Here's to the Sea Lions and....

 6/8

San Francisco Sea Lions

With the Warriors still in the NBA Finals, I decided to stick with the Bay Area for my weekly hats off/hats on…

We’ve previously explored Negro League baseball team like the great Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Kansas City Monarchs and New York Cubans. Today we head to the west coast and the little known San Francisco Sea Lions. They had one year, 1946.  And like many Negro League teams, had a name reminiscent of their white counterparts the

Pacific League San Francisco Seals.

But here’s the back story. In 2007, our family took a west coast college trip to look for a Schoo for our middle son. We flew to Seattle, made a stop in Portland and drove to San Francisco.  On August 16th, we went to the second most beautiful ballpark in the country, then known as Pac Bell, to see my hometown favorite Pittsburgh Pirates play the Giants. The shirt was a giveaway for African American Heritage night. The hat I had to track down later. 

This was also the summer of Barry Bonds pursuit of Hank Aaron’s home run record. This night, Bonds would hit a homer and the Pirates come back for 6 down in the 8th to win. Perfect in every way. Villainainized almost everywhere else because of his purported steroid use, Bonds was much loved in San Francisco. (“No surprise there” says Clyde.) With for memories of Bonds as a rising young star in Pittsburgh and the team that came within one out of the World Series, I still was a Bonds fan.

Some  local company  distributed cards for to be redeemed for a pin bearing a number when Bonds homered. So before heading to the airport we stoped to collect our “Bonds 758”  pins. One may still be in a box somewhere. He would end with 762. And I would love to see him in the Hall of Fame. 

So hats on for the San Francisco Sea Lions and hats off for Barry Bonds. And go Warriors….

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

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The Finals Begin

 6/1

The Warriors...and Jerry 

So. The NBA Finals begin tomorrow night.  The Boston Celtics versus the Golden State Warriors. That’s a tough one for me. When I was growing up, my favorite basketball team was the Boston Celtics. Part of that was their classiness, the sense that excellence and teamwork mattered to them. There was their iconic coach Red Auerbach, famous for his victory cigar. When he felt the  game was in hand, he would light up a celebratory cigar, right there on the bench. (Back in those  days, a cloud of smoke would always ring an arena.)

Even more important, I had a very close friend. A tall gangly basketball player with red hair . When he was a high school freshman, the older players called him Bambi. Hs favorite player was Bill Russell, the stoic center and captain of the Celtics known for his epic battles with Wilt ("the Stilt" Chamberlain. Almost  always the  Celtics and Russell would win the title.   At one point, winning eight NBA championships in a row. And Russell would be named to succeed Auerbach as coach.  Personal pride and dignity were uppermost for Russell who regularly spoke out against racism.So yeah, Boston.

But….then there’s Golden State’s coach Steve Kerr. Son of the assassinated President of American University  in Beirut, Malcolm Kerr, Steve Kerr has been an outspoken advocate for social justice, including his long standing support for Palestinians. (His father and American University were part of the Presbyterian church’s historic commitment to health and education  around the world, in this case educating  a generation of Middle Eastern Arab leaders.) Most recently, Steve devoted his pre-finals press conference  to denouncing  the failure  of US congress to deal with gun violence. 

His Warrior teams have featured player like the  amazing Steph Curry and play a solid team game. Fun to watch. But mainly because of Steve Kerr, for me it’s the Warriors.

The Warriors began in Philadelphia, Wilt Chamberlain’s first team challenging the Celtics. They then moved to San Francisco playing in the Cow Palace in Daly City and then for many years in  Oakland where they were renamed the Golden State  Warriors. Finally, last year they moved back across the Bay to San Francisco and a new arena. 

back view...the Bridge

My hat is in Warriors blue and yellow and has the San Francisco Giants interlocking SF. The back has a Warriors  Bay Bridge logo and an NBA patch on the side. The original version is a much sought after Giants give away. The shirt of course connects Jerry Garcia of the Grateful  Dead and the Warriors featuring  his iconic hand print with a mission finger digit.

