Like urban caving

6/11

Today is the official birthday of the church.  We will celebrate, low key, tomorrow. I get to the church early, 7 am, to let in Vinnie and his crew to deep clean the carpets, scrape and paint the bathrooms, help us get ready for the week ahead. Before I leave to coach soccer, Vinnie wants me to see the color of the carpets. How the old dull gray green has returned to a lustrous green. How the rugs themselves have perked up.

When I get back, the place is buzzing with activity. Hope is helping our office regain at least a semi-professional look. I climb up to replace light bulbs. We go into the closet to start cleaning it out. Lily and Alma are upstairs, cleaning out Mc Alpin Hall so it can be used for the concerts. Luis is there for the heavy work. Soon Samantha will arrive as well. Theo is planning something for our scaffolding, getting his paints and canvasses ready. Dave is trying to explain to me his latest assessment of the lighting situation. He’s taken down the big heavy cans to check them out. People keep walking in off the street to check things out. Danielle and I put our timeline back up on the wall. 

We find a door in the back of the closet. Danielle shines a flashlight in a and sees a ladder going down. She and Theo and I go down in, back into the bowels of the church. One small room  leads to another, all under the sanctuary. It’s dry, scraps of wood and other debris. Some places the ceiling drops to 4 feet or so. it’s like urban caving, this exploring.

There are networks of pipes. In one room, there sits, upright, a small child’s chair. I find that kind of unsettling, says Danielle. There is an old Pepsi bottle, recent times Poland Springs bottles. Who was down here and why? When? Theo finds an old oil can, still full. 

Off in the far distance we, see a light, at the end of the crawl space we’ve been through before. All these paths connect somehow. We’ve clearly made our way to the border of the office building. Danielle finds an  opening into the room where the meters are. It requires bending, sliding moving some pipes and crawling down. we’ve crossed from under Amsterdam to under 86th Street. we stretch, good to be able to stand upright again. I wonder waht the Woodshed folks could do with all these spaces. 

Then we take Theo through the crawl space to the small back opening then through the kitchen to the back yard. There are never installed wood organ pipes, tools, chairs, everything put there by somebody intentionally at some time. We look around the patio. The carcass of Danielle’s air conditioner added to many other carcasses, computers, a file cabinet, an old picnic table. All very strange and mysterious. We try to imagine the speakeasy Woodshed wants to create.

On the way back up, we stop to admire the work Vinnie and company have completed in the bathroom. 

I go to the copy shop to pick up the poster inviting people to come to worship. Then Danielle and I climb the scaffolding  to put the poster up. Luis brings a ladder and we put up concert signs. The Open House sign we’ll put up tomorrow. 

Frustrated that we weren’t able to get a dumpster. We were under the impression that one was coming from  Landmarks West! There’s still something puzzlihg about communications.. and why is it so impossible to get things done? Like even a simple e-mail announcement!

Hauling garbage (that dumpster again) is our last job of the day.

The archival exhibit is up!

6/10

The archival exhibit is up! Norm drops in to direct the making of the final captions  explaining the display. It’s very moving to look on the back wall of the sanctuary and see the highlights of 100 years of history. All under Norm’s reconstruction of the fading inscription above the door of the church....Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit says the lord of hosts.... in the original font.

It’s easy to see  the social and spiritual impact West-Park has  had on both the community and the church across the country. There are photos of Bob Davidson who led the church at the beginning of the More Light Movement for full inclusion of lgbtq people, Jan Orr Harter who directed  the Peace Education Center, Laura Jervis who created the West Side Federation for Senior  and Supportive Housing that has provided housing for thousands over the years, a poster from the Not in Our Name/Song for the City program we created after 9-11 to bring music to our public schools, a Point of Encounter poster from our ministry with immigrants and involvement in Brazil and Nicaragua, and in the last photo, a picture of our members on the steps last summer, our first step to coming back. And now we are back.

