MUSIC DIRECTOR OF UNION CHURCH, NANA SHI
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ENJOYING HOLY WEEK WORSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP, 2015
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POST 39: "BROOKLYN BLUES"
UNION CHURCH OF BAY RIDGE
“Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.” Mother Teresa
Forrest and I continued as partners in ministry at the Community Church of Little Neck, where we are making slow inroads and beginning to see God’s wisdom in placing us there. Forrest has also joined the Lutheran Counseling Center as a pastoral counselor. I was offered a part-time interim pastorate at Union Church of Bay Ridge. Union Church also has a proud, progressive history: one of its founding pastors, the Rev. John Paul Jones, was a long-time social activist. In a worship service in the 1930s he pretended to be arrested by congregates in brown shirts to draw attention to the Nazi imprisonment of Rev. Martin Niemoller at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Niemoller was a colleague of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Niemoller always deeply regretted not doing more to help the victims of the Nazis. He is famous for this poem:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
When I arrived at Union Church it was in the middle of a significant property sale and redevelopment of its main building, as well as its overall mission, as a result. I loved the notion that all those skills I first discovered in myself back in the Barry Manilow Fan Club days were once again being utilized in every church in which I had been planted.
Union’s love for music, the arts and social justice has given me courage to write more. Because of the kind of ministry I have at Union, I am writing sermons and devotionals weekly as well as engaged in all the other aspects of interim ministry. Union is another small church with a big mission: it was one of several churches that led the New York City Presbytery to pass a Marriage Equality overture that would eventually go to the Presbyterian Church USA’s General Assembly, then worked its’ way back down through the churches for an historic vote to affirm marriage equality in March 2015.
Although Bay Ridge is far from Williamsburg 1950s, it’s easy to see how Brooklyn shaped Barry into being the funny, creative person that he is. Brooklyn is just a planet onto itself. Having crisscrossed the borough for all sorts of meetings, it’s been a delight to see the multitude of people and food representing the United Nations. One block teeming with Hasidim, another coursing the varied beat of the Caribbean, another passing a mother guiding her children in Spanish. As I walk to my place of work on Ridge Boulevard I pass a woman in hijab soon followed by a mother wearing a colorful sari. Many Norwegians settled in Bay Ridge, and old customs remain: for example at the gravesite a shot of fine whiskey is imbibed to honor the memory of the deceased and wish them well on their journey. I don’t know why the Irish didn’t think of this.
It’s happening in Brooklyn. Brooklyn remains an innovative, inspiring place when it comes to food, music, beer, even liturgy and scenery. There’s nothing like driving under the Verrazano Bridge merging onto the Belt Parkway – unfortunately right into a traffic jam. Ugh.
Ah -- Fuhgeddabouit!
Notes: http://www.christian-miracles.com/motherteresasprayers.htm
Give the gift of music to the next generation through donations to:
The Manilow Music Project
8295 South La Cienega Boulevard
Inglewood, CA 90301
[email protected]
Click here to go to the next post or click here to return to the previous post.
Forrest and I continued as partners in ministry at the Community Church of Little Neck, where we are making slow inroads and beginning to see God’s wisdom in placing us there. Forrest has also joined the Lutheran Counseling Center as a pastoral counselor. I was offered a part-time interim pastorate at Union Church of Bay Ridge. Union Church also has a proud, progressive history: one of its founding pastors, the Rev. John Paul Jones, was a long-time social activist. In a worship service in the 1930s he pretended to be arrested by congregates in brown shirts to draw attention to the Nazi imprisonment of Rev. Martin Niemoller at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Niemoller was a colleague of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Niemoller always deeply regretted not doing more to help the victims of the Nazis. He is famous for this poem:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
When I arrived at Union Church it was in the middle of a significant property sale and redevelopment of its main building, as well as its overall mission, as a result. I loved the notion that all those skills I first discovered in myself back in the Barry Manilow Fan Club days were once again being utilized in every church in which I had been planted.
Union’s love for music, the arts and social justice has given me courage to write more. Because of the kind of ministry I have at Union, I am writing sermons and devotionals weekly as well as engaged in all the other aspects of interim ministry. Union is another small church with a big mission: it was one of several churches that led the New York City Presbytery to pass a Marriage Equality overture that would eventually go to the Presbyterian Church USA’s General Assembly, then worked its’ way back down through the churches for an historic vote to affirm marriage equality in March 2015.
Although Bay Ridge is far from Williamsburg 1950s, it’s easy to see how Brooklyn shaped Barry into being the funny, creative person that he is. Brooklyn is just a planet onto itself. Having crisscrossed the borough for all sorts of meetings, it’s been a delight to see the multitude of people and food representing the United Nations. One block teeming with Hasidim, another coursing the varied beat of the Caribbean, another passing a mother guiding her children in Spanish. As I walk to my place of work on Ridge Boulevard I pass a woman in hijab soon followed by a mother wearing a colorful sari. Many Norwegians settled in Bay Ridge, and old customs remain: for example at the gravesite a shot of fine whiskey is imbibed to honor the memory of the deceased and wish them well on their journey. I don’t know why the Irish didn’t think of this.
It’s happening in Brooklyn. Brooklyn remains an innovative, inspiring place when it comes to food, music, beer, even liturgy and scenery. There’s nothing like driving under the Verrazano Bridge merging onto the Belt Parkway – unfortunately right into a traffic jam. Ugh.
Ah -- Fuhgeddabouit!
Notes: http://www.christian-miracles.com/motherteresasprayers.htm
Give the gift of music to the next generation through donations to:
The Manilow Music Project
8295 South La Cienega Boulevard
Inglewood, CA 90301
[email protected]
Click here to go to the next post or click here to return to the previous post.
