FAITH HOUSE Manhattan

A Sabbath Poem (St. Augustine)

      IN PRAISE OF DANCING
      ~ by St. Augustine

      I praise the dance, for it frees people
          from the heaviness of matter
          and binds the isolated to community.
      I praise the dance, which demands everything:
          health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.
      Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people,
          who are in constant danger of becoming all brain,
          will, or feeling.
      Dancing demands a whole person, one who is
          firmly anchored in the center of his life, who is
          not obsessed by lust for people and things
          and the demon of isolation in his own ego.
      Dancing demands a freed person, one who vibrates
          with the balance of all his powers.
      I praise the dance.
      O man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven
          will not know what to do with you.

(source: Bruderhof, Daily Dig)

Has Samir Gone Mad

~ by Sean E. Evans, Ph.D. is a staff psychologist at a forensic psychiatric state hospital in California

As the Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett once wrote, “All men are born mad, some remain so.” It is arguable whether Samir has grown out of this madness or is falling into it. The thought, “What is Samir doing?” has crossed my mind a few times since he announced his plans for the Faith House Manhattan project. A confession, however, is in order: this is not the first time that I have had thoughts like these about Samir. Whether he is dancing while talking about God, or growing out his hair, or leaving the career path towards leading a large church or teaching at a university, or moving with his family of four to uncharted waters of financial insecurity trusting that support will come, or believing that Christians, Jews, and Muslims can learn to be one family for the good of the world, or that atheist have a prophetic role to religious people today, you have got to be wondering: “What is Samir doing?”

I have known Samir for about four years now. He is someone who both inspires and frustrates me. He has shaped, actually re-shaped, my view of the Kingdom of God. I met him at a time when I was very weary and pessimistic about “church” and did not believe that there was much hope to be found within an institution. But I learned to trust God (and God’s people) again, including my own denomination (Seventh-day Adventist Church). Samir often describes me as someone who works with “Hannibal Lector” types from movie Silence of the Lambs, but I like to think of my work in both clinical and forensic psychology as simply “a calling.”

Recently, my wife (Jackie) and I went on a trip to New York City with Samir in order to get a first hand glimpse of what he is getting into. I won’t go into detail here about the trip, but it was an amazing experience. It was enjoyable to have the opportunity to associate faces with the friends and good people that Samir has talked about over the years. The City has a charm that comes with the beauty of age and experience.

Notwithstanding the charm of Manhattan, it is hard to imagine why someone would trade comfort, stability, and open space for the edginess, uncertainty and confinement that waits in the city. It makes little sense both to me and to most people I know. We spend the majority of our lives seeking those things: comfort, stability, and space. These things not only have practical value; but, symbolic value as well. Those folks that are “successful,” seem to have a surplus of those symbols. I find myself wondering, “Samir can pursue these and succeed! Why doesn’t he?”

There is a psychiatric disorder known as “folie a deux” that translates to the “madness shared by two.” It is a condition where one individual who has a genuine psychotic disorder (i.e., they have completely lost touch with reality) transmits that disorder to someone else. Literally, the “madness shared by two.” The interesting thing about this condition is that the person “infected” does not know that they are “out of touch” with reality. Moreover, there is often the belief that everyone else has gone mad.

You probably know where I am going with this. Something about Samir being “out of touch with reality” (i.e., has gone mad) and that all those in support of him have “shared his madness.” If that were the case, then my suggestion would be to avoid the “Kool-Aid” offered by Samir. Actually, that is not what I am thinking.

Rather, the Faith House Manhattan project is part of the solution to the madness that we all share. Our planet Earth is slowing down and running out of options. Global warming, environmental disasters, pollution, violence, weapons of mass destruction (regardless whether they are found or not!), genocide, AIDS, human slavery and trafficking, religious and national extremism, and poverty threaten our existence. The barrage of information and exposure to different peoples and ideas (a reality made possible by the Internet and globalization) threaten to make our belief systems (i.e., religious and otherwise) obsolete and irrelevant.

