Another sweeping story

10/13

This blog began with a story of sweeping...the steps of West-Park church. Last November, a connection was found with men and women sweeping the streets of Managua, Nicaragua in the early morning. Today there is another sweeping story.

It is still dark when I arrive at Zucotti Park. Energy, spirits and tension is running high. All  around the edge of the park, I see people with brooms, sweeping. We are prepared, if necessary, to form a human chain around  the park to prevent police evicition. I see a young man in a collar sweeping and approach him. He’s one of the “protest chaplains”, a seminarian froom Union. I ask him what it’s been like. 

He tells me that they have been a constant presence. That once occupiers got used to them being there, they began to accept them, to talk. Ask questions. And there had even been requests for baptisms. As we’re talking, a cheery young woman approaches. Hey, another collar person! She too is a chaplain, a seminarian. I ask who’s in charge. And they tell me, we’re in the spirit of the occupation, we share leadership. (I do know that friends at Auburn Seminary had provided trainng yesterday to prepare for police action.)

Soon I’m surrounded by a circle of collar wearing men and women, all with brooms. Many have written phone numbers and other information on their arms and wrists in case of arrest. And I came here this morning prepared for that possibility myself. Only wondering about my healing back.

A marching band is providing music. I see two men quietly playing chess, as I have every time I’ve been down there. Breakfast is being served.  I see, greet  and hug my friend from St. Mary’s Episcopal, Father Earl Koopercamp. Another one of my if he’s there it’s real colleagues. 

The word begins to spread....the city has backed down.  There will be no eviction today. Cheers wring out. And one by one people get up, call out mike check, and begin to speak.

A burly middle aged man stands up. I’ve been a trade unionist all my life. And this is a true people’s victory.  Don’t let any one take this away from you. Allow yourselves a moment to appreciate what you’ve done. Today we won a victory. And every win counts. 

And then there’s a young clean cut man in a suit, City Councilmember Steve Levin from Park Slope Brooklyn, calling out mike check. This is a victory for people who still believe  in democracy, that democracy still belongs to the people. The voters of ths city wouldn’t let you be evicted. The stayed on us until we stayed on the mayor. Money’s not the only power.

Later I learn how right that was. All day long people kept up the pressure. I called my Councilmember Gale Brewer. She assured me that the progressive caucus would keep meeting, keep asking to speak to the mayor. Thousands of ordinary New Yorkers kept calling. One of my clergy colleagues called 311 over 20 times. Finally even the owner of the park told the mayor to back off. 

The people united...

There’s a spirit of celebration. Voices begin calling for a march down Boradway to City Hall to say thank you. The sanitation task force calls on everyone to grab a mop or broom and sweep up as they march up Broadway. And brooms in hand, the march begins. 

                           * * * * 

Eleven o’clock. Judson Memorial Church. An interfaith clergy gathering and press conerence. Behind the lectern is Judson’s notorious Golden Calf, looking a lot like the Wall Strreet bull, created to point to the worship of false idos. I sit beside my friend and colleague Annie Rawlings who has been staffing the Intefaith Center’s Prepare New York to further understanding in light of the tenth anniverdary of 9-11. (West-Park’s showing of Divided We Fall was part of that campaign.) She's also been a key organizer in the new emerging PHEWA Criminal Justice Network . And  Mark Greenburg of the Interfaith Assembly on Housing and Homelessness. And my friend Kellie Anderson Picallo  from Auburn, one of  the chaplain trainers. Representatives of Interfaith Immigration Action. There’s an opening Buddhist chant. A chanted verse from the Koran. A Jewish prayer. Then Rev. Michael Ellick of Judson uses the people’s mike to read the statement of solidarity that had emerged from an interfaith working group. 

Line by line the statement echoes back:

We, the people of faith communities throughout New York and the United States, see in the spirit of Occupy Wall Street a promise of democracy renewed. 

Our spiritual traditions are clear: the impoverishment of the many for the benefit of the few destroys us all. The cries of our people are clear: the American dream is compromised; the middle is slipping away; and in our politics, fairness is dissipating. The Soul of our Nation is threatened by many false idols. 

So together we affirm the golden rule: do to others as you would have them do unto you. We commit ourselves to the restoration of justice for all in our economy, and compassion in our politics, that together we might behold a revolution of values for all our people. We ask all Americans to join us in this prayer, that once again our country might be the fulfillment of hopes and dreams for all who reach its shores. 

