FAITH HOUSE Manhattan

Sabbath Poem (Mansour - 2)

THE EAST WEST
~ Ali Mansour

Between the east and the west — there is a hole
I found my self in it
I couldn’t reach the west — neither could I go back to the east
All I can do — I scream and say
YA ALLAH (OH GOD) ALLAH hay ALLAH hay (GOD is a life)
Every body heard me —
And all came running … looking at me
From the edge of the hole
I hear them saying SUBHAN ALLAH (GOD IS GREAT)
WLA HAULA WLA QOHWATA ELA BELLAH
(GOD holds all the power)
The haven is here … the haven … the haven is here 
I raise my hands and say … take me with you … with you … you
Everybody tries to grab one of my hands and pull me up
But I didn’t go anywhere
I felt crucified ... like JESUS had been
Trying to unifying east and west
Oh God is this punishment or praise?
I’m screaming from the pain … Or
I’m cheering for the praise !
I don’t know any more
I mumble with voices no one can understand
Neither from the east nor from the west
But they are still trying to reach my hands
In order to save me … Or to be with me
And no one can do
Except you — the one up there
The one in the center
The one and the only one ... can pull me out of the hole
…or push them down with me
So we all can sing for you  
Anta el HADY anta el HAQ lis la hady il ALLHA
(YOU are the truth and the One can show us
the real road “direct path”)
La ILLAHA … il ALLAH … La Illaha … il ALLAH
(there is no God, but Allah the unique, and the only one)
YA HU   
             YA HU                                      

             YA HU           YA HU                    

Ali Mansour wrote this for our Living Room on "Walking More than One Path"                              

Nine Tweets from the Presentation by Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Nov 25)

Today, Friday, marks the first Native American Heritage Day, as signed into law in June by President Obama. Did you know that?

On November 25, our Living Room hosted Tiokasin Ghosthorse, from the Cheyenne River Lakota (Sioux) Nation of South Dakota, "First Voices Indigenous Radio" Producer and Host, a storyteller, poet, university lecturer, scholar, essayist, cultural interpreter, and a peace and human rights activist. Find out more about Tiokasin and our event HERE.

To contribute to this first Native American Heritage day in a small personal way, I decided to put together this post with nine morsels of Native American wisdom I have send out on my Twitter account @SamirSelmanovic, during the talking part of his presentation. These are not exact quotes of his words, but pretty close, I trust. I find each of them to be a door to new way of thinking about us, our community, and our land.

Nine tweets report from Tiokasin Ghosthorse (by @SamirSelmanovic):

1. "Everything around us is there to care for us. To learn to appreciate is the meaning of life."

2. "It does not matter who was here first. What matters is to learn to live in one world."

3. "Science is merely 4 thousand years old. Wisdom is older."

4. "Why bomb the moon? What is wrong with water on earth?"

5. "Indigenous people don't have brain. Our head is integrated with our heart, whole being. Rational means separated/decapitated."

6. "Lakota language does not have words for belief, death, I, or me. If you would learn my language, you would break free."

7. "4 countries + US do not recognize indigenous people as human beings. Recognition would force USA to honor the treaties."

8. "We do not have concept of ownership. We are not souls dwelling in a body. We are bodies dwelling in the Soul. We all belong."

9. "One word, the deepest one, to teach you as I finish: Relative. Einstein pondered this one. WE ARE ALL RELATIVES." The End

LIVING ROOM Deconstructed Pre-Christmas Rummage Sale 12/9

Wednesday, December 9

7 to 9 PM
Drop by for 10 minutes
or stay the whole time!

Intersections, 274 5th Ave
Btwn 29th and 30th Sts

"Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 
~ Jesus (Luke 18:22)
 
Looking for good deals for Christmas? 

Come rummage through piles of clothes, books, household items and lots of miscellany.  No cover charge.  Most items are pay as you can; some items will be available for auction.  Antiques and original "Metrocard Man" items for sale too.  Proceeds to support Faith House Manhattan's 2010 operating expenses.  Bring your loose change!  All coins will be given to the Salvation Army.  
 
Jesus had a lot to say about money and the stuff we hang on to.  He praised the widow who gave her last pennies to the temple.  He told us to render unto God that which is God's. He reminds us of how God clothes the lilies of the field, even Solomon in all his splendor was not clothed so well.
 
We'll also have holiday snacks, skits, crafts for kids, and interactive stations where you can rummage through piles of sacred texts and take those you like, write down your own thoughts about stuff, give change for the Salvation Army, ring a bell for others to donate, and more.  Plus time to spend time with the wonderful interfaith community of Faith House people. 

RSVPs welcome, but not required, to bowie@faithhousemanhattan.org, on Facebook or Meetup.

