FAITH HOUSE Manhattan

Songs About All of Us: Susan Werner's Heaven So Small

~ by Samir Selmanovic

For my last birthday my dear friend Ralf gifted me with a CD by songwriter Susan Werner called "The Gospel Truth." Self described as "evangelical agnostic" Susan expresses the struggle we all have with religion these days but in a way that is full of hope. Although the language and imagery is more familiar to Christians, her experiences and spiritual struggles are universal. Her mastery of American folk music is matched by her inspired lyrics. In the past Ralf introduced me to countless non-commercialized songwriters and albums he calls "smart music." I am definitely a fan of this one!

Here is a 7 minute medley footage of Susan performing songs from her new album "The Gospel Truth" live with band at Club Passim, Cambridge MA. Songs include "Help Somebody," "Lost My Religion" and "Our Father (The Revised Edition)." Video includes her between song commentary about the inspiration for the making of the agnostic gospel record, and what it has been like to tour across the country with this unique material.

'THE GOSPEL TRUTH' MEDLEY

Here are the lyrics of the first song on her album. 

(why is your) heaven so small

excuse me sir, what did you say?
when you shout so loud, it's hard to tell
you say that i must change my ways
for i am surely bound to hell

well i know you'd damn me if you could
but my friend, that's simply not your call
if god is great and god is good
why is your heaven so small

you say you know you say you've read
that holy bible up on your shelf
do you recall when jesus said
judge not, lest ye be judged yourself

for i know you'd damn me if you could
but my friend, that's simply not your call
if god is great, and god is good
why is your heaven so small

with your fists that shake, and your eyes that burn
what makes you do these things you do?
i would not be surprised to learn
someone somewhere excluded you

but my friend, imagine it if you would
a love much mightier than us all
o if god is great and god is good
why is your heaven
so small

To view the video of this song click HERE and choose the title: Heaven So Small. On the same website you can find a link to by this CD. 

In Their Own Words: A Talk With Samir (AUDIO)

There’s something about hearing it firsthand – without the barrier of ink and paper (or a computer screen) and a need to wonder about tone and meaning. And with the delicate first steps of Faith House Manhattan, and it’s commitment to listening deeply and speaking authentically, people associated with Faith House here in New York have a desire to build the dialogue in clear tones. In Their Own Words seeks to hear from voices on all sides of the issue; those looking on, those deeply involved, those unsure of where all this is taking us. Every voice is important and we invite you to join in by leaving a comment or contacting us directly at info@faithhousemanhattan.org.

Length of the interview: app. 20 minutes

Click here to LISTEN "A Talk With Samir" ...

Click here to DOWNLOAD "A Talk With Samir" …

Interview conducted by Stacey Antoine Savariau, JD, CHHC, AADP, a Certified Holistic Health Counselor, creativity coach, workshop leader and an evolved attorney. After working for years as a litigator she retired from the courtroom to pursue her other passions. Stacey is devoted to coaching, teaching & facilitating workshops & women’s wisdom circles for creating vibrant health, awakening creativity, restoring passionate and balanced living & discovering the work we were born to do. She reaches a global audience through her site, www.OneWorldWellness.com. Stacey lives in a brownstone on a tree-lined street in Brooklyn, N.Y. Where else?

A Sabbath Poem (Tagliabue)

MODERATION IS NOT A NEGATION OF
INTENSITY, BUT HELPS AVOID MONOTONY
~by John Tagliabue

Will you stop for a while, stop trying to pull yourself
    together
for some clear "meaning"--some momentary summary?
    no one
can have poetry or dances, prayers or climaxes all day;
    the ordinary
blankness of little dramatic consciousness is good for the
    health sometimes,
only Dostoevsky can be Dostoevskian at such long
    long tumultuous stretches;
look what that intensity did to poor great Van Gogh;
    linger, lounge,
scrounge and be stupid, that doesn't take much centering
    of one's forces;
as wise Whitman said "lounge and invite the soul." Get
    enough sleep;
and not only because (as Cocteau said) "poetry is the
    literature of sleep";
be a dumb bell for few minutes at least; we don't want
    Sunday church bells
    ringing constantly.

