Easter Debrief (chill out and share w/ pizza and friends) 6:30 TONIGHT

Friends -

Come join us tonight for an informal evening of sharing about our lenten journeys and Easter experiences. The challenges and joys, inspirations and insights, O God moments and Alleluias!

We'll have pizza and as usual, meet...

...the Second Monday of each month at 6:30pm @ Origins Church Office 581 9th Ave #3B (corner of 42nd and 9th Ave.) above the papaya dog. Enter next to the hotdog place on 9th ave. look for the ORIGINS poster in the door and buzz number 3B... if there's a problem with the buzzer call 917-553-6843.

Bowie
on behalf of...
--
The Cohort Team

[Grid::Blog::Via Crucis 2007]

[Grid::Blog::Via Crucis 2007 ]

an invitation from Bob Carlton

Last year, more than 50 bloggers around the globe came together to share their reflections in a grid blog called Via Crucis during the week often called HOLY WEEK and in the week after EASTER. The name for this rag-tag effort comes from the Latin words for the Way of the Cross - Via Crucis. The response was astounding to this experiment in distributed global media, which was designed to draw on the creativity, diversity, and theological understanding of the blogging community to a moment in the story of folks practicing faith.

With the beginning of Holy Week (Palm Sunday – April 1) right around the corner, I am hoping you might join the [Grid::Blog::Via Crucis 2007] - if you are interested please go to http://thecorner.typepad.com/via_crucis_2007/ for a calendar of this year’s grid blog and sign up!

So, what are you waiting for?

* Sign Up! use your voice by posting on your blog reflections . You can choose the Day & the Station (see the calendar here) you will blog on – feel free to commit to more than 1. You can sign up by adding yourself to the comments on the grid blog site - please make sure you include your email and blog url in your comment.

* Name It! For consistency sake, please title your post (s): [Grid::Blog::Via Crucis 2007]

* Send It! By sending your link(s) during this window of time to me at bobcarlton@speakeasy.net

* Pass it on! Send this to at least 5 blogging pals and/or post the invite on your blog.

Emerging & Fresh Expressions of Church by Ian J. Mobsby

Ian Mobsby, a kindred spirit from the Moot Community in London, has published a new book about Emerging & Fresh Expressions of Church. All proceeds will support Moot's activities.

Buy a copy today @ www.mootique.net

The book is called "Emerging & Fresh Expressions of Church", drawing on narrative data, the book seeks to explore the theological, sociological and ecclesiological foundation to the emerging church in the UK context. It draws on the work of Sanctus 1, Moot, B1 and the Church of the Apostles in the States.

Interestingly it identifies that a reframed understanding of Trinitarian theology as a basis with the combination of a mystical communion & sacramental model of spiritual community. Fascinatingly regarding mission, the emerging church appears to be using a synthetic model of contextual theology - that seeks to reframe what it means to be Christian in post-modern post-secular contexts where people are spiritually searching with a form of techgnosis. For some in the UK context - it appears that the emerging church seeks to reframe a new approach to transcendence and imminence, and applying a 'both and' perspective to escape the binaries of catholic v evangelical of the past. It is argued that this founding principal of 'both and' is based on a Trinitarian theology which was the foundation of the original Anglican Church - so that the emerging church seeks to promote a vision of unity in diversity to escape the rigidity of much of the modern church in a post Christendom context. The book argues that the Emerging Church is reframing a new approach to ecclesiology and missiology.

To purchase a copy or learn more visit: www.mootique.net

Cohort gathers Monday with LLC

It's Cohort time again. This time we're gathering with our Latino Leadership Members (LLC) and they are guiding our dialog and helping us to see how they are emerging.

Notice on the upper right corner of the blog we have permanently placed the meeting location and time.

The LLC is a group of young progressive Latin leaders who have been meeting for 5 or more years - they were emergent before most of us heard that word.

Let me tell you why you might come to this month's gathering if a general interest in their unique outlook isn't enough; The Latin population of America is soaring, we've all noticed their increased political presence and power, you may have heard the very interesting social comment that salsa replaced ketchup as the biggest selling condiment in this country a few years back. If you have a church, it is very likely that you will have young Latin members. You will learn insights about how to best serve them and love them by joining our dialog this Monday night. This is real important stuff.