DE-CLUTTERING Donations for Rummage Sale

This year, give away possessions that clutter your life.  Things you don't use, or have outgrown, or have become baggage.  Not trash, but treasures you are ready to part with. Email Bowie if you would like to donate clothes, household items, books, art, etc. or if you would like to come to a "sorting party" on from 5-8 pm on Sunday, November 29th.  You can also bring donations to the 11/25 Living Room or on December 9, from 6-7 PM. "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven... a time to keep, and a time to throw away"  Ecclesiastes 3:1,6

Photos from Yardsale Bloodbath Blog

An Urban Laboratory of Interdependence

Dear Friends of Faith House, In times past, strong cities were walled. Our religions developed in similar contexts of defensiveness, isolation and conflict.  The times have changed.  Today, bridges, airports, roads, cell phones and the internet help cities survive and thrive on a connected planet. Religion, one of the most potent forces to mobilize human hearts and communities, has yet to catch up in our newly interdependent world.   The world is hurt not only by the actions of religious extremist minorities but by the religious ignorance and indifference of the majority. Tolerance and appreciation between religions is simply not enough. We all must dig further into our texts, traditions, and practices to  help us experience, understand and actually learn to need one another.   Nothing happens alone.  The promises our religions make - to  love our neighbor, empower the poor, pursue justice, and care for the planet - cannot be fulfilled when our groups act alone. To fulfill the promises of our own religions, we need each other. That's why we have Faith House. This is a unique organization.  Hearts and minds change through experience, community, and sustained action. While most interfaith work happens as dialogue, Faith House provides a space where people can experience "the other" and form long-lasting relationships in a sustained "community of communities."   Faith House is an experiential urban laboratory.  Instead of believing in the self-sufficiency of our religions, we serve the city and the world with fresh ideas and expressions of interdependence, exploring possibilities for passionate belief in a pluralist world, insisting that new practices can be discovered, discussed, developed, and spread.

LIVING ROOM Indigenous Peoples & Inclusive Politics with Tiokasin Ghosthorse

Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009

6 pm Doors, 7 pm Program

Intersections, 274 5th Ave
Btwn 29th and 30th Sts

With Tiokasin Ghosthorse: Tiokasin Tasunke Wanagi "Ghosthorse Spirit Coming In" Oyate Tokaheya Wicakiye "He Places Nations First"

On the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving Day, all are invited to a vegetarian family meal and Living Room program hosted by Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Host and Producer of "First Voices Indigenous Radio," a Lakota thinker, activist, and musician.
 
Politics for the Lakota is spiritual and not separate from the rest of life. Indigenous peoples are after an inclusive politics and an inclusive world. There is no word for "exclusion" in Lakota and there is no word for "me" or "I".  The responsibility of living within this worldview is far-reaching, from the beginnings of Life itself.  This way of knowing and of being must be learned by all who walk with Mother Earth.
 
"There can be no peace on earth, unless there is peace with earth. Humankind will cease to exist if Indigenous Peoples become extinct. If you kill off a species, you remove a balance from that chain of being and things start to collapse.  Let me take it one step further and say, there are three hundred and fifty million Indigenous peoples left out of 7 Billion. We live on seventy percent of the pristine land because we resisted and because we cared for it as it cares for us. And now they want that land. We are the roots. If the indigenous peoples go, there goes the rest of the earth" ~ Tiokasin Ghosthorse
 
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, from the Cheyenne River Lakota (Sioux) Nation of South Dakota, is "First Voices Indigenous Radio" Producer and Host.  Tiokasin is a storyteller, poet, university lecturer, scholar, essayist, cultural interpreter, and a peace and human rights activist. 
 
Tiokasin has a long history in Indigenous rights activism and advocacy on Turtle Island (North America) and overseas.  As a teenager, he spoke at the United Nations in Geneva.  He is also a survivor of the "Reign of Terror" from 1972 to 1976 on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation, and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding and Church Missionary School systems designed to "kill the Indian and save the man."
 
Tiokasin Ghosthorse is also a master musician, and a teacher. He is one of the great exponents of the  Lakota flute, and plays traditional and contemporary music.  He performs worldwide and has been featured at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the United Nations.

Bring a beverage, dessert, salad, or vegetarian dish to share.  

RSVPs welcome, but not required, to info@faithhousemanhattan.org, on our Facebook Event or Meetup Event. 

LIVING ROOM Speaking the Unspoken, Naming the Unnamed: Israel & Palestine Dialogue

Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009
6 pm Doors, 7 pm Program

Intersections, 274 5th Ave
Btwn 29th and 30th Sts

With Marcia Kannry, The Dialogue Project & other guests

Come explore how we can create an opportunity, a space where we can risk to speak the unspoken about our connections, histories, and the wounds of Israel and Palestine.  We will cultivate a place where we learn how to listen, actively and generously.  We will address the needs all humans have to be seen and acknowledged.  We will share stories, surface differences, and have a difficult conversation around the hot words of home and homeland, justice and peace.  Chanting, niggun, poetry, and prayer will begin and end the dialogue.