(Good Poems, selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor, Penguin Books, 2003)

Live Words: Questioning the Past and Present

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a 'thing-oriented' society to a 'person-oriented' society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway.

                            ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was photographed by Alabama cops following his February 1956 arrest during the Montgomery bus boycott. The historic mug shot, taken when King was 27, was discovered in July 2004 by a deputy cleaning out a Montgomery County Sheriff's Department storage room. It is unclear when the notations 'DEAD' and '4-4-68' were written on the picture.

Four Stories of God

~ by Samir Selmanovic

For more than 20 years since my baptism (a ritual by which one signals publicly that one has become a follower), people have often given me the opportunity to “tell my story”—to “give a testimony,” as we Christians like to call it. Despite the fact that my life with God was not only passionate but also conflicted and complicated, the story itself was easy to tell. It was all one story. One life. One song. 

But it is not that easy anymore. Today, as early Hasidic Rav Kook did long ago, I find myself wondering which song I should sing. Should I look into my own soul and sing the song of the struggles and joys I encounter within? Or should I move beyond myself and sing the song of my people, my religion? Or maybe I should rise above my Christian story and sing a song of all songs of humanity? Or should I spread my heart still wider and sing a song with all creation?

Is the story of God a story of my own soul, a story of my religion, a story of humanity or a story of all that is? To accept all these stories as the stories of God is to imply that my religion then becomes only a part of the ultimate story of the world, not the ultimate story itself.

Orthodox rabbi David Hartman, concerned with the perennial conflict in Jerusalem, insists that different melodies of one God must be cherished: “Each group feels that its way is the only way: there is one God, therefore there has to be one truth. Christians build their story on the Jewish story and therefore feel they are inheritors of Judaism. Muslims built their story on the Bible, and therefore they feel that they are the perfect expression of monotheism. Now, we’ve got to get out of each other’s story. We can’t feel that in order for me to tell my story, your story has to end. . . . In other words, affirmation [of my story] does not require that I demonise those who are different from me. I don’t have to build conviction out of hate and fear.” If my identity depends on annihilation of other stories, I cannot really sing all four songs of God.

What if God measures our religion by the way it contributes to stories other than one’s own? What if our religions will be judged by the good they bring to their non-adherents? Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says this succinctly: “When in the afterglow of religious insight I can see a way that is good for all humans as it is for me—I will know it is His way.”

In the same vein, The Quran reads, “Had God willed He would have made you into one religious community; but it was his will to test you in what He gave you. So compete with each other in doing good works” (Quran 5:48). Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University contends that “there’s no more crucial problem for our day than to be able to cross religious frontiers while preserving our own integrity. In fact, I think this the only exciting intellectual adventure of our times.”

So I find it hard to “give a testimony” today without offending people of my own religion whose identity depends on a divided and conflicted world. As a follower of Christ, I have grown to believe in a world that is larger than Christianity. Jesus called this larger world the kingdom of God. It is the symphony made of all stories, individual and communal, our magnanimous God is involved with in this world.

Only God is God. And Christianity is not. Nor Judaism. Nor Islam. Paradoxically, this realization about the greatness of God is a deeply Christian, Jewish and Muslim teaching.

When I pray the Lord’s Prayer, I begin with the first word, “Our . . .” (see Matthew 6:9) and I stop and ask myself, “Who do I include in this Our?” I remind myself that the story of God is bigger than my personal story, bigger than the story of my religion, bigger than the story of all humanity, and bigger than the story of all creation. In the kingdom of God, these four stories are all really my stories—all at the same time—woven together, giving meaning and life to each other.

(from Signs of the Times, Australia, September 2007, adapted by the author)

A Sabbath Poem (Howe)

PART OF EVE'S DISCUSSION
~ by Marie Howe

It was like the moment when a bird decides not to eat from your hand,
and flies, just before it flies, the moment the rivers seem to still
and stop because a storm is coming, but there is no storm, as when
a hundred starlings lift and bank together before they wheel and drop,
very much like the moment, driving on bad ice, when it occurs to you
your car could spin, just before it slowly begins to spin, like
the moment just before you forgot what it was you were about to say,
it was like that, and after that, it was like that, only
all the time.

