"The Laramie Project" - with our own Emma!

You can't tell it from the pictures (camera phone again, sorry), but one of those white blobs - usually one near the center of the picture - is last year's confirmand, Emma.

2008-05-30 Emma's Play

Jill and Mark went to an AMAZING performance of The Laramie Project at her school last night. It is "verbatim theater", all the words come from transcripts or interviews surrounding the violent death of Matthew Shepard in 1998. Each of the actors played a number of roles; Emma ranged from "the best bartender in town", to a loveable redneck, a Baptist Minister, a newsperson, and even the violence-speaking, anti-gay Fred Phelps (ask Jill about her run-in with Mr. Phelps' followers in Graduate School).

Matthew was a young, gay man who came to Laramie to go to college and was beaten to death when he was 21 years old. From the director's notes:

"The Laramie Project begs us to look at not only who we are and what we believe, but also at what we say and the words we use. This play asks us to think about the terms we throw around as a slur or a joke, and it pleads with us to reconsider how those terms are heard, how they are received, and what they truly mean to the people who hear them."

Powerful, moving stuff; extremely well performed for what turned out was only 5 weeks rehearsal!

There was a "talk-back" after the performance that added another level to the whole experience, and gave us a chance to hear some eloquent, thoughtful words from Emma.

If ANY of you are involved in plays, musicals, sports, concerts, graduations or anything else that the general public can attend, let Mark know and we'll do our best to have a contingent from First Church there to support you. Really. I mean it!

(Future Rev.) Paul - Enrolled as a Candidate!

JUST TONIGHT!! Our very own Confirmation Class teacher, Paul, met with the Presbytery of New York City and was "Enrolled as a Candidate" for Minister of the Word and Sacrament.

2008-05-20 Paul Mowry Candidacy

Congratulations, Paul!

God was Singing (a note from Rev. Cari)

I regret that I was not able to be with you this past Youth Sunday. I heard about how awesome the service was. I am so grateful to God for the amazing youth of our church. As this scripture tells us,

The LORD your God is with you...,
God takes great delight in you,
God calms you with his love,
and rejoices over you with singing."
(Zephaniah 3:17)

I believe that God was singing this past Sunday with delight in seeing and hearing you sing, clap, read, preach, play instruments, dance, and just be yourselves. Thanks for worshiping God in just being you.

Much love, Rev. Cari

Youth Sunday

Since all everyone looks at is the pictures, let me just get right to the album:

2008-05-18 Youth Sunday

Good participation; a meaningful, personal message; time to reflect and offer praises; and all done in just about an hour! What more could you ask for?!? ;-)

But seriously, a great job of leading worship by all those who participated, and a special "Thank You" to Rev. Beth and Amy for pulling all the pieces together, to the parents and grandparents for helping the Youth get to Church and for the yummy treats at the coffee fellowship hour, and Jill for her help "herding cats" with the Youth Choir.

Look for more service opportunities to be offered, along with fellowship during the summer and education in the fall!

Bowling, and Youth Sunday reminder

We all had a GREAT time on Saturday, bowling at Chelsea Piers as guests of Marc and Melissa! Thank you again, Marc and Melissa!!

2008-05-10 Youth bowling

Another quick reminder, this coming Sunday (the 18th) is Youth Sunday. Singing youth need to be ready to sing at 10:30am; ushers, greeters, readers, soloists, instrumentalists, and other supporters should be there by 10:45, or earlier if they need to warm up or rehearse.

Magdalene and Rwanda

Below is a note from Rev. Becca Stevens who came to speak to us last September with the women from Magdalene. They are helping other victims of rape and abuse around the world recover and develop their own cottage businesses. They recently sent an envoy group to Rwanda.

Rwanda was amazing and we are home, and the seven of us that traveled from Magdalene are safe and sound. The women we met fell in love with the message and community of Magdalene. We read letters the women from Nashville sent and in response, the women who are part of the sisters of Rwanda started sharing their experiences of surviving incest, violence, addiction and prostitution. Their staff said that they had never heard the women talk so openly. In gratitude and solidarity with the women of Magdalene, the sisters of Rwanda wrote letters and sent video messages to us. The stories are hauntingly similar.

Rwanda is full of people walking around with ghosts, while new life is strapped to the backs of women. Hearty crops are blooming next to people so poor they can't feed their children. It was so much to take in sometimes my legs would shake or my head would throb. Our small group carried you all with us the whole time. It was the right trip and we all think there are many more villages of women who want us to be with them. We found the cousins to the thistles. One of the many lessons I learned in Rwanda was that rape and love are universal actions. Neither get lost in translation and our job is to love the whole world, one person at a time.

Seeing women in traditional African dress with goggles and rubber gloves preparing to make soap is awesome. They were so excited when we started the second morning, they had already started cleaning the equipment. We went to villages where women waited all day to see us. They were stunning, poised, and almost whispered what they needed to tell us about their lives and their need for hope and money to keep going. We went to the market and purchased shovels, seeds, and sewing machines in response to some of their requests. Sometimes its just a fishing pole people need. They already know how to fish. The faith we saw was inspiring and a little intimidating. The singing and dancing were beautiful. The landscape is hilly with mists that come in like sweet blankets. It is strange to think of a million people dying on that land.

We are thankful to be home and I posted a few pictures on the blog beccastevens.org if you want to visit. thank you all for being such a great community to share all of this with.

love and peace, becca

Another weekend, another Confirmand-member walking

Isn't it great that last year's confirmation class members are so concerned about issues?

This coming Saturday Eliza will be walking with her Mother to raise funds for NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness). Eliza's "make a pledge" link is https://www.nami.org/walkTemplate.cfm?section=NAMIWALKS&template=/customsource/Donation/GeneralForm.cfm&Type=WALK&walkerid=56127

A bit of Ellen's note:

As you may already have heard, Eliza and I will be walking together to raise funds for NAMI - the National Alliance for Mental Illness. The walk is NEXT SATURDAY! ... NAMI exists to provide advocacy, education and support in a wide variety of ways to people dealing with mental illness.

Thank you for your support in whatever form in comes - money, prayers, cheers...... it all makes such a difference.