Marcia Kannry, Founder of The Dialogue Project, with other Palestinian Americans and Israelis will create a dialogue circle with all of us.  Learn more about The Dialogue Project

RSVPs welcome, but not required, on our Facebook Event or Meetup Event.  Vegetarian snacks to share also welcome!   

Sabbath Poem (Amichai)

JERUSALEM 1967
~ Yehuda Amichai

On Yom Kippur 5728, I donned
Dark holiday clothing and walked to Jerusalem’s Old City.
I stood for quite a while in front of the kiosk shop of an Arab,
Not far from Shchem (Nablus) Gate, a shop
full of buttons, zippers and spools of thread
Of every color; and snaps and buckles.
Brightly lit and many colored like the open Holy Ark.

I said to him in my heart that my father too
Owned a shop just like this of buttons and thread.
I explained to him in my heart about all the decades
And the reasons and the events leading me to be here now
While my father’s shop burned there and he is buried here.

When I concluded it was the hour of N’eilah (”locking the gates”).
He too drew down the shutters and locked the gate
As I returned homeward with all the other worshippers.

–from Achshav B’ Ra’ash (”Now, Noisily”) (Schocken, 1975), page 11-12 translation by Richard Silverstein

 

Flickr Photo by Oxana Nosach 

Sabbath Poem (Darwish)

IN JERUSALEM
~ by Mahmoud Darwish
   Translated by Fady Joudah

In Jerusalem, and I mean within the ancient walls,
I walk from one epoch to another without a memory
to guide me. The prophets over there are sharing
the history of the holy . . . ascending to heaven
and returning less discouraged and melancholy, because love
and peace are holy and are coming to town.
I was walking down a slope and thinking to myself: How
do the narrators disagree over what light said about a stone?
Is it from a dimly lit stone that wars flare up?
I walk in my sleep. I stare in my sleep. I see
no one behind me. I see no one ahead of me.
All this light is for me. I walk. I become lighter. I fly
then I become another. Transfigured. Words
sprout like grass from Isaiah’s messenger
mouth: “If you don’t believe you won’t believe.”
I walk as if I were another. And my wound a white
biblical rose. And my hands like two doves
on the cross hovering and carrying the earth.
I don’t walk, I fly, I become another,
transfigured. No place and no time. So who am I?
I am no I in ascension’s presence. But I
think to myself: Alone, the prophet Mohammad
spoke classical Arabic. “And then what?”
Then what? A woman soldier shouted:
Is that you again? Didn’t I kill you?
I said: You killed me . . . and I forgot, like you, to die.

PODCAST Paul Knitter on "Walking More Than One Path: Is Religious Multiple-Beloning Possible?"

Faith House Living Room, October 14, 2009

With Prof Paul Knitter and Robert Kennedy, Roshi and S. J.

Follow the program online at home or feel free to adapt it for your local community.   

Welcome and Introductions (5 min)

Opening poem (read by one of Paul Knitter's students) (3 min)

"My Neighbor"


I am glad you made my neighbor different from me;

a different colored skin, a different shaped face;

a different response to you.

I need my neighbor to teach me about you;

he knows all the things I don’t know.



        By Monica Furlong, in 1000 World Prayers, Marcus
        Braybrooke, ed. Hampshire, UK: Obooks, 2003, p.296.

Presentation by Paul Knitter (20 min)

"Walking More Than One Path: Is Religious Multiple-Beloning Possible?"

Click to Listen to PODCAST of
Paul Knitter on Walking more than one path

Discussion (20 min, facilitated by Bowie Snodgrass)

A. Clarifying questions for Knitter

B.  In small groups of 3-4, discuss:

"What do you think are effective ways to understand
and learn from another religious tradition?"

C.  Share an insight you heard from your neighbor with whole group

D.  Open sharing in whole group

Present and practice Zazen, silent sitting in the Buddhist Tradition (20 min)

Led by Robert Kennedy Roshi, S.J., (Jesuit priest and Zen teacher)

Community Sharing If time, invite people to share insights with group (5 min)

Close with 2-3 Koans (read by pre-selected participants)

A monk asked Fuketsu:
`Without speaking, without silence,
how can you express the truth?'
Fuketsu observed:
`I always remember spring-time in southern China.
The birds sing among innumerable kinds of fragrant flowers.'

    From The Gateless Gate

A monk asked Tozan,
"When cold and heat come, how should one avoid them?"
Tozan said,
"Why not go to a place where there is neither cold nor heat?"
The monk said, 
"What kind of place is it where there is neither cold nor heat?"
Tozan said, 
"When it is cold, the cold kills you;
when it is hot, the heat kills you." 

From The Blue Cliff Record                        

Final Announcements (10 min)

Paul F. Knitter, the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a leading theologian of religious pluralism and interreligious dialogue.  Knitter is author of more than a dozen books, most recently, Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian.  Knitter's journey into interfaith dialogue began in 1964 when he was a seminarian in Rome and experienced the Second Vatican Council firsthand, at a time when the Roman Catholic Church declared its new attitude towards other religions.