(from The Good Thief, by Maria Howe, Persea Books, 1988)

Friends Don't Let Friends Consume!

~Alvin Poblacion recently moved to New York City with his best friend, Rosemary Poblacion. He currently works in Manhattan as a physical therapist. Alvin is an avid cyclist, and a photography enthusiast. He thoroughly enjoys getting lost in the City with Rosemary.

I have been drifting away from religion. The question it asks and the answers it provides seem orchestrated. I am attracted to life instead.

Just recently, I had a refreshing chat with a client of mine, (lets call him Craig) as I was treating him for low back pain. As people lie sprawled out in precarious positions, often only partially clothed, thoughtful conversations come about.

As one might expect from “patient-therapist” small-talk, I started out by asking Craig some generic questions about how he planned to spend the upcoming holidays and if he had all his holiday shopping complete. Craig was happy to say that he would be in the company of good friends and family during Christmas. However, he was a bit conflicted about what he was actually going to do during the holidays, and how he felt about shopping for gifts this season.  He wished he had the time and skill to make gifts with his own hands this year. He felt most us in the US have enough junk than we know what to do with anyway. He said he could certainly live without another remote control cozy (I didn’t even know they had those). He went on to elaborate on his growing suspicion towards the “institution” shopping has become in America. We agreed that there must be better ways out there to express our love for our Kin than what BestBuy and DeBiers might suggest.

As we were wrapping up our PT session for the day, Craig was pulling his shirt back over his head. Just then he remembered to share one last thing with me. It was a website address. When I got home from work that day, I logged on and was pleasantly surprised to find a short but informative, video clip. For many people, most of the information here is nothing new. However, I feel it was put together in a way that is bite sized and digestible for people like me. That is, people just coming into the growing conversations about hyper-consumerism, climate change, equitable living, fair trade etc. While these issues may have some political implications, I feel they have a great deal to do with personal and corporate ethics and moral values. I feel that people of faith can and must have something to say and do about the global crisis we find all of God’s creation in. I have great hopes for Faith House and its commitment to use religion to help life and not the other way around.

I trust these will be twenty well spent minutes of your life. Enjoy and use in your work as clergy, educators, activists, or with your family members, friends, and enemies! We are in this together.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Extraction

A Sabbath Poem (Berry - 3)

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
~ by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

(Good Poems, selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor, Penguin Books, 2003)

Reflections: The World We Want to Live In

~ by Rathi Raja

Rathi Raja is president of the Arsha Vedanta Center of Long Island and executive director of the Young Indian Culture Group. She has been featured extensively on PBS in their “Asian Indians in America” and in The New York Times. She is an active member of the Herricks Clergy Coalition, an interfaith group based in New Hyde Park, engaging in educating through programs in the community, schools and colleges. She has been a Hindu spiritual teacher for the past 17 years, sharing the teachings of the Vedic vision with youth and adults. She is an ethnographer and storyteller of Asian Indian heritage, and a founding trustee of Young Indian Culture Group, Inc. Rathi served as a panel member of the New York State Council on the Arts for 2003-2005, was named the Long Island Traditions’ Honoree of the Year, and received the Nassau County Community Service Award in 2000. (Recently we had the privilege of sitting down with this effervescent woman, and found her views most insightful and energizing as we continue to make plans for Faith House. Here is her contribution to our blog.)

Healing starts by knowing ourselves and then allowing the powers of desire and action to do their work. Inter-religious or inter-group dialogue without self-reflection takes us nowhere. That vital first step of knowing oneself facilitates every other progress. Without self-awareness, a dialogue is a nonstarter.

Our relationships should be far more than tolerant, but a true spirit of tolerance matters. Not one based on law, for that will be short lived, rather one rooted in compassion. Tolerance without compassion is barren.

