Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Belva Davis Promotes Fellowship Church (plus more)

Belva Davis Promotes Fellowship Church

During the Announcements period of the July 20 service, long-term attendee, illustrious and now-retired TV news personality Belva Davis proposed a “Social Media Project” as a way to increase attendance at the historic Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. Following the service she distributed a one-page statement that elaborated on her proposal.

Commenting “we are fortunate in so many ways,” she declared:
We have two world class ministers who write and preach timely, visionary and compassionate sermons. 
We have a congregation sprinkled with artistically talented individuals. 
Finally, we are blessed with the legacy and brilliance of Howard Thurman.
Given this foundation, she suggested: [...] [Read more]

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A Meditation on Deep Community

Earlier today, during the Meditation segment of the Sunday morning worship service at the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, I presented the following:

Fellow members of the priesthood of all believers, good morning.

Writing my autobiography led me to reflect on what I really want. I concluded that what I really want is deep community. So I titled the book, My Search for Deep Community.

My first experience with deep community was the civil rights movement, which was committed to reforming national policy from a holistic attitude that affirmed the whole person. As Gandhi’s movement was rooted in a spiritual community dedicated to the self-development of its members, the civil rights movement was rooted in the Black Church whose members supported one another in a joyous, profound celebration of life. Us white folks weren’t merely fighting for the rights of African-Americans. We were fighting to help one another save our souls by attacking a major root cause of injustice: the government in Washington. [...] [Read more]

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Faith & Feet Reflections

After participating in a 12-hour training with Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, a nationally-known trainer, organizer, and author of a new book titled Faith-rooted Organizing, I sent the following email to Rev. Deborah Lee, who works with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, a co-sponsor of the training.

“Faith-rooted” activists are out front about their faith, whereas “faith-based” organizing merely uses traditional secular methods to organize members of spiritual communities.

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Dear Deborah,

Thanks again for a wonderful training in faith-rooted organizing. I found the twelve hours to be very beneficial. Because I deeply appreciate the direction you, Alexia, and the others are taking, I asked Alexia to inform me about how I can keep in touch with future developments concerning with her “un-network network.”

One important dimension seemed to be missing, however. In the Sunday night report back, Vanessa Riles commented on the urgent need to address “internalized oppression.” The written report from that group articulated this question, “How do we support each other in having deeper faith?” I don’t believe the training responded to those urgent matters. [...] [Read more]

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Transform and “Oneness”

The July 15 Transform: Spirituality and Social Change class focused on “oneness.” Conducted by Liza Rankow, it was another stimulating and rewarding event. A diverse group of sixteen individuals participated. As with the Faith and Feet training last weekend, three-fourths of the participants were women.

As I discussed in “Faith and Feet Reflections,” I failed to hear much self-criticism at that training. Last night, however, I heard more acknowledgement of personal weakness. In the full group, one participant referred to his falling short in his efforts to truly love others. One revealed a serious health issue. In my small breakout group which discussed “What does this worldview demand of you in your daily life,” participants spoke of their struggles with empathizing too strongly with the pain of others, reacting with too much anger at the actions of others, and becoming too self-centered. These and other instances of honest self-revelation were heartening, for I find the common reluctance to be open unfortunate. [...] [Read more]

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Non-Fiction Music with Joel Sachs

I love this program which is available for streaming on the KPFA Archives. Great program with blues, soul, jazz, etc.

To listen, go to that home page, click on Archives/Browse Archives, enter “non-fiction music” in the search box, and click Archive Search.


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