This is the madness that we share as part of being human. In contrast, The Faith House Manhattan project is an experiment of hope and possibility. It is an investment in the radical notion that the world can and will be a better place when we realize that the Kingdom of God exists outside of our usual religious categories; as Christ stated, “The Kingdom of God is here.” What Samir is doing, vis-à-vis the Faith House Manhattan project, is making the responsible and sane decision to risk everything for the hope of a new world. He is moving beyond talking about it and actually attempting to live it through a community. Although it is easy to be pessimistic about the possibility of this new world and believe that folks who are willing to invest their lives in such possibilities have lost their minds, it seems to me that the opposite is true. Perhaps believing that the world is neither salvageable nor worth saving is a form of madness. It certainly is a madness that is shared by many. “What is Samir doing? Has he gone mad?” What do you think?

Caveat: I am using some psychiatric terms (i.e., folie a deux) and colloquial terms (i.e., “madness”) rather loosely here. This post should never replace the advice of a doctor and should not be used to formerly diagnose individuals, especially family members.

A Sabbath Poem (Updike)

      PERFECTION WASTED
      ~ by John Updike
       ... grieving with the Virginia Tech community

      And another regrettable thing about death
      is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
      which took a whole life to develop and market--
      the quips, the witticisms, the slant
      adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
      the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
      in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
      their tears confused with their diamond earrings,
      their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
      their response and your performance twinned.
      The jokes over the phone. The memories packed
      in the rapid-access life. The whole act.
      Who will do it again? That's it: no one,
      imitators and descendants aren't the same.

(from Good Poems, selected by Garrison Keillor, Penguin, 2002)

CityLights: A Report from the City

~ by Julijana Kojic, a graduate (Master of Theology) of Eastern Orthodox St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary in New York, interested in spirituality and women's studies, soon to be mother, and a director of CityLights

CityLights is a group of spiritual seekers, based in New York, which has existed now for five years. We began as two home groups of friends meeting in the apartments, one on the East Side and another on the West Side of Manhattan. The idea behind these weekday evening meetings was to bring us closer together in the space outside of the walls of our houses of worship, where we could share life together and explore what an authentic community can be.

In 2003 CityLights started to gather for worship on Sabbath. Throughout our short history we saw ourselves as a group that wants to be inclusive and to learn from different spiritual traditions. Although most of us are of Christian background, diversity is cherished and persons of any faith or no faith are welcome and invited to participate in the community life, discussions, and activities that we organize or to just observe.

Since our inception, the mission of the CityLights community has been “learning to love well.” We know that God is love and want to discover and understand from our own and other traditions what that means and how it can be lived out. We are looking for God's face in the faces of our neighbors, the people that live around us. New York is home for God's children of Eastern and Western Christianity, Islam and Judaism, of secular thinkers and many other religions who carry wisdom and goodness in their traditions.

Exploring Spirituality (La Sierra University Church, CA)

~ by Samir Selmanovic

I have been invited by a wonderful staff team of La Sierra University Church to join them for the last two months of my stay in California. Below is the information about what I will be working on. Those of you who are driving distance from Riverside, please join us as we explore rich and progressive treasure of Seventh-day Adventist faith. La Sierra University is one of the most vibrant, progressive, and diverse Christian universities on the West Coast. For those of you who are not from our tradition, this would be a great chance to learn as well as teach us, as we walk together to a place none of us have ever been before!

_ _ _ _ _
Dancing Again: An Invitation to Adventist Spirituality

Authentic Adventist spirituality transcends the divisions between liberal and conservative, between young and old, and between those who grew up in the church and those who are joining her today. Deep down, there is something that we have in common. What is it that moves us?