Every religious tradition builds on the cornerstone of compassion, because this is a key aspect of what it means to be truly human. No matter what our religious tradition, we can find compassion there. It may be buried under layers of distrust, anxiety, hatred, anger and jealousy, but when we rediscover this compassion, tolerance will happen!

And out of these two—tolerance and compassion—will come trust in each other. Lack of trust is the most eroding thing in our lives today, at a personal level, in our families, community, and country. Without getting that trust back, we will never know how to speak of and live out peace.

Faith that comes from restored trust, when expressed through our personal lives or organized religion, can douse the flames of hatred and anger, and dismantle the rigid boundaries we sometimes erect for self-protection. In contrast, a faith that encourages its followers to draw rigid boundaries will lead to deepening distrust and fear, and a sense of hopelessness about ever being able to establish peaceful human relationships.

We spend so much of the world’s resources on biological diseases, but what about the spread of hatred? Unfortunately distrust and hatred spread as fast as biological diseases and are most destructive in terms of loss of human life. Like restoring human health, restoring human trust will bring with it unmeasurable good.

What is key in this process of rediscovery of what we can be? Forgiveness! We must forgive ourselves first, for our past fears and for our hatreds. And we must forgive others for the pain and sorrow they have caused us. We must forgive society for our collective ignorance and forgive history for its wide swath of painful, violent events. Justice without forgiveness is an empty vessel that will not quench our thirst or heal our social ills.

The only antidote for this epidemic is to realize there is a larger force, a bigger order to this universe, and to take the journey forward to re-learn to trust this grace for all and this order. That is how people change—true trust, one person at a time. And when these individuals find one another and become friends, the movement can multiply exponentially.

Just as our physical environment needs immediate attention if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences, our social and religious environments need immediate attention if we are to quell the spirit of violence, mistrust, and hatred engulfing so many areas of our world. The path away from the brink begins with the steps of self-exploration, compassion, forgiveness, and trust. These are the essential healing qualities we must share with every person we meet.

Thank you for Faith House dream. Your enthusiasm and openness is based on strength and a desire to reach beyond the tried, tested and failed sequence of steps. You are curious and will surely discover that people are waiting for that spark to know they have nothing to fear, only something to gain!

Count me in friends!

________________________________________________

Truth is one: sages call it by different names
It is the one Sun who reflects in all the ponds;
It is the one water which slakes the thirst of all;
It is the one air which sustains all life;
It is the one fire which shines in all houses;
Colors of the cows may be different, but the milk is white;
Systems of Faith may be different but God is One.
As the rain dropping from the sky finds its way towards the ocean,
So the prayers offered in all faiths reach the One God, who is supreme.

    —Rig Veda

A Sabbath Poem (Sutphen)

LIVING IN THE BODY
~ by Joyce Sutphen

Body is something you need in order to stay
on this planet and you only get one.
And no matter which one you get, it will not
be satisfactory. It will not be beautiful
enough, it will not be fast enough, it will
not keep on for days at a time, but will
pull you down into a sleepy swamp and
demand apples and coffee and chocolate cake.

Body is a thing you have to carry
from one day into the next. Always the
same eyebrows over the same eyes in the same
skin when you look in the mirror, and the
same creaky knee when you get up from the
floor and the same wrist under the watchband.
The changes you can make are small and
costly--better to leave it as it is.

Body is a thing that you have to leave
eventually. You know that because you have
seen others do it, others who were once like you,
living inside their pile of bones and
flesh, smiling at you, loving you,
leaning in the doorway, talking to you
for hours and then one day they
are gone. No forwarding address.

(Good Poems, selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor, Penguin Books, 2003)

Introduction to Muslim Spirituality: The Sufi Way

SUFISM MAY BE POWERFUL ANTIDOTE TO ISLAMIC EXTREMISM

(an article by Jane Lampman, staff writer of the CSM, Dec 5, 2007)

Images of Islam have pervaded the news media in recent years, but one aspect of the faith has gotten little attention – Islamic spirituality. Yet thousands in America and millions in the Muslim world have embarked on the spiritual path called Sufism, or the Sufi way. Some see its appeal as the most promising hope for countering the rise of extremism in Islam.