Hope comes in to report she’s purchased a new vacuum. Norm and Hope and Danielle talk about hanging the exhibit yesterday and how Theo, a young volunteer, had been the one to go up the ladder to the high places. The making of posters about the concert series  to hang outside is next on the agenda.  

Four visitors come in to look at the church. We’ve now got an archival display to help with interpretation. Champ, the boxer comes in again.  All I need is a place to hang my bag, he says. I’ll get those kids coming in. He talks of training Matt Damon again. How his stepmom led the Stryker’s Bay community tenants’ group. We have yet to be able to tell if he’s this amazingly connected guy or an old fighter who’s taken a few too many punches. 

Later Hope returns with the posters. Leila’s design, Danielle’s design. They look really good. When I return from picking up Nate at the airport, Danielle’s up on the ladder. I join her on the other side, hanging the posters. 

Now all we need is people to come. 

Norm, Theo (on ladder), Hope

Hope, Norm, Theo, Danielle

Forgive us our debts

6/6

The shopping cart is finally gone. But the cardboard bed is back. Two in fact. Who’s been sleeping here?

Norm comes in very excited. He’s figured out a way to mount the archival exhibit, easily.  It should be delivered by Thursday and we’ve got a crew to mount it on Saturday.  

Danielle and I planning the week, what can be done to make the concerts happen. Mim comes in, to catch up on recent events, to bring us lunch, cheer us on. It’s clear we need to get a cleaning service, ultimately a janitor. We can’t do it all.  

The days go by way too quickly.

6/7

Signs are up announcing auditions for Woodshed’s The Tenant. The front doors are closed, so when I go in the side, the woman there wants to know if I’m there to audition. I tell her that I work here, she smiles. 

Danielle is on the phone with Amanda. Time is running short for concert work. There’s a knot in my stomach that just won’t go away. Too many details left. Danielle is cheered that someone bought six tickets for Andre’s concert and is making them available to anyone who wants.  Then a woman comes in with her bicycle to buy a ticket. She’s with the New Amsterdam Singers. Toured with Andre. Remembers the difficult time when he attempted a comeback after his injury.  We need some more like her.

A young man named Jonas is looking at our brochure. I ask can I help him. He says, Isn’t debt forgiveness important to Presbyterians? And I say Yes, that when we say the Lord’s prayer, we say forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors instead of forgive us our trespasses. And I don’t really know why. And he explains that what he’s really interested in is international debt forgiveness. And I say, Oh, and yes I’m sure that we have a policy on that. 

I do a quick google and tell him that in 1998, the General Assembly, the denomination’s highest governing body,  endorsed and supported the ‘definitive cancellation of international debt in situations where countries with high levels of human need and environmental distress are unable to meet the needs of their people. . . in a way that benefits ordinary people and facilitates their participation in the processes of. . . debt relief.

He tells me that this was the topic for his master’s work. I give him the url for the whole report and he seems satisfied. There was a striking intensity to his questions, his eyes as he looked at me as I answered. He talks more about countries like Nicaragua, Haiti, more, denying their people the most basic resources in order to pay back debt. In many cases, the principle long since paid back. There's something draconian, if not demonic, about the whole reality.  We shake hands and he goes out the door. 

There are signs to make, e-mails to send....

Ascension Sunday: I'm here because I read your blog

6/5/11

Andre is waiting for me when I arrive. A quick look around is disheartening, it's going to take awhile to clean up. Someone has created a bed out of cardboard including a styrofoam pillow. As I’m sweeping, someone in line at Barney Greengrass says, Spring cleaning? No, I say, more like everyday cleaning. Then I lift up my head and bang into  the cross bar of the scaffolding. Painful in more  than one way. 

I leave Andre minding the store and head down the street to pick up the bulletins and get bread and juice for communion. Back in the church, I remember that the communion table was moved up a set of stairs for the  Friday night concert. Looking around at all that needs to be done, I realize, I can’t do this alone.  I do my best to make things presentable for 11 AM. Anxiety rising.

