immediately before….Let it be…to me…

So in the days to come, as we walk through this second covid winter, let’s take care of each other, be gentle with one another, and be able to just let it be …just let it be…

Immanuel….God is with us….

Gospel Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

1In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to their own towns to be registered. 4Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

8In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
14  “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
          and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Living in coronavirusworld 218: ....and two brief reflections on the President

Thanksgiving weekend

11/27

Today my mother learned about ZOOM.  Her assisted care facility set her up for a family conversation. She got dressed up for the occasion. And we gathered from Ohio and Jersey suburbs and Harlem. They were generous with us and we got more than a half hour. She was amazed at how she could see us and our inside our homes all at the same time. And now is not completely mystified when we tell her about the next ZOOM event in our lives. And how we spend 80% of our time on ZOOM. It’s always sad when our time ends but actually seeing us helped.

along the Meer

the Meer Tree

in front of Lasker

I take today’s long walk through Central Park. Notice that the Lasker Rink, closed all summer was a swimming pool, is now open as an ice skating rink. 

It’s a good fall day. 

Reflection

If I didn’t hate the man so much, and that’s not a word I use loosely or often, I could almost feel pity for him. I watched him as he “pardoned “ the Thanksgiving turkey before setting it free. One of those annual ceremonials all Presidents do. The kind of event he really seems to warm to with all its retro TV ethos. But this year he seems distracted ,distant, Melancholy. Seemed to look at the turkey with envy. I look at this man who has been responsible for so much damage to so many things who has been camped out permanently inside our heads dominating our thoughts and conversations  for four years and he looks small, pathetic, and even frightened. I could almost feel pity. Almost.

11/28

Dion leads today’s ZOOM worship for West Park and our Open Mic friend Tony Charms (Jose Perez) shares his music. Dion focuses on the first Advent theme, hope. Even using my favorite Jim Wallis quote…hope is believing in spite of the evidence and working to make the evidence change. And he has me play a song to finish the service, and  play my Rest Awhile. 

                                                       Rest Awhile 

After attending Mike Geffner’s Marketing Workshop I join my family’s weekly ZOOM. As usual, chaos in the school schedule of In/out, blended/hybrid, new decisions every day leave teachers in chaos. In the middle of our conversation, I get the news that my friend Dan in Pittsburgh has just died. Of Covid. 32 day from diagnosis to death. I am profoundly sad. And angry.

I posted this message on Facebook:

Today I am mourning the loss of someone I cared about, who was important to me.  A good father, grandfather, music partner and good man.  A friend. There is much for which I fault our current President.  But this, creating an atmosphere where pubic health and common sense became politicized, where ignoring the most rudimentary precautions became a perverse badge of honor and thousands  upon thousands of my fellow citizens have died, and will continue to die for ideology and partisan politics, this above all is unforgivable.

As our family gathering ends, I realize I have been on ZOOM for six straight hours and feel done in.

Gene and Dan introduce his piece

Mark talks about his piece

My friends from the Composers Concordance have one last live concert, in the East Village. After tonight, with the spike and new restrictions, it’s back to virtual. Still, New York City’s infection/death rate remain low compared to the rest of the nation and even Germany. My son still thinks that so many people died last spring that we’ve reached that state…we’ll see.

iving in coronavirusworld 208: Bars and churches....

 

11/14

yes there is....

and we voted...

Going to the framer’s market, it’s hard to believe it was just a week ago the announcement can that Biden was declared president. A weekly visit here one more marker I’ve created to give structure to the week. And something about food right from the farms that is comforting. 

I spend the afternoon trying to learn new songs for the (now_) open mic at Bar 9. The summer show case is over. Much as I dislike it, I’m taking the directive tofocus on upbeat covers seriously.  And actually enjoying it. Learning a Rubber Soul era Beatles  song and discovering many of these songs are more complex than meets the eye.