      Apr 28      Hearing the Music: Revelation Beyond Information

      May 5       Courage to Move: Becoming Truly Prophetic

      May 12     DISCUSSION TIME

      May 19     Silence First: Sabbath as Revolution

      May 26     Unforced Rhythms of Grace: Theology of Time

      Jun 2        Seeing God Dance: Waiting Well

      Jun 9        Joining Dance Challenged: Inside Out Remnant

      Jun 16      Finding Dance Partners: Two-way Evangelism

Saturdays 9:30-10:45
Southeastern California Conference
11330 Pierce Street, Riverside, CA 92515

Facilitated by Samir Selmanovic and Svitlana Skachkova, these gatherings are a new phase of young adult ministry in La Sierra University Church and an opportunity for you to meet new friends. A note to gray and white haired: if you know a thing or two about life and God, please honor us with your presence. We need your friendship and wisdom. For any questions, please contact us at:

samir@faithhousemanhattan.org skachkova_s@yahoo.com
Come to make an impact in building a community that knows how to move!

The Good News Can Get You Killed

~ by Ryan Bell, the Senior Pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church, currently completing his Doctor of Ministry in Missional Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary. To read more from Ryan go to his blog Intersections.

Our world relates to religion today in terms of exclusion. Our identity is that we’re not you. As a leader in a Christian community I have witnessed first-hand how exclusive religion can be. However, this exclusivity is not part of the Hebrew story or the Christian story as understood in the life and teachings of Jesus. Take, for example, Jesus’ first public sermon.

Jesus has returned to his hometown of Nazareth. On this particular Sabbath he stands in the synagogue to read from the scroll. Today’s reading: the prophet Isaiah. You can read the story for yourself in Luke 4:14-30. You might want to take a minute now, click on this link, and read the story. The mood in the synagogue changes rapidly.

One minute the people are praising Jesus saying, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? My how he’s grown up. Just look him now and listen to the confident way he expounds the scripture!” Yet the next minute Jesus is being run out the synagogue by a murderous crowd intent on his demise. What happened?

It seems that Jesus’ interpretation of Isaiah was that God’s healing and liberating work extended beyond the boundaries of Israel. That may not seem very scandalous on the surface, but it is very much like suggesting that God’s grace extends to Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and people of no faith. Judging from the things I’m reading these days, that is a scandalous suggestion indeed. Scandalous enough to get someone killed. Verse 29: “They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.”

Look closer at Jesus’ words. What is it that triggers this violent reaction? Jesus is pointing to Israel’s own narratives which indicate that at certain times in history, in the times of two of Israel’s celebrated prophets, God preferred the Gentiles.

Notice vv. 25,26 – “But there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.” (Hint: Sidon is not Israel).

Again in v. 27 - “There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” (Once again, Syria and Israel are worlds apart).

A modern equivalent might be something like, “There were many churches in America at the dawn of the 21st century, but none were blessed by God like the mosque in downtown Los Angeles.” I dare say a comment like that from a Christian pulpit would raise a few eyebrows. The speaker might even find himself or herself run out church by a violent angry crowd. Central to Israel’s story and faith, and therefore central to the Christian story, is the truth that God is the God of all nations.

Here at the beginning of Luke’s gospel he foreshadows the open embrace of God that will become a reality later in the story. In Luke’s second volume, Acts, the emerging Jesus movement becomes a Gentile movement. The seeds of the inclusive and expansive understanding of God has its seeds in Israel’s own story and in the life and teaching of Jesus. Reading the Bible with an eye on the fact that God makes his love available to every human being uncovers a number of telling texts such as this one in Luke.

Today, millions of people of all religions and no religion at all, claim exclusive access to the truth, or even to God Himself. But God is no more willing to be limited to one group today than he was in the days of Elijah, Elisha, or Jesus.

Emergent Village Podcast

~ by Justin Kim

Emergent Village is a growing, generative friendship among missional Christians seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.  Recently, two of Samir's sermons have been featured on the Emergent Village podcast:  Finding Our God in the Other and Courage.  These sermons have generated some passionate discussions at Emergent Village.  Check it out and contribute with your comments!

