We bought it from Aaron Burr

7/19

We finally find the keys to the safe deposit box. Danielle and I walk down to the bank to check it out. Random old papers. Deeds. Membership lists. If the Good Shepherd - Faith church property on 66th is ever to be sold for non-church use it reverts to West-Park. And we also helped start Ft. Washington. Most interesting  random fact: West Church’s first property on Carmine Street was bought from Aaron Burr.

Early in the morning Don comes in with his designer. As we walk through the church house, I listen as he describes his vision of the church house as a possible venue for his developing off Broadway show, Disenchanted.  He’s finishing a successful run at the Don’t Tell Mama cabaret. He’s got this creative plan for an immersive experience. 

Later in the day Mim comes in to meet with Sekou. To get better acquainted. To see how his vision and the Center’s might fit together. 

Rose and Requiem

The brothers from the Berkshires

And then to my surprise, Rose and Requiem walk in, back from the Berkshires to pick up things they had left. They both look good. Especially Rose. Things are working out with her family. Req has gotten a job with a family run IT business and is learning the trade. They’re impressed by how the church  has been cleaned up since they left. The two brothers from the IT business keep saying, it feels real good here. And Rose and Req say, see we told you.  We go outside and we take pictures. 

When I get back form my eye appointment, Sekou’s on the steps. We sit and talk awhile. About the Occupy Faith meeting that morning. How Some still raise liberal questions about does the word faith turn people off. What about our allies who are not believers?  And I said, that’s a different movement. It’s our faith that keeps us in this. That keeps us going. Keeps me going. That’s why I’m here. 

And should we still have Occupy in our name? 

That’s our heritage. That’s who we are.

Rose, Bob and Requiem

We talked about what’s next. I pointed out that with a few (significant) exceptions, we were old, white and liberal. Looking for our movement to come back round again. Not going to happen. This is something new.  LIke I’ve said, Occupy’s not so much a movement as a space within which we can build campaigns and a movement. 

Se all agreed that the best moment for us was the confrontation with Trinity Episcopal. Perhaps our calling is to confront our  own self-satisfied  liberal. Lots of energy around Stop and Frisk, (Okay, need to connect this with Jason and Occupy Open Space.)

And in the end we talk about needing to connect more at the grass roots level. To build from the ground up. Slow.But this is a long journey. Few of is will be living  to see the end. So much more reason ti celebrate that we have already won.  Just need to live  it out. 

Marc comes by. Sekou congratulates him for having won the battle of the floods. The heavy duty water vacs, the sand bags did it. We held the flood waters at bay. For now. Marc looks at Sekou, smiles before he enters the door. 

St. Michael the guarding angel and a thunderstorm

7/17

Steve is in the sanctuary playing Nearer my God to Thee. 

John R comes in with a gift for Danielle.He’s heard that she has moved in to a new home. He’s brought her a print of St. MIchael the Guarding Angel. He explains: It’s something we Latinos do. When  someone goes to a new home. To watch over, Keep you safe. Put him over the door, ok?

She is very moved. Thankful.

Teddy and I are talking. Seems like David and Donna have been found a place to live in Harlem by Reachout. 

Danielle and I are waiting for Jamie to head to Mim’s for our Center meeting. We need to leave but then Jamie calls and then we swing back to pick her up. Then Sekou calls and we pick him up too.

7/18

Ludovica’s stage manager comes in. They’re getting ready for the opening of Final Analysis downtown. 

Outside the cast of Playing with fire by Strindberg is sitting on the steps, having lunch.

Teddy is taking Sekou a tour of all the rooms, thinking about possibilities. Talking with them around issues of my son and his camp. We’ve got an Occupy group ready to go. 

There’s a lot of conversation going on with the Center Board over the previous night’s meeting.  Lots of feelings to express. 

And it has begun to storm. A thunderstorm. What you might call torrential. Water pouring into the church. Drains overflowing. Marc searching for a pump. Sandbags....water...