So today it’s hats off to and hats on for the Golden State Warriors. 

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."

...And now to honor those men and women who are serving...

 5/25

Camo 

Today as we meet we are midway between “Armed Forces Day” and Memorial Day.  To be honest, I can’t remember Armed Forces Day growing up. It only seems to have come to my attention in  a really backwards kind of way. 

From 2008 tp 2019, Major League Baseball would “honor the men and  women serving our country” on Memorial Day Weekend by wearing camouflage hats and some years even uniforms with proceeds of sales going to veterans.

Finally someone pointed out that Memorial Day was to remember those who had died  in  military service and had nothing to do with currently  serving  troops. Its origins go back to 1868 and a proclamation by John A. Logan, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic to “decorate” the graves of those who had fallen in the Civil War and the sho it was first known as Decoration Day.  (Southerners argue that the idea was stolen from Confederate Memorial  Day.)  At any rate, that was the beginning. In 1970 it was  established  as a Monday holiday as another of our 3 day weekend specials. 

Armed  Forces Day, on the other  hand, goes back to President Harry S. Truman combining the days of all five services  into one day of commemoration in 1950 on  the third Saturday  of May. It has remained relatively unnoticed until MLB decided to no longer wear came on Memorial  Day and shifted to the lesser known Armed Forces  Weekend instead.  So now for the third weekend of May , come  Camo hats on top of all teams.

"Dress Up Soldier"

My hat is the 2021 Pittsburgh Pirates  official Armed Forces Weekend Hat.  Every team wears the same hat  with their regular uniforms which leads to some very jarring aesthetic  combinations. Its was actually better the years they went to camo uniforms as well.   My shirt is from the Uni Watch blog, dedicated to  the careful study of athletic aesthetics, especially uniforms. On the back name plate, are  the words Dress Up Soldier to critique the appropriation of came by non-military people as if that actually honors those on active duty.

My Quaker cousin objects to my use of camo and I generally agree.  Though coming from Pittsburgh, camo has more various uses including deer  hunting and the colors worn by the United Mine Workers Union in protests, My oldest son grew up. identifying camo with minrs. So I’m okay with a a few days of camo wear each year.

As for Memorial Day, it was for my family a day of remembrance. My dad would ‘decorate’ the grave of his father. No one does that anymore. But my sister made a trip to our old hometown to decorate my father’s grave. It wa a great weekend fo 4th reopening of our swimming pool and barbecue go the back yard.  Though the New York City beaches are opening this weekend, I really miss the cookout and the burgers and dogs and beans.  

As for honoring  those serving in the military, first we should have some kind  of mandatory national service so that  everyone of us shares  in the responsibility. And second, we should never  send them to pointless wars of empire protection. Bring them home, that’s the way to honor them.

I do have nothing  but the most profound respect for those veterans who  are honored I the ballparks for what they have given.  So today, hats off to veterans and hats on for  those who serve….

Buffalo. And again.

 5/18

After the Tree of Life shooting

Today I feel like not wearing a hat at all, I  don’t want to take a hat off to anyone because I am angry.  Angry because yet one again a hate filled white supremacist has opened fire and deliberately murdered people in the name of defending against the “great replacement.” In Buffalo, New York, that same sick confluence has come together again. The sickness of white anxiety fueled by Tucker Carlson’s preppy no longer even thinly veiled racist fear mongering, Republicans both true believers and those who are are afraid to confront them allowing the crazy theories to become accepted  mainstream opinion and our total inability to deal rationally with guns has now led to 10 dead human beings at the Topps Friendly Market in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo.

And Congress refuses to accept the reality that the vast majority of domestic terrorist acts (67% last year, over 80% this…)are committed by right wing white people of various sorts.  There is simply no equivalence.