In the gathering darkness, I meet my friend Beppe with craft spirits from the farmers’ market. It’s getting colder.  We’re beginning to wonder how we are going handle these outdoor meetings now that the virus is spiking again. Beppe and I share the same feeling. That  March feels like yesterday and last week a year ago.  He too had been pulled out into the streets by the surging wave of joyous people as the news spread. We know we are close to it being over. But thousands of Trump supporters rallied in DC today.  Including Qanons and Proud Boys and who knows who else. And I realize although it’s not objectively true, in Trunpland’s alternate universe it's Black Lives Matter and Antifa striking fear in the hearts of the faithful.  And we continue to be anxious about what happens next.

We the Whole People

Time Square vendor

Times Square

I join my classical music friends for a concert in a rehearsal studio, safely distanced of course. A concert with the timely theme of We the Whole People. (Inspired by a quote from Susan B Anthony: It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. )And only 10 live audience members. To get the subway home, I walk through Times Square, again amazed at how full of life it is…without tourists …apart from the ‘B&T (bridge and tunnel) visitors from the outer boros and Jersey.  City people have made this their own playground. Young women striking sexy poses for their boyfriends with the Times Square lights behind them. 

11/15

in my neighborhood

My Sunday morning routine…when I wake early enough…is a Sunday Times and coffee and a pastry at the Venezuelan Monkey Cup cafe. Early morning. 

My friend Run leads West Park’s virtual service. Moved that he uses my song”Listen” from my new release. (

                                                                     Listen

 He takes the story of the talents and servant in a different direction than we went last Monday in Bible Study. His focus is more on the side of risks we need to take for the sake of the kingdom. And not hiding what you’ve got. It’a small but good group.

My son in Berlin is frustrated by the German spike and its impact on his students.  They had worked for weeks preparing for a concert performance. Families would be allowed to come.  But that was canceled and only live streaming allowed.  He wonders at the logic of it. These students are much less likely to get sick. Why are commercial stores allowed to remain open? And school events canceled? What is essential about headphones or North Face jackets or lamps? Choices. Not always data driven. 

At Stony Point, New York, a tea is being held to honor Rick and Kitty Ufford-Chase, co-directors.  As I watch on ZOOM, I can feel the coolness of the air 40 miles up the Hudson from the city.. That deep fall feel under overcast skies. I can almost taste it as I watch it, having been there. Eleven yeast of creative, groundbreaking ministry brought to a halt by Covid 19.  (And a limited institutional creativity…as I’ve said  vision  and institution are incompatible realties…) The air is heavy with sadness. And yes, for sure, thanksgiving. And even hope.  But what we have loved is gone. As the camera zooms around the circle, I catch sights of places that have meant so much to me. Locked down.  I count the groups I’ve been here with:

the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing 

The Interfaith Center of New York City Marshall Meyer social justice retreats

the International Sanctuary Declaration project took shape and form here

My own congregation, West Park

The Presbyterian Church USA Central American Task Force initial meeting

Presbyteiran Health Eucation and Welfare Association

That all May Freely Serve’s gathering of 4 decades of friends engaged in the struggle for full inclusion of lgbtq people in the church, to make sure the history was preserved

My friend Zeljko bringing his film about the Serbian Colonel who shot down an American stealth fighter pilot…and both pilots …to speak to a national women’s group..

                                                          Second meeting

I mean I wrote my doctoral dissertation here….many of the meetings were to reimagine and envision a ministry, often with Rick’s help…Rick and Kitty are of course gracious…but as the testimonies die down, the pain cuts really deep.  Much grief here.

I try my new song out at Bar 9. The whole night goes fast because they’ve now declared bars must close by 10. I mean we’re done playing by 8:30. As I play, I keep thinking about watching the Linda Ronstadt movie last night. Realizing her value as perhaps the greatest interpreter of American music of all kinds. And ho when you do it well, the song becomes yours. 

As we finish, the wind picks up, the rain comes down in torrents. My friend texts me: tornado warning! We meet at the Gate anyways as it all dies down. The more we talk about it, the more the 10’oclock rule appears to be a cosmetic compromise gesture with no scientific data informing it. Bars and churches, struggling to hold on.

Living in coronavirusworld 191: God was already there

 

10/17

please....