I’ve got to head out into the storm to go to Grand Central Station. 

Smoke em if ya got em

7/16

The Sentinel is at his post. 

Jeremy of the Live Wire Theatre Company has an idea for an immersive theatre experience inspired by Woodshed  playing off Miller’s The Crucible. 

Teddy, Martin and I are on the steps talking. A wild eyed rail tin man swings around a scaffolding pole and launches into a rap seemingly reciting statistics on smoking and various countries, corporate conspiracies and the significance of non-filter Camels. He looks  at us intently. Teddy and Martin and I look at each other and back at him. He stares for a minute. Then shrugs, says, Hey smoke em if ya got em, swings around the pole again and is gone. 

A black man with three young children approaches with a convoluted story about trying to get back to Atlanta, being hungry, etc. As Teddy is saying, Hey look, I’ve got some salami and cheese, let me make you a sandwich, a young woman approaches, says, I’d like to help you, and hands the man  a twenty. Then Teddy takes them in  for sandwiches. 

I’m involved in a very intense phone conversation  when Rudolfo walks in. Haven’t seen him for a while. He lingers, hoping to talk, but I can’t break away. An then wanders off.

In the late afternoon we gather the remnants of our Occupy community. To clarify expectations. Tasks to be done. Accountability. Plans.

While we are talking, I’m hearing classical music from the sanctuary. I walk in. It’s Teddy’s friend, Karen. I’ve known her only as someone who plays her own music. She tells me of her classical training. 

Later, Karen comes into my office. Why isn’t anyone fixing up the church?  How do I even begin to answer that question? But I pause. Then begin to tell the story. 

We are the welcome committee

7/15

More Light Stoles

Steve and Teddy are waiting for me when I arrive at church. Good to be back after two weeks gone. Steve is practicing the songs he’s been playing all week. Hope soon arrives. 

As we’re gathering, I get a call from Jim W. Started to church but got sick and can’t make it. I’ll need to follow up. 

I ask Steve to play Nearer my God to Thee to get us started. We sing God welcomes all and Tutu’s Goodness is stronger than evil. 

I lift up the stoles from General Assembly. Explain how they were knitted by over 1500 volunteers from the More Light movement around the country. How they used to be symbols of protest, symbolizing lgbtq people who were excluded from service or had to remain silent. How anyone from the national church staff was forbidden from wearing them because they represented a challenge to existing church policy. But now, since last July, they represent the victory of our new inclusive policy. The stoles now represent who we have become. As my pastor friend Ray from across the park says, That in itself is worth celebrating. 

I recalled how Bishop Gene Robinson, in addressing the More Light dinner,  had said that the one who cast the deciding vote had told him that what changed his mind was realizing  that he’d believed the church was the selection committee when in fact the church is to be the welcoming committee. God does the selecting, our only job to welcome. So maybe these stoles can be symbols of our welcome committee. 

I also spoke of how Michael Adee, the current executive Director of More Light was leaving for a new call to work with the faith community globally for full inclusion of lgbtq people. And how Michael had said that what began at West-Park was now spreading across the world. That’s us, the mustard seed again. 

Amy arrives in time for us to sing Sanctuary. After prayers, John, as usual, reads the First lesson, this time 2 Samuel 6: 1-5, 12b-19, where David’s exuberant dancing offends Michal as he exposes himself. We sing Psalm 24 to an Israeli melody. Then I read Mark 6: 14-29 after Luisa reads it in Spanish.

There’s a lot to talk about. Last night was the 100th birthday of Woody Guthrie. I’m Glad he came form Oklahoma. They finally were willing to claim him as a native son, mark his birthplace, put him in the Hall of Fame. And I’m glad he lived on Mermaid avenue on Coney Island. 