There are two visitors, a man and a woman in different pews. Anxiety rising more. What will they think? Will they be disappointed? Why can’t more people be here?  Slowly our people are arriving. 

I have Andre play some piano while I scurry around and finish preparation. Take a breath. Begin.

Just before I read the Ascension story, we pass the peace. The man who is visiting shakes my hand.He’s Doug from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I’m here because I read your blog, he says. And all of a sudden, I’m not worried anymore. He knows exactly who we are. And that’s why he’s here. I can relax, be myself.  Made my day.

It’s Ascension Sunday. I ask if anyone was ever a Brownie. (The visitor holds up her hand.)What was it called when you went from being a Brownie to a Girl Scout? Fly up day. Sort of what Ascension Day is  about. 

One of those portal Sundays through which we pass from one season to the next. Like Christ the King at the end of ordinary time. Transfiguration at the end of Epiphany. This is our portal to Pentecost.

So as Jesus is preparing them for his leaving, the question of the disciples is yet again, Lord will you now restore the Kingdom to Israel? They still so don’t get it. They’re still looking for Superman. Someone says, are we still looking for Superman?  And without hesitation I say, no, not this group. 

And I recall our history from the  real estate  deal that would have solved everything to its going away in the face of landmarking and the economy to the proposed sale and merger to deciding to come back to reclaiming the church, inch by inch, step by step. Every new bathroom cleaned and ready a victory won by the work of our own hands. Not waiting for Superman. Not this group.

So why did Jesus have to ascend? Fly up? Why couldn’t he stay around awhile, you  know, help us get organized? I recall the movie Harold and Maude. Harold gives Maude a ring and she holds it gently and  then throws it into the water. Shocked, Harold asks how she could do that. That’s so I’ll always know where it is, she says. 

As long as Jesus is here in earthly form, despite his capacity to pass through walls and all, he is still bound by time and space. Once he’s ascended, he can be every place at the same time. In me, in you...

The disciples keep looking up. Why are you looking up? The angels ask. It’s not up there, it’s down here. Here is where the action is. Here is where we live out, become together the living body of the risen Christ.  Which we will celebrate later as we share communion. It’s not the bread and wine  that is transformed, It is us, we who are transformed. 

We share the bread and cup. We sing In Christ there is no East or West, in English and Spanish. Make our circle. Say Alleluia, Amen! Sing Amen. The service is over. 

Danielle is taking a fire safety expert through the building. She takes a break to meet with the session. Talk about possible rentals. Our need for a dehumidifier. Outside signs. The Session also prepares for the dramatic Presbytery meeting coming up tomorrow night. And decides to invite Presbytery to meet here in November. We’ve got a meeting space. A room to eat dinner. Three bathrooms. And we have wi-fi. 

I take a break. Go visit Philip at his work at the Michalski Residence . Talk with him and Guillermo on the steps. Haven’t seen Guillermo since we left SPSA. I miss him. And we talk about Ruby. I tell him how her old friend Irene was lifted up among the saints by the More Light movement  following the victory. 

Fred from Jane’s church comes to check out our sound situation and see what can be done.  Get us ready for our concerts. It's been along day. Amazing how I can go from anxiety and be lifted into a space where it’s good, where worship really happens. And then, inevitably, the anxiety back again. 

A long day. A crazy day. A good day. One last pigeon. And opera singers.

6/3

A day with no time to catch your breath. Too much happening at the same time.  When I get to the church, Larry the electrician is working in the basement bathroom. Luis and his crew if volunteers are waiting, ready to go in and finish the bathrooms, they’ve already removed the mold. Piano Dan has the guts of the piano out and is hard at work, gently shaving hammers.  Danielle is concerned about the one last renegade pigeon.

RL had said that even though he wasn’t a Christian, he knew that a live bird in a church was a sign of good luck. Unless it’s the dove of the holy spirit, I’m not so sure I agree. I do remember our last several weeks here before moving out, a white pigeon roosted in the sanctuary. everybody though t it was a sign. Nobody knew of what.