(To learn more an sign on go to 

http://www.groundswell-movement.org/occupy)

Already over 150 clergy had signed.

And then one of the longtime faithful witnesses, The Rev. Herbert Daughtry of the House of the Lord church in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, who goes back to King and the Civil Rights Days, ever young even after 80, comes to close out the talks. He gets a standing ovation from his peers. And then says, I liked that, that was good. Do that again. At my age, I’ll take all of those I can get. He reminds us of a 1978 march on Wall Street. Quotes from Hillel: If I am not for myself,who will be? But if I am only for myself, who am I? And James Baldwin: nothing is as dangerous as a society letting loose someone with nothing to lose. Then reminds us that in his last week, as he was preparing  for the Poor People’s Campaign, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, What this country needs is a radical redistribution of economic and political power. 

the golden calf

The time had come to lift up the calf and process to Zucotti Park where the statement of solidarity would be shared. 

A confrontation is looming

10/13

Piano Dan is in the sanctuary with a young woman singer named Julia. They are rehearsing, making a video, working on a promo to help them get what Dan calls a real gig. They’re rolling out some pop standards, light jazz. I’ve never heard Dan do that kind of harmony before. To be honest, it’s very comforting, calming to hear them filling the sanctuary.

It’s the kind of day with too much to handle. As you dig in to deal with what must be dealt with, new demands keep coming across the e-mail.  We’ve got a boiler to build, a benefit to organize, a fund raising effort to carry out. Jane’s congregation is in a rapidly evolving crisis and we seem to have a role to play. And the situation at Zucotti Park, at Occupy Wall Street,  is changing by the minute. It appears that Mayor Bloomburg is going back on his word and the NYPD is planning to empty the park at 7 am for sanitation reasons. Occupiers will only be allowed back in under rules that will completely change what this occupation has been. A confrontation is looming. 

Sarah rushes back in to pick up the wallet she has left and then back out again.

Dan and Julia have finished. He tells me that Julia is an accomplished songwriter as well. She says the space has inspired her. That it's a blessing to sing here. And I see that RL has arrived, guitar in hand. His beard is beginning to grow out in his fall/winter Dusty Withers,famous sidekick  persona. Dan and Julia leave.

We’ve got to show RL what the sound system can do, so the Beatles’ I’ve Got a Feeling fills the space in full stereo and RL breaks out in a big smile. Look, he says, the Tribal Council has been after me. After me to make something happen here. But I have to know what’s the plan for the boiler. Without that, nothing happens. And so we try to bring him  to date with Gale Brewer, Lisa Semple, the plumber....

I step out for a minute. When I come back, RL is deep in conversation with a guy from Australia who has just wanderd in while his wife gets her nails done. He very soon will inivte the Aussies to join him at St. James’ Gate, his office, for a drink. 

A woman comes in buscando para ayuda.  She wants to know si alguien aqui habla espanol. I tell her si and that she needs to go to la iglesia a la esquina de ochenta y seis y Avenida West End. She nods and takes off. I begin to say to Danielle And your next project is... and she tells me she’s already lining up Spansih lessons at El Taller.


Jane has brought a friend from the coast, Deryl, to check things out. He quickly decides he's like to tackle painting the bathrooms. Starting tomorrow.


Danielle looks up, smiles, hey can I help you? she says. I look up and its the Prophet in all his subSaharan rastaman glory. At the end of a long incomprehensible stream of words i hear, church? Yes, were a church, I say, you are welcome to come in, sit down rest awhile. You are welcome. His eyes dart back  and forth awhile. Then he turns and leaves. He's never set foot inside the church before. I wonder whatt brought him in. 


A woman comes in with a bag of food, (actually good food), for the homeless. 

And I’m now checking the latest to see if I’ve got to be at Zucotti Park at 6 AM. If so, it will be a collar occasion. 

Publish Post

KIller sound, wifi, sketchy bathrooms and no heat

10/12

I come to the church after our clergy lectionary study and then  a clergy workshop on mindfullnes. It was helpful, though the part on mindful eating, slowly experiencing a strawberry and two grapes, might have gone  easier without the  box of Krispy Kreme donuts, including cream filled, on a  table so near by.

Things are  looking a bit scruffy on the steps. I find a paper bag with an empty Romanoff vodka bottle. 