For me, beyond ministering to people in my congregation, I just want to know the story of a people. They got some huge history and stories that will change my life if I'm listening. One thing I'm passionate about is killing and closing down the social divides in this country, whether they are ethnic, economic or religious (or the tall people/short people thing). This month's cohort is going to be one very important step in the dream of God for healing the world.
--
The Cohort Team

Church Plants Coming This Summer...

We're looking forward to the arrival of two new emerging church plants coming this summer to NYC...

1) Samir Selmanovic, his wife Vesna, and their two daughters Ena and Leta are preparing to move to New York City and start an urban interfaith community called Faith House. Bowie really enjoyed meeting Samir in Pasadena at the Christian Churches Together meeting, and some members of the group know him from the six years he spent pastoring a multi-ethnic church in Manhattan (he moved to CA four years ago, but when NYC calls...). His bio is well worth checking out.

2) Sean and Monica Callaghan and their three kids are moving here from South Africa and starting incarnate NYC in Tribeca. Brian McLaren says that, "Sean and Monica are church planters and leaders who epitomize what is good and hopeful about emerging churches" (read more).

Please keep these church planters and their children in your prayers.

The 2007 Emergent Philosophical Conversation

The 2007 Emergent Theological Philosophical Conversation

“What Would Jesus Deconstruct?
A Conversation about Justice”

a conversation with John D. Caputo,
and featuring Richard Kearney

$145 before March 1, 2007
$160 after March 1, 2007
Eastern University, Philadelphia, PA
Monday, April 16 (7 p.m.) – Wednesday, April 18 (12 noon)

REGISTER NOW!

REGISTRATION IS LIMITED TO 250 PARTICIPANTS

Find out more on the Emergent Village website & while you're there, subscribe to get announcements about upcoming events

The End of Emerge

Last night I went to the final Emerge, the 7 p.m. alt worship service at St. Bart’s on Park Avenue and 51st in New York. After the service, a friend turned to me and said, “that was sad.”

“Tragically and sinfully sad,” I replied.

Sad because it was just so damn good and sad because it’s a crying shame that St. Bart’s is shutting it down less than a year after it started.

Sinfully sad because there were more than one hundred people there last night, with visible age, ethnic, racial, and class diversity in the room. How many churches around the country only dream of that type of crowd on a Sunday morning (the majority of Episcopal churches have less)…let alone a Sunday night.

St. Bart’s, a Byzantine basilica, covered in shimmering tiles and mosaics, is one of the most beautiful churches in New York City. A take-your-breath-away holy space. For Emerge, candles created a curtain of light between the altar and the congregation. Behind the small table set up for readings and celebrating the Eucharist, a wonderful assortment of images were projected on a beveled-edged stand-alone screen.

The service followed the forms for an Episcopal liturgy with texts “crafted and adapted from several sources including Enriching Our Worship, The Iona Community Worship Book, Johnny Baker’s Alternative Worship and Common Worship 2000“. The music selections and musicians were spot on, capturing the contemplative and celebratory mood of Emerge’s tag line: “where the ancient and urban come together.” I was moved by the amount of silence in the service (allowing for entire minutes to go by, a sacred treasure in NYC) and also really glad when they invited the entire congregation to stand around the table during the celebration of communion.

There’s bits I could critique (hey, I’m a seminary-trained PK who’s starting my own emerging liturgical community) but why? I like to say: If you’re part of the solution, you’re part of the solution. Sanctuary at Epiphany, Common Ground at Advent Lutheran, and Emerge at St. Bart’s are all trying to work out some new solutions in mainline settings… and are all succeeding.

It’s tragically sad that Emerge is ending precisely because it was succeeding at doing something perceptibly new. Elizabeth, the young priest who gave the sermon, did a good job of using the story of the Transfiguration to tell the congregation that we shouldn’t try to hold on to our “mountain-top” experiences. Nor, she preached, should we “worship the worship.”