It was there that he, fed up with Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, wrote those verses to This Land is Your Land they don’t teach our children. Verses about the tyranny of private property  and welfare lines and where he wrote this song;

Christ for President Let's have Christ our President Let us have him for our king Cast your vote for the Carpenter That they call the Nazarene The only way We could ever beat These crooked politician men Is to cast the moneychangers Out of the temple Put the Carpenter in Oh it's Jesus Christ our President God above our king With a job and pension for young and old We will make hallelujah ring Every year we waste enough To feed the ones who starve We build our civilization up And we shoot it down with wars But with the Carpenter On the seat Way up in the capitol town The USA Be on the way Prosperity bound

And it was the week of the Penn State report...but more on that later. And I’m back from the Presbyterian General Assembly. We came up short on marriage equality by 4%. But  as my friends pointed out, the seminary students  and youth delegates voted 67% in favor. The battle is won.  And we held fast  ordination equality for lgbtq people. 

We fell short on selective divestment from Israel, Caterpillar, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard for their activities on the West-Bank.  And we held fast on women’s health issues. And expanded the push for single payer health care by starting a divestment process on for profit health care companies, a motion that began with West-Park urging New York City Presbytery to back Western kentucky’ lead. 

Increasingly the major divide is not so much not so much  right and  left  but  more rich and poor....We need to begin to take seriously class issues. And move beyond easy  liberalism to a praxis that is combination of spiritual and social action. 

Then there’s that story of John the Baptist. Anyone remember Oscar Wilde’s Salome? Or Strauss’ edgy hyper sensual opera? Or Aubrey Beardsley’s disturbing illustrations?  I can never think of it and not remember the woman in New Orleans with a tattoo of Beardsley’s vision of Salome with John’s head on a platter. 

What was the real issue? According to Josephus, secular Jewish historian of the time, it was because his growing popularity  was a political threat.  As  far as Mark? He recognizes the political implications. No one can be leader of the Jews without recognizing Jewish law. 

But underneath this, we find what Ched Meyer calls the shameless method of decision making among the elite , a world in which human life is bartered to save royal face....( Binding of the Strong Man: Meyer, 216).

Which brings us back to Penn State.  The worst was the janitor who was afraid of speaking for fear of losing  his job and the reality that he would  have.  How respected men stood by silently while children suffered. I think of how my father (may he rest in peace) respected Joe Paterno. Gave us a Christmas tree ornament of Joe Pa. How hurt he would have been.

And then a friend reminded me of our own church history. (It’s easy to criticize the Catholics) and how when we were younger, ministers guilty of sexual misconduct were quietly allowed to just move on to the next presbytery. No on ever thought of the victims.

The haunting question is, What would I have done? Would I have had the courage to speak up?  And you? And more, how do we create a community where our children will grow up knowing to do the right thing? Not afraid? That is the question. That is our challenge. 

We finish our service with Siyahamba: We are marching in the light of God, and recalling its anti-apartheid origins and how it was adopted by the  More Light  movement. 

After the service, an older woman wants to talk to me about a theatre project related to Occupy issues. And Rachelle is still haunted by the night that Teddy fought with the drug addict. His name was Shawn. She says he’s still in Rikers. Why? Why can’t we help him? All that blood! How she had to talk Shawn’s friends out of coming after Teddy. I mention the 300 empty heroine glasines. The needles they found in his bag. I understand, Rachelle, but this was serious. Coming after Teddy would not be a good idea.  Perhaps it could have been better  handled a different way. I can’t judge. She nods,still disturbed.  

Session meets to talk again about Glen’s plan and Jamie’s proposal. Enough for one day.

Bum's rush to bull rush

7/13

Jim W calls and I walk down the street to his house. A neighbor has helped him and his phone is working again. Good. We’ll be able to stay in touch. We sit. Have a good conversation. And we walk down the street together back to the church.

A delivery guy who speaks only Spanish comes in to the office. I check the order. It’s breakfast for Steve and Jay.

Jamie and I join in a conference call with an old friend who used to run a street ministry in San Francisco for runaway/throw away kids on Larkin Street. He’s now become a major player in the arena of philanthropy and investment for change. It’s clear we’ve got a lot of work to do.