Down to meet Jane at Starbucks. She's just back from a funeral in California.  There is much to talk about including the upcoming visit of the Daily News to West-Park this Sunday. At the end of our conversation, I bring her back to the church to hear the sound system.  For oldtimes sake, ie, remembering those Wooshed afternoons, I put on Michicant by Bon Iver. And it sounds every bit as good.   Jane is blown away..She calls up Jeremy and holds the phone opens so he can hear. I can’t wait to see what he would  with all this. 

I tell her what I said yesterday: killer sound, wifi, sketchy bathrooms and no heat. 

On Janes phone is a picture of me bending over to talk to one of the guys on the steps. 

Forgiveness (II)

10/11

When I come in, my time is tight, little time to talk with Danielle. But Mark is in the sanctuary hard at work setting up the sound system.  And Danielle’s deeply involved. This isn’t going to work. 

I go out. Come back an hour later. Mark is still there. You have to hear this, he says, and pops Revolver into the cd player. And the sounds of Got to Get You Into My Life fill up the sanctuary. And it’s every bit as filling as Woodshed’s was. He pulls me half way up the center aisle and I hear the stereo division of sound, grinding guitars  and trumpets. Got to get you into my life...And for a moment I’m remembering the day before at the gallery on Wooster Street, filed with John Lennon’s artwork, his music filling the space...Then Mark takes me to see all that he’s stored: six studio quality mikes, more amps and speakers, stands, an eight track mixer, a fourteeen track mixer. We could go into business. (In fact, he suggests that.) 

I test out my I tunes. There’s Danny Kalb playing the blues. And the sweet harmonies of the Grateful Dead singing Attics of my Life..Okay. So we’ve got wifi. A killer sound system. Shabby bathrooms. And a dead boiler.

It’s time for Danielle to get her computer hooked up for our evening’s film showing.

I get there late from doing a devotional at a Presbytery Council meeting over on the East Side. Forgiveness... has already begun.  There’s a good turnout. As in Part 1, there’s a lot of painful ground to cover. A woman who abandoned her husband and two children to go to Portland, Oregon and start a new life. An African general who made human sacrifices before battles.  Genocides in Europe (the Holocaust) and Africa (Rwanda.) Reagan’s blundering Bitberg fiasco. (You cannot forgive something that didn’t happen to you...) The ground breaking Truth and Reconciiation Commission in South Africa. What emerges is the importance of time. And process.

In  the film I see my friend Don Shriver. And Thane Rosenbaum, who once came to see me wirh Rudy. I wonder  what his thoughts  are now. About our building. Or Rudy.

Following the film, Eleanor introduces the award winning  writer, producer and director, documentarian par excelence, Helen Whitney. She asks how she handled being absorbed into this process..And for Helen it had to do  the stories more than anything, how these stories opened up this conplex, elusive and frustrating subject. 

People have questions. Is it possible without religion? or God? they ask.  Absoluteley, she says. My Catholic friend in the film said it best, it’s primordial, it was there before religion. Then the question of evil arrrives.  I’ve never got that hate the sin, not the sinner, she said. It’s not about a program. I’ve come to say that I believe that there is evil, a force of evil we mustc ontend with.  

Her favorite scene is West German chancellor Willy Brandt instincitvely fall to his kneees at Bergen-Belsin.  Lots of qustions. We’ll pick them up next week when we come back together for discussion.  Helen ends by saying  that anger can be as lifesaving for the indiviidual as forgiveness and that likewise it can liberate us, free us, allows us to love again.

When everyone has gone, Danielle, Sarah and I clean up.  We show Sarah what the cound system can do. She laughs,  plays us music from some of her Brooklyn friends. As we talk, I’m moved to see that beyond business, this project has become personal for Sarah. She’s one of us. 

Outside, the cardboard shelters are up again. And Paul seems to have returned. 

Columbus Day

10/10

Columbus Day. Supposed to be a day off but....I meet Hope on the steps. We go to Popovers for conversation. One of the core issues is how to make clear the church’s welcome to lgbtq people. Not just as our heritage, but an ongoing commitment. How does the church fully realize its gospel calling? How does West-Park carve out, create its living witness in the context of what is going on around us and in the context of a church whose historic reality is already past?