The party line reason for ending Emerge was budget cuts. At the end of the service, Bill Tully, the rector of St. Bart’s stood up and asked people to pledge. Maybe then Emerge could come back. He asked us to read through a small printed pamphlet about St. Bart’s 2007 Annual Fund called “The Heart of All We Do.” The opening message from the rector in the booklet says that “at St. Bart’s, worship is at the heart of all we do.” Tonight that statement rang hollow.

One of the hallmarks of doing post-modern worship is that it’s got to be authentic. Emerge was authentic. It succeeded in being a sacred space of mystery and transcendence. It succeeded in being a safe place for many different types of people who feel the brokenness all around us and who perhaps are made to feel broken themselves by traditional church. The service was professional and resourced and lived up to all that St. Bart’s should be doing in an alt worship service. Beautiful, mysterious, broken, and profound. It was authentic to St. Bart’s.

Orgininally posted on Transmission

New Cohort Leaders and the Schedule!

What a great cohort gathering we had this Monday. The Latino Leadership Circle (LLC) showed up in force - David, Belinda and Luis represented.

We were able to make some nice progress on organizing and scheduling things. Under group pressure and in a show of great compassion for me, (Jeff) Bowie Snodgrass and David Ramos agreed to become co-facilitators with me of the Cohort! Yeah!

I can't wait to see how their energy and wisdom transform and enrich our gatherings and our ability to communicate better and do new things.

Next month on Monday, March 12th, the LLC headed up by David Ramos will guide the dialog.

Then in April on Monday, April 9th - the day after Easter when tired pastors just want to hang out and relax, we will hang out relax, talk about whatever and have some food. Chill.

For the May Cohort on Monday, May 14th, Elise will head up a collaboration with some of the other women members of the Cohort for an anticipated dialog on Women Emergent.

Belinda Passafaro brought to our attention some very important activity on the behalf of humans who have suffered greatly and need our help. A group called Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform has been launched and they and the LLC and others have made A Call for a New Sanctuary Movement. We've posted these documents online at Google docs and spreadsheets so you can read them , but here's the main idea:

"...As an act of public witness, religious or faith communities will publicly provide hospitality and protection to a limited number of immigrant families whose cases clearly reveal the contradictions and moral injustice of our current immigration system while working to support legislation that would change their situation..."

Look what cool things happen when the LLC shows up! How would we know to help these people if no one told us? This is the kind of generative frienship that the cohort hopes to enable.

Another thing we talked about is communication of events that might interest us. We recently had some great speakers come through town that none of us knew about until it was too late, and so we really encourage you to comment here on the blog about any interesting events, and from time to time we will include them in email annoucements. We'll try to find a balance between keeping everyone informed and not sending out to many emails.

Also don't forget to send in your info for the sidebar's of this blog to cohortnyc@gmail.com or just post in a comment.

Second Monday & Peter Rollins

The NYC Cohort Community has spoken. The second Monday of the month is the desired day, and so we'll start that on February 12th - Lincoln's Birthday (sticking with the 6:30 start time).

At the January meeting we talked about different topics to cover including; women in ministry, mainline emergent, doing a study in Acts from an emergent perspective.

Books - the two books that we want to all read together and discuss are:

How (not) To Speak of God by Peter Rollins

The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren

How can we incorporate these into our dialog? From past NYC experience I am a little reluctant to "all read the book together", because with NYC lifestyles it's rare that everyone will be up to speed on the reading schedule and because new people cycle in and don't have a context. So, here's an idea...Let's say that we will all read those books starting with Rollins and that as we go over the months this winter and spring, we will always find ways to bring ideas from the book into the specific dialog we are having that month. So when it's women in ministry, we'll talk about that in general but we'll always be looking for opportunities to bring in something Peter Rollins has written that might be illuminating.

And we'll ask one another how the reading is coming and with subtle social pressure get everyone to get through that book by at least late winter and start the Secret Message in early spring.

When I was at the Emergent Coordinating Group gathering in June, someone had an advance copy of the Peter Rollins book and everyone was abuzz with how good it was. Apparently Brian McLaren really, really loves it. So, go buy it and let's do it!

There are so many more things we want to do to take our group to the next level - hey man, I'm the National Cohorts leader, so I got to have a good and inspiring group for the rest of them to get ideas from - and so that means I need all of you to get creative and think of great new things for the group and let's make it really rock. Please make me look good.