In recent weeks, celebrations in cities on several continents have marked the "International Year of Rumi." Sept. 30 was the 800th anniversary of the birth of Muslim mystic Jelaluddin Rumi, who is a towering figure in Sufi literature and, paradoxically, the bestselling poet in the United States over the past decade.

. . .

to continue reading the article click HERE (Thank you Sylvia for the link!)

Highlights 2007

This past year has been a tipping point in finding the courage to act on what many of us have been carrying inside for a long time. Now we find ourselves on an unfamiliar territory. And it is not a fun experience. Like Israel in the desert, Joseph in the pit, or Jonah in the belly of the fish, we have often felt we would like to be anywhere but where God brought us.

At the same time, standing on the threshold of a new world, we listen to God more carefully. Hard inner work is under way. It is a pregnant time. We should not hurry our journey through this sacred space, surrender our difficulties too quickly, or rush to answers we don't have.

To celebrate our survival so far, here are some highlights from 2007:

1. Formation of the Support Team. The Faith House project would never have begun without 44 families and individuals around the country, and internationally, who have committed to steady, long-term support. Thank you!!! (To learn more about the importance and functions of Selmanovic Family Support Team, click HERE)

2. Transition to "big bad city." Samir switched his employment from working for a large and supportive church organization to a self-supporting ministry with all of its challenges of needing salary, benefits, health insurance etc. Vesna has found a part-time job and their two daughters have adjusted to their new schools in New York.

3. Launch Team. Responsibility for the launch team is to prepare for the first series of public meetings of Faith House. The team meets once a month and is currently comprised of 35 people. This group of people has bright minds, open hearts, and a major capacity for the delay of gratification!

4. Lauralea Banks. Lauralea has joined Samir in leading the effort of networking in the city, recruiting founders from Jewish and Muslim traditions, and contacting organizations with whom Faith House can develop partnerships. She does this on a small stipend and some additional money she has been raising herself.  (To learn more about Lauralea click HERE, to learn more about Lauralea's Support Team click HERE.)

5. Network development.  We have participated in different events where we have met amazing people from whom we can learn. One of the venues was the Urgent Conversations after the play Masked in New York. Samir has been a panelist on two occasions and has facilitated one of the panel discussions.

6. Talking, talking, and more talking. We have made progress in addressing an endless stream of questions and challenges. We have revamped the website and posted more than fifty articles; distributed more than 600 business cards in the city, nationally, and internationally; and grown our newsletter subscriptions from 300 in August to 700 in December.  Visits to our website have doubled in the second part of the year, totaling 22,000 for 2007. These are small numbers but wonderful just the same!

7. House Rule. We have been working on a set of 16 principles that would help us, over time, establish the DNA of Faith House. It has taken much time and energy and is being reviewed by our mentors. In the process we have consulted other interfaith initiatives seeking to avoid pitfalls and nurture good will.

8. Board of Directors. We have our first two members!  And we hope to add three more this coming year. This board will eventually be comprised of 10-12 people, meet quarterly, supervise Faith House leadership, ask hard questions, offer guidance, and give blessing.

9.  A major turn in strategy. The Launch Team along with our mentors have decided to postpone our launch date to the Fall of 2008 in order to find and engage founders from Muslim and Jewish tradition in making decisions about Faith House from the start, thus making decisions "with them" and not "for them." (See our employment opportunity ad below and help us spread the word!)

10.  Timeline for 2008. We have decided to have our first single public event in April/May 2008, start our pre-view gatherings once a month in Summer and launch our first weekly meeting in the Fall. 

William Bridges writes: "When we are ready to make a beginning ... we are given subtle hints--inner signals--that alert us to the proximity of new beginnings. We get faint intimations; we hear a subtle breeze, and soon we begin to discern the shape of the next step." 

Our deepest gratitude to those of you who have supported us and taken this difficult and sacred journey with us. We are looking forward to a subtle breeze on our faces this coming year!

Faith House team from New York