Volunteer day in the park

Cleaning the park

coronavirusworld

It’s Volunteer Day in Morningside Park. Teams of volunteers clearing leaves, raking, sweeping, cleaning trimming….neighbors caring for our common back yard…..the weekly Farmers’ Market with its mandatory masks. Fall produce. Craft whiskeys from Yonkers. Fresh meats from the farms, including a special Bolognese sauce. Artists, including one artist’s impression of coronavirusworld….I wish there was more fall leaf color. 

Remembering Chile

W gather on ZOOM from around the world to honor my friend Dennis Smith and his wife Maribel on Dennis’ retirement after 40 years of mission service for the Presbyterian Church.  I first met Dennis in 1982 in Guatemala City. I recall sitting in a hotel room with music on the radio turned way up to cover our conversation from the suspected “bugs” in our room. It was in the midst of the genocidal reign of Efrain Rios Montt, icon of Reagan and American evangelicals. It’s moving to see another colleague from that first visit in the room as well as two from my most recent visits.  Years later, Dennis would bring a group of Waldensians from Argentina and Uruguay  to West Park to explore urban ministry and this set the stage for my two years of consultant work in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. It’s good to see my friends Carola and Dario form Rio Plate in their ZOOM box and remember Dario’s magnificent backyard barbecue.  And I remember how it was just one year ago that I was privileged to be in Chile during its estallido (explosion). Tear gassed five times. Profoundly moved by the power of the people to raise their own voice and the power of creativity, especially of music, and Victor Jara, to inspire and sustain resistance and struggle. In remembrance. I drink form my mug commemorating the 55th anniversary of the founding of Comundad Teolgia Evangelica de Chile celebrated in the midst of the social upheaval. The much anticipated vote to authorize the drafting of a new constitution, schedule for April, has been put off until later hits month. With many questions unresolved. We watch Chile so closely because their Pinochet constitution is the model of what the radical libertarians behind Trump want for this country. Dennis laughs and lets me know the jean jacket I left in a movie theatre in Buenos Aires was found by Maribel and is now with him in Oregon. 

In reflecting on their years, Maribel speaks of the infrastructural changes that have taken place.  Dennis speaks of the persistence of violence over the decades. Even following “peace.” People are still, and perhaps even more subject to the experience of violence. The society (like ours) is highly polarized and there is a profound danger of the reality becoming ever more detribalized. The challenge on confronting the  basic fundamental issues has become even more difficult. When Dennis began his work, missionaries saw themselves as God bearers, bringing God to the unsaved.  Now we know God was already there. Now mission work is to listen to learn. To share. Our salvation is abound up in learning from others how God is at work in their lives.To know we are not to be leaders but to walk alongside.  And to be a bridge between peoples.  There is a beautiful song by David LaMotte. 

                                                  "We are each others' angels"

After recounting her struggles with English, Maribel encourages us all to lesrn another language. And there are virtual abrazos fuertes all around. 

10/18

Russ is leading the West Park worship the morning.  Sharing Jackson Browne’s Rebel Jesus. (

                                                         Rebel Jesus

And reflection on Matthew 22: 15-22.  And how in the “Give to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s, in the end it is all God’s." During the conversation, Hugo states  that now Nicaragua is 9th in the world in proportionate covid fatalities with 6000 dead.

looking for a four

The 115th street crap shooters have left a stray die on the sidewalk.

I am honored to take part in the third Peoples’ Music Network  TransAtlantic Song Swap with artists from the US and Canada sharing with colleagues from the UK: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. “Songs of Freedom and Struggle” can heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1d0ivyTTk.   I shared my Black Lives Matter Song”How Long” and even got mentioned in a freestyle rap by Kurley, who sounds like a real life Ali G.  Moving to hear from both  sides of the Atlantic how we struggle with the pandemic and the older pandemic of intuitional racism. 

friends

The day ends in the patio garden of an Upper West Side Italian restaurant with two pastor friends. My Catholic priest friend has ambivalent feelings about the Barrett Supreme Court nomination.  My Lutheran pastor friend has no  question about where she stands. And we all are filled with anxiety about the coming election.

.