While we are talking, I’m not aware that Ji Young has come to the church. She had come Friday afternoon to pick up her check. Shared her ongoing struggles with her daughter Miranda. Tuesday is Miranda’s birthday. I promised to help. Having missed her at West-Park, I’ll have to head down to Times Square to meet her. I’m getting anxious about time. 

                                                       * * * * 

It’s late at night. I’m helping Nate with an assignment for his public speaking course. After an hour of frustration, the home internet simply will not cooperate. I head to the church to us the wifi. Get his paper to him. Then in the quiet of the office, watch Helen Whitney’s powerful film on Forgiveness. We will show Part 2 Tuesday night. Helen herslef will be  there.  The film itself is profoundly moving opening up the complexity of the issues and the way it has become a much more central question for individuals and societies. Part 1 deals with, among other examples, the Amish reponse to the murder of their children, a brutal axe attack against two innocent women in a park in Oregon and the aftermath for both the victims and the small town, and the case  of Katherine Powers, a fugitive from a politically motivated bank robbery/homicide in the Vietnam era and what atonement really means even as we continue to bear the scars of that era. (For more information see http://www.pbs.org/programs/forgiveness/ The film is also available through Netflix.)

As I head home at almost 3 AM, there are five people asleep on the steps. Not only two cardboard beds but two dwellings have been created. All that cardboard has been seeen tucked away between the wall and scaffolding on Sunday. Deacon James  says that he gets people to leave in the morning, but something held him back from throwing away the cardboard. Andre was not too sure about that. And I too...Anyways, there are five. This is getting worse. 

And the world lives here

10/10

A beautiful,warm, nearly perfect fall day.  Andre is there at the door as I arrive.  I go to pick up the bulletins and a coffee at Barney Greengrass, which is on Gary this morning. When I had been in  Thursday, I said to the counter guy, I know this is a rough week for you guys, knowing of the crush of business that comes each High Holy Day season. Nah, he said, these are hard times for people. A  lot of people don’t have it so good. This, all this business, it’s a blessing. And he’s right. 

Deacon James comes, looking for a broom. They all seem to be locked away. Today’s guest, Mark Koenig, from the Presbyterian UN office arrives and is immediately put to work moving the communion table back up front. The congregation is  characteristically slow in arriving.

I’m glad I’m not focusing on the Lectionary readings this morning, not with that strange Matthew passage (22:15-22) where the guest gets thrown into outer darkenss, that weeping and gnashing of teeth place, just for not having the right robe. 

I invite Mark to join me in a dialogue. There’s a lot in the world to talk about, beginning with rapid and radical changes in the Middle East. What impact has that had in the UN? Mark’s work?  Mark says that even though there’s been rapid change, many of the dynamics remain the same.  And that situations, even arising from a  similar inspiration, can be much more complex than they seem.

For example, in Egypt, the poster child of protest, it appears that a military friendly to the dictator is simply being replaced by a military unfriendly to the dictator. There are real questions about what happened in Libya and how and the potential ongoing problems that may result from international intervention there. And in Syria, given the number of national security forces who have died, it appears more like a civil war than a general uprising.

An accompanying problem is the increasing vunerability of the Christian community in the region, beginning with the Copts in Egypt. In Syria, the Christian community has long been protectd by the Assad governmnet and there is a fear that the oppresion that resulted in Iraq could be repeated there.  Especially those who had earlier fled Iraq to come to seek exile in Syria.  We continue to listen to our mission partners in the region to understand the complexity of the issues as well as to shape our corporate responses. 

Another problem just off the radar, continues in Southern Sudan, a new nation. The security council has wrestled with how to repond to the violence, in light of the questions raised by experiences in Libya. And the suffering goes on. 

Mark also does his best to explain the compicated situation with Palestine’s request to become a member nation. What determines nationhood, he reminds us, is not UN membership but whether any country recognizes you, exchanges diplomats, etc,which many countries already do with Palestine. And there are many ways the decision can go, from outright rejection, to more study, to acceptance with an inevitable US veto to granting of a non-member status that raises them from simply an observer to one that could sign treaties, engage international courts, etc. Behind everythng is the subtle ongoing effects of World War II and the victors.  

So all in all, the passion for freedom, the pent up anger against the way things are, from Cairo to Wall Street, is similar, connected. But the results are anything but coherent or consistent. 