So the Bob and Danielle pigeon removal team is called into action one last time. We’ve got the bird upstairs in Mc Alpin Hall. He’s perched in the open window of the overlooking office. The goal is to get him into the other overlooking office at the opposite end of the hall. And then out. Danielle and I go up to that office, to open the windows. As Danielle opens one, I hear her gasp. We watch as an air conditioner seems to  fall in silent slow  motion to the patio below ending with a loud  crash and a hiss of escaping freon. No harm, no foul. I manage to get an old pivot window open. We’re ready.

What ensues is the stuff of Charlie Chaplin, or worse, Three Stooges films. Danielle waiting above, me shooing the pigeon with a broom, and then when he’s perched out of reach, heaving soccer balls at him. Until he finally flies into the upper office and Danielle pulls the window shut.  And I race up to join her. 

The bird is doing that bird brain thing again, repeatedly flying into a closed glass window  with a clear escape route through the very next window. Danielle  is ready to leave him and lock the door. I say to try one more time. She’s got a large flat board, me a long stick. Together we’re  able to bat and maneuver the bird out the window. We quickly pull them shut. Another small victory.

We’ve got to have every hour planned just to get through the day. Returning from parking my call, Danielle calls to say that Bella has arrived to do follow up interviews for her work on the script for the gala. Hmm. Forgot about that. While Bella is interviewing me, Leila arrives with her version of a concert poster. Bright, alive, filled with color and photos.

Emiko has arrived. Performers are arriving for the concert run through. The piano is still like a body opened for surgery. The bathrooms are still being worked on. A representative from an energy company with a way to to save us money, you just need to... walks in and won’t leave. I’ve got to go to Gale Brewer’s office to meet with Kate Wood of Landmarks West! When I return, he’s still there.  

I’ve go to go home and change for the evening. Danielle has a look on her face like no mas, like things can’t go on like this. She’s right. 

It brings back memories. All the women in fancy gowns, the men in tuxes, warming u their voices. Ten years of Comfort Ye’s, Lauren her friends from the City Opera and the Met singing on behalf of the homeless. Lauren and I working into the wee hours  the night before, getting ready. The magic of the night itself. These singers bring that back.

The former Ambassador of Japan, Matoatsu Sakurai, is here. We are introduced and he speaks.Then I speak, welcoming all, telling our story. How tonight is another step on the way back. Two new bathrooms to celebrate. How this night is what we are, people of many races, cultures and languages, different musical and artistic traditions, arts and culture, all working out of compassion for healing. This is who we intend to be. Its the largest crowwd we’ve had since, well, the last Comfort Ye in 2006.

My neighbor and friend Ric Opens ten show. He also helps accompany Chizuru, the young dancer. There’s the famous pop composer, George Fischoff ,(Lazy Day, 98.6). Neo soul singer Tomoko who draws shout outs. A new musical by John T. Prestiani. Teresa Mai, Miss Vietnam Los Angeles. A Noh dancer. And an all star cast of up and coming young Asian and Latin opera stars singing,as Emiko says it, the best opera highlights, all capped off by 86 year old Met Diva, Lucine Amara, who can still bring down the house.  

During the performance I am back and froth form my own memories to enjoying the night to my intense stomach churning anxiety about our own concert series. We are so close to succeeding, y making the dream happen--it is happening---and at the same time close enough to the abyss to feel the wind and the downward pull of gravity. 

Ted and Asya have never ben to an event of this kind here before. The beauty, the sound, the intimacy blows them away. they are very happy. I’m very happy, another of those night I thought would never come again. 

The reception in the balcony with plenty of Japanese food and wine goes on past 11:30 PM.  realize that we’ve got no clean up strategy. It’s me, Emiko and her friends. An hour later, I’m finally heading home.  A long day. A crazy day. A good day.