A white guy of indeterminate age is lingering on the steps surrounded by his cardboard. Tattoos. No teeth.  The one Teddy described as having a jail look about him. Hard getting him to move on. Teddy more and more frustrated by the morning scene on the steps. I need to do a walk and check out BJ and SPSA. 

An actor from Glen’s show named Leviticus walks in to check on something he left. 

Deacon Jim comes in and out. Haven’t seen him in awhile. I know the chemo has been rough.

Marc is determined to help me reclaim our domain name that for years has been out of our hands and at the top of google search creating a wrong impression of who we are. Westparkchurch.org has never been the official website for us. A former member created it and refuses to let it go. Can’t figure out why beyond grudge sake. Steve wants to work on this too.

RL and Teddy are working on a rehearsal space for RL who wants to work on his next CD. Teddy’s describing the problems on the steps, how hard it is to get people to move on. From bum’s rush to bull rush, he says. Holy Moses, says RL, laughing at his own joke. It takes me the minister a minute to get it. Not bad, RL, not bad. 

Thankfully today no takeout Chinese

7/12

The Sentinel is at watch when I arrive. 

Brenda from Goddard-Riverside has come so that we can go together to check in on Jim W. She’s not been able to reach him for weeks. Voicemail full. Home phone disconnected. These visits always put me on edge. Like the 4th of July I was called only to find Samir several days dead in his apartment. And his daughter Leila in Russia. We called the police. I said a prayer. While we waited for the coroner, the police called for take out Chinese. Obviously more used to this than I.

So we call the super. Check the mailbox. Stuffed. Not a good sign. We go to the 8th floor. Knock. And hear his voice. He lets  us in. Glad to see us. Has been sick. The ring tone has been accidentally turned off on his phone. I am overjoyed to see him. Brenda asks some questions. He’s anxious to pull some things together. I get some relative contact information. Just in case. For the future. Promise to come back tomorrow. Seriously relieved.

Ludovica’s in setting up rehearsals for her next play. Theri from Finland is rehearsing another play in the chapel. And Glen come in to go over the press release for his play. We are filled with theatre.

Steve is at the piano. Wants to play for services. He’s playing over and over Nearer my God to Thee (what the quartet played as the Titanic was going down) and Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.

Danielle joins me on the steps and we sweep together. Haven’t done this in awhile. Feels good. Martin passes by. Big changes happening. I say, You know you’re supposed to be here. Before he leaves we agree to a three day run of Misa Flamenca for next February. 

Jane and I head across the street for coffee and to catch up. It’s been awhile. And we talk about sustaining  hope. And the place spiritual  joy can come from. She and Sekou had a great day last Sunday while I was gone. He stayed through her service and they talked a long time. 

Our session meets with Jamie to walk through a contract to secure a real estate agency to handle our process regarding our building. We also talk with Glen about his vision for a Little Theatre at West-Park as an outreach ministry of the church. There’s a sense of excitement as to what this could be and Samantha and Lilly and Marsha all volunteer to work for his play. 

Outside, the Sentinel nods as I head home. 

Reflections on Organizing

7/11

The Sentinel has been keeping a constant vigil. Yesterday before our walk through, Jamie had spoken to him  about making sure the steps were lean and presentable. He had smiled. And nodded. Our first communication.

Another Open Space group has gathered. Smaller than before. Jason is a bit disheartened. Even though he says for everyone who’s here there are four who want to be. 

The Bronx is in the house. New Haven is in the house. #OWS is in the house. Muslims are in the house. People involved in old school party politics are in the house. OK....this is good....

Over the course of the meeting, I have the opportunity to reflect on organizing, Occupy Wall Street, where we are now.

Why have we all come back? There is still a sense that a movement is out there waiting to connect and move forward in some kind of serious way. 