Stronger than hate

So today I am wearing the shirt from my hometown of Pittsburgh, from the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting 4 years ago when 11 worshippers were murdered.  “…Stronger than hate…” it reads.  It’s a touchingly typical Pittsburgh graphic.  Starting with what was the US Steel logo that has become the beloved Steelers symbol and changing  one of the arched hypocycloids (crescent diamond shape) into a  Mogan David, Jewish star. On my mug, all the hypocycloids have become Jewish stars. How many communities must stand in solidarity with one another? Do I really believe the implied love is stronger than hate?

I finally selected my Fellowship of Reconciliation from the International Peace Bureau World Peace Congress in Barcelona last October, an amazing gathering of people from around the world, former heads of state, scholars, and just plain folks, gathering to explore roads to peace that take into account the intersectionality of economy, militarism, environmental justice, and resulting world refugee crisis. 

In 1915, AJ Muste, Jane Addams and 66 pacifists gathered to declare an international movement against violence. Socialist Norman Thomas became  the first director, once convinced they were serious.  Over the years they have protested war, organized freedom rides to the American south and  organized to stop gun violence  and even risking the disapprobation that comes with supporting the Boycott, Divestment and  Sanctions (BDS)  movement to bring justice for Palestine. 

In a world where the murderous violence and hatred continues unchecked, the faithful witness of groups like FOR are one of the few glimmers of hope.

And today I am angry. 

Stanley Cup reflections one and two....

 5/4

The original Penguin

Today I am wearing the original “ice blue” of the Pittsburgh Penguins in honor of their opening round win in the Stanley Cup playoffs……a triple overtime victory over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden in one of the all time epic games. 

a fiercer Penguin

Take a look at that vintage t-shirt.  That original penguin was very cute with his smile, rounded belly and trailing  scarf. Just one year later, the scarf is gone, the belly raised to broad shoulders and a raided eyebrow shoes intensity and he’s no longer smiling. 

This marks the Penguins 16th straight trip to the playoffs…unprecedented. In the city, they’re second only to the Steelers.  Their five Stanley Cup titles are the most of any US based team since the era of the “Original Six” (decades long original NHL.)

IN 1979, after the Steelers won the Super Bowl and the Pirates the World Series, the Pens changed their colors to black and gold, in a show of city solidarity. The  "ice blue" has reappeared now and then as a throwback. 

Even though the NHL is the “whitest” of our big four sports, it is also the most accessible. Players lived in our neighborhood and the Pens practiced at our local rink. Every kid had to learn to skate. By Stanley Cup tradition, every player on the winning tram gets to take the Cup home for one day. So before making its way to Canada, Russia or the Czech Republic, it shows up in local kindergartens and Eat’n’ Park diners. 

So today’s hats off …and on…to the  Pittsburgh Penguins.

5/11

Hoping for Cup winning mojo

Today we are staying on the Penguins theme.  As we meet, the Penguins are ups 3 to 1 in the best of seven series with a chance to close tonight in game five. I’m wearing a black hat and  a t-shirt celebrating the 2017 cup victory hoping to bring extra mojo.

When the Pens went to black and gold, the Boston Bruins, an original six team, protested. But since an earlier version of the NHL included a team called the Pirates wearing black and gold, the colors were grandfathered in.

I’ve got a virtual background of a jersey celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the NHL and  25th season for the Pens. Which means I’ve had this jersey  lying around for 29 (or 30?) years.

But here’s the real story. Saturday was my youngest son’s birthday. In our family’s Pittsburgh years, the Penguins of Mario Lemieux had an amazing run. Two straight Stanley Cups heading for a third. Which is when our son was born. We waited until the Penguins had defeated the New York Islanders 3-2 before heading to the hospital.  So to honor his  birthday, I give him the jersey and an original ice blue hat. Sadly, the Isles would win the series and there would be no  Threepeat.

So remembering  the night my son was born, hat’s off …and on…to the Penguins …and Happy Birthday Dan, now let's  finish it!

birthday jersey