Would you like to open the meeting with a song and some prayer? Let me know. Would you like to post some thoughts to this blog? email me. Would you like to list your blog and church website on the sidebar of this blog? send it to me. Would you like a roll of twenties? Contact Elise.

So, blessings my cohortesians and let's discover on Feb. 12th that at least half of us in the meeting own a copy of the "How (not) To Speak of God" book by Peter Rollins. (Consider buying two and handing one out at the Cohort:)

January Cohort Gathering

Hey we're back here at Origins office for our first new cohort of the year this Tuesday, January 9th at 6:30pm.

We'll talk about all things emergent and catch up with those we haven't seen since before the Holidays.

Were also considering changing the day to the second Monday, so let's hear your thoughts on that.

Tuesday night at 6:30

Origins Church Office
581 9th Ave #3B(corner of 42nd and 9 Ave.)
above the papaya dog.
Enter next to the hotdog place on 9th ave.
look for the ORIGINS poster in the door and buzz number 3B...

Vision - dreams of the future

The Cohort for November is upon us! Yeah!

Let's talk about vision. Let's develop our friendship and get to know each other better by talking about what our hopes and dreams for the church are.

This opens the night up to all sorts of interesting directions as we imagine together the future of the church. It also opens the door to a discussion of the word "generative" from the phrase that Emergent Village is a generative friendship - ie. a friendship that "generates" new things.

What does the Lord have for us both individually in our churches, but also collectively in this region as we all emerge together over the coming years?

See you Tuesday night at 6:30

Origins Church Office
581 9th Ave #3B(corner of 42nd and 9 Ave.)
above the papaya dog.
Enter next to the hotdog place on 9th ave.
look for the ORIGINS poster in the door and buzz number 3B...

Book List from October Cohort on Gay Issues

So many things to talk about with this huge topic affecting human community and in some quarters splitting the church, one night was not enough.

Here is a book list that we have compiled to further help us explore - please send in more if you have them - we present this without editorial comment and recognize that it represents a broad number of views which represent our breadth of community. We are gathering for friendship, and learning from one another is a good part of that:

Embodiment- An Approach to Sexuality and Christian Theology, by James Nelson

Gay Theology Without Apology by Comstock

Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality, by John Boswell

Touching Our Strength by Carter Heyward

Between Two Gardens : Reflections on Sexuality and Religious Experience, by James Nelson

Beyond Gay by David Morrison

Freedom, Glorious Freedom- The Spiritual Journey to the Fullness of Life for Gays and Lesbians, by Jjohn J. McNeill

Setting Love in Order: Hope and Healing for the Homosexual by Mario Bergner

Stranger at the Gate: To be Gay and Christian in America , by Mel White

Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis by William J. Webb

The Sins of Scripture by Spong

The Erotic Word by David Carr

Women's Bible Commentary by Carol Newsom

Take Back the Word

October Cohort!

This Tuesday October 10th, at 6:30 is the cohort gathering, as usual at Origin's office.

I'm sorry for the late notice, but we are changing the topic, our special guest had a schedule change and so we are postponing that 'til later.

Instead we will be discussing two issues from a pastoral perspective - ministry to gay congregants and seekers - how you viewed this in the past, and how you view it now - same? changed? Where will we emerge on this issue that affects so many lives?

And then, how to address God, or speak of God in the English language where there is no neuter personal pronoun...is God a he? is God a she? is God an it? How do other languages handle this? What are emerging sensibilities? Do we change because of cultural sensitivity or does that water down understandings of God? Mainline views and Evangelical views - is there a third way?

See you Tuesday night at 6:30

Origins Church Office
581 9th Ave #3B
(corner of 42nd and 9 Ave.)
above the papaya dog.
Enter next to the hotdog place on 9th ave.
look for the ORIGINS poster in the door and buzz number 3B...

Cohort Expanding

If the cohort were pants, and the people were a belly - then it would be time to dig a new hole through the leather belt and loosen it up a bit.

Wow, what a great gathering last night. Everyone was so excited to see one another, we had new people who were welcomed lovingly and afterwards expressed gratefulness for the life they received from being around likeminded folks.