• For the uprisings in the Middle East, the process was relatively simple. Get the dictator to leave. Victory. (Not that overthrowing dictators is easy.)What came to the surface in #OWS was that the whole system is broken. (Or fixed, as some say.)Not just in the US, but globally. That’s a much more complex issue. 
• The consensus decision making process of #OWS had positive principles of inclusion and acceptance and insisting that every voice be heard. But it was also susceptible to emotional manipulation of those who had minority positions. Pushing towards giving in. And on the other hand, it allowed small determined groups to subvert the majority. As Kelly and I had said to Jason months ago, it only works if you’re in basic agreement as to where you’re going. Or at least explicitly aware of what you do agree on. Otherwise, it becomes antidemocratic, even coercive.
• The Open Space process seems worth exploring. 
• Whereas traditional liberation theologians like Gutierrez and Cone spoke of the necessity of dialectic as a way to sharpen theory, ideology and belief, feminist, womanist and mujerista theologians point  us towards a discourse that is a multilectic. Perhaps Open Space can help frame that process.
• in that spirit, there can be no denigration of those who continue to work in traditional party politics, even though effective political space has been shrunk to nearly non-existent. And most Americans don’t even  realize it. (See Chris Hedges’ Death of the Liberal Class.) It is all needed.
• Previous movements in our lifetime had very specific goals: end that war, pass this law, stop this action....This is the first class based protest to arrive since Martin Luther King Jr.’s ill fated Poor Peoples’ Campaign. With his assassination, its clear class articulation never took place. This is a different moment.
• I spoke of my friend Barney in Pittsburgh. Started as a steel worker union  organizer. When the industry crashed, he became an organizer of the unemployed.  Today he heads Pittsburgh United ( http://www.pittsburghunited.org/ )  which brings together, the steelworkers, the unemployed, the Alinsky style Gamaliel neighborhood organizations and 47 churches and synagogues. All to work for common agendas. There are at least three different kinds of organizing seeking to work in collaboration in this. That’s the kind of organizing we need. Though the difference in scale and the depth of ownership issues in New York City make it more difficult. 
• In Barney’s perspective, #OWS was not/is not a movement. But it did open up space within which new discourse could take place and campaigns could grow.How can we continue to use #OWS as a space? 
• What keeps us going? I riff off the works of Sharon Welch and say that cynicism is the prerogative of the privileged. That only affluent liberals can afford despair. That the truly oppressed do not have that privilege in order at first to simply survive.
• And that under girding communities of struggle is the power of hope. What Tutu expressed in the days of Apartheid, we have already won. Or like liberation theologians like Gutierrez and Cone have expressed, liberation/salvation is already accomplished. We now have to live it out. It is King’s mountaintop speech. 
• And that in that hope, communities of struggle have had the capacity to celebrate life with joy. The black church, the gay rights movement, all have left their legacy of joy. I’m not completely sure how to do it, but I  know it’s at the center of what we need to do. 
• There is the issue of control. Sharon Welch says its the dominant culture of the US, right or left. And control from either side ultimately oppresses. What she argues for is an ethic of risk, of vulnerability. 
• Relationships are the bottom line. We show up because people we trust ask us. We are still exploring how much we will commit to this process before calling on our own trust relationships. That’s how organizing works. 
• Jason continues to invite inviters and that is good. What happens when  we’re in the room determines what happens next. 
• Stop and frisk continues to present itself as the issue to go after. We have to figure out who’s in the issue already, how they do and don’t work with others and why. And event though everything is truly connected to everything else, we have to remember that this awareness can overwhelm unless there’s focus. The issues before us only intensify cultural ADD. Organizing needs to be the Ritalin.
• Yes, we will meet again. 

Outside Rabbi Wilde and his family pass by. He says he’s been teaching. I pause for only a moment. Me too, I say. Though my older Jewish friends are (naturally) suspicious of the Orthodox, I’d love to see where a dialogue with this Rabbi who seems so open and creative might go. 

On my way home, the Sentinel is still perched on the steps. Goodnight I say. He nods.