Everything happens because of relationships

6/2

Move the shopping cart back to the city trash basket. Again. How many days will this  go on? Feels like a very slow dance.

A single empty mini brandy bottle. 

Get to the church following a meeting to strategize the restoration of the exterior. Target date? 2023. I will be 73 years old. The stabilization, however, can be done in two months. 

I drag fans to create a wind tunnel through the basement, dry out any remaining dampness. Last night’s crew, Luis in charge, removed all of the mold. That is a  victory. The fans crank up, start to blow.

The Con Ed guy arrives to read the meters. I take him down to the now drier basement to make his readings. Back in the office, the other George has arrived, Bible in hand, looking for a noontime service. I tell him we’re not there yet. He wants to know how many come to worship. Twenty to thirty, I tell him. That’s good, he says. Intimate. You have to tell them their assignments, what they need to do. . And then you will grow, he says. 

Piano Dan has come and is hard at work tuning. A Spanish woman comes looking for food. Mike Dominguez the boxer comes in, gloves strung over his shoulder. Wants to know why we haven’t followed up with him. Ready to start training kids . Says he’s going to train Matt Damon.

So it looks like Andre’s story and the concert will be in the New Yorker. They did their get acquainted interview with him yesterday,more to follow. All happened because of a soccer relationship. Everything happens because of relationships.

Soon Lily and Alma and Luis and Mandy have arrived for another round of cleaning. It’s amazing what they have accomplished. They are 5th generation members of this church. I’m in Mc Alpin looking through boxes for the original Presbyterians Today magazine article about the church and its work at Ground Zero with the center spread picture. It’s hot and sweaty up there.  A young Japanese dancer comes to check out sound  for tomorrow night’s concert. We try the old boom box. That’s all we’ve got. Now. 

Around midnight, I go to check the dead bolt. Lock it. Everything is quiet.

Today 27,000 New Yorkers will lose their rent subsidies

6/1

When I get to the church after my lectionary study, Dave is hard at work trying to make a functional lighting set up out of what we’ve got left. Danielle and I are trying to come  up with text for Norm’s archival display. We’re skyping with Amanda working on the concert series. Then Andre arrives ready to rehearse with Jed. 

Jed arrives and they begin to rehearse. The sounds from the sanctuary are truly amazing. Dave is trying to explain the whole lighting arrangement he’s come up with and I’m pretending to act like I actually understand what he’s telling  me. He’s also found the skeletal remains of our sound system.  We might actually be able to make something of this. 

I point out to Danielle how amazing this is, the details of lighting systems and Andre and Jed in the sanctuary. This can be a truly special concert. Willa anybody come? Will anybody even  know? 

Outside, I move the shopping cart beside the garbage container again. Beside the basket is an inch of pasta remains. A bike is chained to the scaffolding.

I leave to go talk to my colleague Pastor Elise about money. She pioneered the model of the open church doors, the office open to the street. For me that  model has made a radical difference. 

I greet Marty but he’s not into talking. Must be one of those  days. The Prophet is back on the steps, writing in his notebook, drinking from a Ballantyne Ale 40. I tell him he can’t do that, he holds up a wicker basket looking for a contribution. I put a dollar in his basket, remind him about the Ballantyne. 

Danielle and I press on to finish our work. She hasn’t met the Prophet before. We go outside, he’s got another 40. I remind him again. He mutters incomprehensible words. I still think he may have written the Amharic placard we found.

There’s a work crew coming to prepare for Friday’s concert. I’ve got to go be with the Interfaith Assembly on Housing and Homelessness, their service, their overnight vigil in City Hall Park. Today 27,000 New Yorkers will lose their rent subsidies. Tent cities in five boroughs. Cuomovilles. Will the Governor come through?  Got to be there.

Danielle calls me while I’m in the service. When she got back to the church, the deadbolt was unlocked and the light were on. When I had left I’d turned everything off and bolted the door. Weird. And a little scary. I tell her to have Luis do a complete walk through before leaving.