In defining their different roles, Ryan is the across the street guy, meaning the UN, and Mark is the church guy, traveling, speaking,interpreting, hosting church mission groups and occasionally moving communion tables. As West-Park continues to evolve, a commitment to global discipleship is a primary concern. And Mark has proven to be a good friend in developing that concern. Here in New York City, we live in the world. And the world lives here.

After the service, we talk about Wooster, where Mark was last week. For Hope and I, it was our church’s historical international mission involvement that gave Wooster such an international presence even in smalltown Ohio. Children from other countries who had been educated  in our schools as did children of mission workers who’d grown up in the mission fields. It was also mission workers who had sensitized Mark to the complexties of the Israel-Palestine conflcit.

And of course, we both looked forward to another Steeler Sunday. It’s like being from an ethnic group for those of us in the Pittsburgh diaspora. It;s always there.

And that conversation is growing

10/7

Hope is here to gallery sit, greet any visitors who come to see the Telling the Truth installation. I’m excited to tell her about the words I’m receiving from clergy colleagues about Occupy Wall Street.  Many more than I realized were in the march and several on their own have gone down to check out what’s going on. Neighborhood colleagues are working to plan what we can do together. I’m also excited to tell her of tonight’s Yom Kippur Kol Nidre  Jewish High Holy Days services that will take place at the site. This is the kind of dialogue we need to begin.

Hope has been in conversation with our anti-sweatshop friends who are seeking to link up with the Occupy movement. Tracy would like to get them to stage a solidarity march int Chinatown.  We need to figure out when to get them into church as we had planned before my surgery. This Sunday I’ve invited Mark Koenig from our UN office for a dialogue on the impact of this global explosion on the UN and its work .  Maybe next week we can focus on Food Justice.

While we are talking Imam Feisal and his assistant Katy arrive at the church to have a tour and think about possibilities.  Imam Feisal and his wife Daisy Khan are well know for their work  in interfaith understanding. They are leaders of the Cordoba Initiative, an international interfaith effort to work in the spirit of the multifaith city state that was Cordoba at its creative, innovative peak.  And he was the Imam of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, a controversy stirred up by the New York Post  with misleading and just plain false information. The project was neither at Ground Zero nor was it primarily a mosque. So it goes. The have managed to keep their heads in a post 9-11 time of  well, Islamophobia. That’s all you can call it when directed against a worker for understanding, who’s seeking in the emerging Arab world to seek a path that would honor Islam while also creating inclusive, progressive democracies.

As we go through the building, it’s hard for me to explain the current state of semi-demolition, the deconstructed pieces of Woodshed’s sets filling the rooms. He’s looking for worship space, education space. Maybe more. He’s intrigued by the Egytpian cartouches on the Woodshed movie theatre set. And the papyrus in my office that moved from storage to the speakeasy poker nook to the Zy’s dining room during the Tenant. A native of Egypt, he’s interested in the work I did there and elsewhere during the eighties.  I sincerely hope we can find a way to work together. 

It is actually painful seeng the world Woodshed created disappear. There’s an aching feeling of emptiness.  

As I finish with the Imam, I see that Danielle is talking with a neighbor who is working on another end of our building project. His daughter has just returned from school and joined them.  

John H comes in to see how we’re doing and talk about Occupy as performance, as art and how the religious community can relate. If it extends into winter, do we gather up used New York City Marathon mylar blankets and take them down? Do we create an early warning system in case of an effort by police to clear the park? Do we offer shelter? He’s fascinated by the Yom Kippur action. What can Christians do?

If nothing else, Occupy has instigated dialogue and discussion every where I go in  the city. And that conversation is growing.

Finally, there is a knotty problem to work out. Frog & Peach is scheduled to rehearse in Mc Alpin but the gallery show is mainly on the floor. (Didn’t see that coming.) So they can be in the sanctuary though its not good rehearsal space. The prpoblem will be tomorrow when the Jazz Academy comes for their big band rehearsal. And the problem is making clear that this is not personal but about trying to make the best of a complicated situation. That’s all.

Danielle is still struggling with this as I need to leave for an old friend and colleague’s 80th birthday party. David has been a lifelong supporter of PHEWA serving as its newsletter editor and a founding member of Presbyterian Welcome. (Happy Birthday, Dave!)  And then I will join Andrea at the Yom Kippur event at Occupy Wall Street.