Elise Brown gave us the low down...on her new Thursday night gathering, which many of us will be attending on Sept. 14th at 7:30pm at Advent Lutheran, corner of 93rd & Broadway.

Transmission is growing in the hearts of Bowie and Isaac, and all of us.

I got a wonderful email today from Sean Callaghan in South Africa, who is moving out here hopefully by the summer to plant in Tribeca - he follows the Cohort blog here and can't wait to come and be amongst us, and we can't wait to be there to aid in their families transition into the city. They will be a great addition to our growing community.

Sunday afternoon some churches are going to Central Park for the Save Darfur Rally and the Doctors Without Borders Refugee Camp - a big day here for Social Justice.

Diana Butler Bass will be speaking about her new book on signs of life in mainline churches at St. Bart's tonight at 7:30pm, Center for Religious Inquiry. Free. Her new book is called "Christianity For the Rest Of Us" - about new signs of life in mainline congregations (She's on the Board of Directors of Emergent Village) [update: me and Becky went, very insightful new book]

Please send in links to your blogs and church websites and we will post them permanently on the sidebar here.

Next Month: A special treat as cohort member David Ramos founder of the Latino Leadership Circle (LLC) comes and guides our dialog. Probably a number of LLC'ers will come with. Can't wait!

First Fall Meeting of the Cohort!

Hello Cohortonians!

We are back for the new fall season Tuesday, Sept. 12th at 6:30pm!
(which is the second Tuesday in the month)

We've got a great fall ahead of us, next month David Ramos, founder of the LLC is facilitating the dialog, and a host of enlightening conversations are in our future. Already you can sense a wonderful enthusiasm about the relationships we are building, and if you read the post below, you will discover things are already happening out of these friendships.

On Tuesday rather than having a specific theme, we will talk about the overall emerging church phenomenon, and leave space within that for questions from new people, along with talking about actual things that are happening in America, in England, and here in NYC and where we hope or imagine this thing will go in the future. A good general night, so come ready to talk about whatever is on your mind.

See you Tuesday night!

Origins Church Office
581 9th Ave #3B
(corner of 42nd and 9 Ave.)
above the papaya dog.
Enter next to the hotdog place on 9th ave.
look for the ORIGINS poster in the door and buzz number 3B...

Generative Friendships!

Alright, well we're all enjoying the month of August off. See the awesome post below by Becky about her journalistic interview with Steve Chalke.

For all of your wonderful convenience, here is the fall Cohort Schedule:

Every Second Tuesday at 6:30pm
Sept. 12
Oct. 10
Nov. 14
Dec. 12

Here's a report of a Cohort "generative friendship" happening:

Generative friendships is one of the goals of Emergent Village, and it means friendships that generate actual things happening!

Of course, feeling loved by a fellow struggling comrade in the garden of the Lord is one of the best actual things that happens, and it is one that I plan to take home often, but here is another kind of thing we hope to see much of, as we all labor side by side here in our local field....

Starting in September, Advent Lutheran on the UWS is holding an emergent gathering every other Thursday, helmed by their pastor and NYC Cohort member J. Elise Brown. But being the emergent that she is, Pastor Brown is not doing everything herself, she has a whole wonderful group of folks at her church doing most of the planning and running of the gathering itself (including cohort member Becky G.).

But beyond her own church, she's is making generative friendships here at the NYC Cohort, and here is one such connection...she has asked another member of our cohort to lead the prayer portion of the gathering throughout the fall, and to preach/share a few times also! (if you want to know who, you'll just have to come check it out every other Thursday, starting Sept. 14th, 93rd & Broadway)

We cannot wait to see this happen all over the place - helping each other, consulting with each other, encouraging one another...generating, generating, generating...friendshipping, friendshipping, friendshipping!!!!

Exciting times are right up ahead.

Steve Chalke interview

Steve Chalke, founding Director of Oasis Trust and Faithworks, wrote a book titled The Lost Message of Jesus , which Brian McLaren references in his book in The Secret Message of Jesus . I found this book valuable as I was penning my book to help me explore what it means to put The Greatest Commandment into practice. Passing along the URL in case you might enjoy some summer reading. Steve Chalke Door Interview.