While there, you can also subcribe to the Emergent Village podcasts and newsletter. Audio and video versions of these sermons are also available under the "Featured Sermons" section on the right sidebar of this website.

A Sabbath Poem (Robbins)

      A MILESTONE
      ~ by Jessica Robbins, CA

      I find myself living opposites at the same time
            Healthier and stronger than I ever thought possible
            Spent and weaker than I ever expected

      “I have longed to tell my story and pour my tears to you
            Or just sit silently
            With pain too heavy to hold on my own.”

      I have done things I am ashamed of
            I fail my own ideals, I believe in lies
            Facing the prospect of stumbling like this for the rest of my days

      I don’t live with certainty anymore
            Hope is my theology, my religion
            That there is a God
            Who has compassion for me

            Who can see
            And looks

            At me,
            Feeling love, and not regret

(thank you Jess for sharing your poem with us)

Not a Believer Yet

~ by Samir Selmanovic

Yesterday, my two daughters had a debate in the car. It started with nine-year-old Leta stating, "I don't think Faith House will work out." When 11-year-old Ena probed into it, Leta strenuously argued that Jews, Muslims, and Christians won't be able to tolerate each other's ways. She said, "It is just too complicated. People just want to do what they want to do. And there are too many holidays to keep track of. I don’t think people can’t do it."

I interpreted her ways as saying that although monotheists might believe in the same God, they are all actually monomythic--believing that there is only one way, one truth, and one path that leads to one God. Monomythic monotheists not only reject all other gods, they reject all other explanations of one God.

I am convinced that all three monotheistic religions have internal resources that can help them not only tolerate, but embrace one another and be better Jews, Muslims, and Christians for it. Nevertheless, I was speechless listening to my daughters. Two of the most tender beings I know were discussing arguably the hardest problem on earth.

They have to. It’s their future that is at stake.

On my trip to Ethiopia couple of years ago, we took about two thousand pictures. It was only a year after the trip that I took a closer look at one of the pictures taken by my friend Larry Thomas. Here it is.

What is peculiar in this picture?

Do you see it?

Don't read on until you see it (tip: if you click on the image, the larger picture will pop up).

Each of the three girls wears a religious symbol. Can you name the three religions?

I remember the place where we took this picture. It was a brief stop on the street, not choreographed or arranged in any way. The three girls were playing together in the slums of Addis Ababa. It was a part of the city where people's religions had to work together for the benefit of one another.

Their families were struggling to keep food on the table and to send their children to school to learn to read and write. In the midst of their struggle to live, their religions were their allies, not part of the problem. I saw that over and over again. There was so much happiness in their lives together. Muslim leaders embraced Catholic nuns, and then both asked us to give a break to our driver who has been fasting all day observing his Orthodox holiday. One of the nuns told me, “We don’t care about which religion anyone is. We are all brothers and sisters. If we don’t care for each other, we die.”

So, I’m thinking, if it’s possible to live as brothers and sisters in humanity at this small scale, in slums of a big poor city, why not elsewhere? We too are coming to a place where we cannot afford to live out our religions only for our own benefit.

We are stuck together on this earth, whether we want it or not, and this reality dawns on us every time we leave isolated circles of our religions or ideologies. And every time we walk out on the street. Or turn on the news. There are more and more of “the other” in our midst. The difference between now and the past is that these encounters are becoming more frequent, and more is at stake each time. This goes beyond global communication, politics, and business. Most of us literally have someone else living in our family, or we will soon when our children or grandchildren marry.

Without living for the benefit of one another, our religions are becoming increasingly useless. If a religion cannot bless those who do not belong to it, it cannot bless at all. It has nothing more to say.

As things look right now, for my young daughters there is no way back to religion as we contemporary grown ups know it. The religion they would join would need to be great at blessing its non-adherents.

Is Faith House possible? My younger one is not a believer. Yet. Perhaps my life work is to show her and her friends that humanity and God are capable of making this happen.