Awesome Second Meeting

Wow, what a great time we had last night at our second NYC Cohort gathering. Everyone was really into it and the conversation was awesome (can you tell I'm from California).

David Ramos characterized it well on his LLC blog, "About ten of us gathered at Origins where we discussed the lost art of listening as well as how the Emergent dialogue has created spaces of discussion that transcend denomination, ethnicity, and other categories. Over crackers and cheese [and beer] we talked about the uniqueness and fecundity of having mainline, Catholic, and evangelical traditions all in one room. We weaved in and out of varying personal and ecclesial observations."

Jon Tyson, our gracious host summed up what I felt when he said afterwards, "this was life giving to me".

We agreed to meet starting in September on the second Tuesday of each month, which is Sept. 12th at 6:30 at the same place, Origins church office - a very cozy space filled with couches.

We are also going to have more members of the cohort post here on the blog and hopefully we can continue the dialog throughout the month, and I think this will also give us a good idea of what kind of topics to have each month as we see what people are wanting to talk about.

The best part for me, and what the real point of it is, are the friendships that are developing. I see a wonderful unity going forward that will bring joy to our Father as he sees his children living and playing and working together as they be his presence here on earth.

Okay cohort members, start posting!

July Topic - Listening to all the voices

July Cohort meeting on Tuesday, July 25th at 6:30pm

Origins Church Office
581 9th Ave #3B
(corner of 42nd and 9 Ave.)
above the papaya dog.
Enter next to the hotdog place on 9th ave.
look for the ORIGINS poster in the door and buzz number 3B...

(August-no meeting, back in September)

The NYC Emergent Village Cohort is not the first regular gathering of emergent minded people in NYC - The Latino Leadership Circle already has that distinction.

Over the last year I have been thrilled by how God has been giving me friendships with some of the leaders of LLC. I met the founder David Ramos at the emergent theological conversation at Yale this winter, along with Jose Humphreys. I have been pastoring my church this whole year in the same building, the Lamb's theater, as Gabriel Salguero, the pastor the the Lamb's Manhattan Nazarene Church, and prof at Alliance Theo Seminary.

These guys have been very excited and encouraging to the start of the Cohort. I know as time goes on many of them will come and help build friendships. I'm hoping some of them will help in even deeper ways with the Cohort.

Last month, the LLC hosted Brian McLaren for a day full of events, and warmly invited me along. Here is a quote from David Ramos on the LLC blog which has inspired the topic for the July Cohort.

"Among many things Brian shared about his personal journey, described the history of the emergent dialogue, challenged us through narratives of faith in action, framed new questions for us, shared resources, and above all—authentically listened to us! While listening seems simple, it is nevertheless an act that lamentably, and often tragically, is not practiced enough within our communities, and as one person said, “Listening is an act of love.” "

So, let us take action - to listen as an act of love. Listening to people is how you go from acquaintance to friendship - so let's listen to one another.

July topic: How do we emerge together? (listening to one another)

Come and share your perspective, especially if you feel it isn't being heard.

As always we will make room for those new to the discussion and cover some of the basics if they don't know much and are curious to learn. We're all just getting into this!

First Meeting!

We had a great first meeting, where we grappled to understand what this whole emerging church thing is all about.

Here's a few definitions:

Emerging Church (EC) - a large amorphous group of Christian leaders talking about the future of the church together, often interested in how postmodernity is changing things, and why the post-Christian generation has stayed away...with the hopes of being the church in our day in new ways.

Emergent Village (EV) - the specific organization started by Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones and Brian McLaren amongst others in order to help facilitate the above conversation. When outsiders report on the EC they often go to these guys who are generally considered amongst the leading voices. EV is starting Cohorts like ours all around the country to help people build friendships and carry on the conversation.

We had a great time at O'Lunneys, but it was too loud there so next month we're looking for a new space - I will post it here as soon as confirmed.

If you would like to be on the list, please email me or just comment below and I will get it. jeff@cotanyc.com

Soon I'll send an email to the list and post here, the topic of next month's conversation. Please comment below on what you think the emerging church is.