Looking for God at The Church That Has No Fear.

St. Mary's Manhattanville is the "I am not afraid" church, standing up as a community of faith in West Harlem to pursue justice and peace for the poor and oppressed, to pray and care for the sick, lonely and at risk and to put into practice the message of the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. "Do not be afraid" Luke 1:30


Santa Maria Manhattanville es la iglesia "sin miedo," buscando paz y justicia al lado de los pobres y los oprimidos, rezando por cuidando a los enfermos, solitarios y marginados, y practicando el mensaje del Evangelio con la fuerza del Espiritu Santo. "No temas" San Lucas 1:30

People who follow this blog know that I have finally come around to understand that yes, there is a God, a First Cause, a Power That Started All Of This. That this Power would want us humans, Her (His) children to follow some rules just as the universe does and these rules represent what is right as opposed to what is wrong, that is that which is in harmony with the universe, its symetry, its logic. God is love, that's what people say and that's how this Church defines God.

So this morning I didn't go to sleep after a pretty tough night driving a cab that broke down, after a week of dealing with the traffic nightmares brought on the the UN General Assembly and all of that which comes with driving a taxi. I am 60 years old, this driving a taxi at night to feed my family is not child's play. I had been thinking about it for some time and this morning when I came home Marbella woke up. I told her I wasn't going to sleep just yet because I wanted to go to church. She wanted to know "why this church?"

I told her or recapitulaed other conversations about how this is the church in the neighborhood that is a center of resistance to Columbia University's encroachment on the community, how they host mettings of good people who are concerned with the world, how it calls itself the Church That Has No Fear. I told her of my wanting to be connected with my neighbors in a positive way (I no longer come to their doors at three in the morning to check on how they raise their children).

Me having resigned from a civil service job at age 60 to go drive a taxi (honest work), having faced down Military Intelligence in my youth, having grown up in a family that fought McCarthyism and saw a gun shot come through my bedroom window for all of that, I also wanting a universal God who both does not play favorites nor expect more of anyone due to a real or imagined ethnicity would have to be looking at Christianity and Islam. Being born and raised Western I could imagine myself not able to fit in or grasp Islam, but having related to Marx, one who merged Science with Christian humanism, (and I still do,) and whose Christian father was an ex Jew it seemed obvious and logical to me to look for God in that Church.

The service was simple, the congregation was mainly of my Black neighbors but other people also, and the Holy Communion also simple and to my understanding symbolic. It was something I did not feel ready to join in for reasons that I am not 100% sure this is my path, that I respect enough not to join in this without greater certainty.

The Reverend Koopercamp recognized me and to my surprise after the service he introduced me to the congregation. At any rate I would like him to know what brought me there and in that sense, what I am up to.

Anyone who might be reading this blog who is with St. Mary's Church is especially invited also to check into the website

www.acsmustbestopped.com



For a chat I had with Israel Shamir, a Christian and I can say it, an ex Jew, about this. You might be interested in it.

Fat Old Jewish Guy Who Lives In The Projects: About Thinking About ...


It's time for me to go to sleep. Thank goodness I don't work Sunday nights.

Excerpt of The O'Reilly Factor for 9/13/01

Cutting Microphones Is The American Way, No?

9-11 "Changed Everything", Including the Laws of Physics

From "9-11 Research"http://911research.wtc7.net/disinfo/deceptions/collapses.html

Background
Attack
Aftermath
Evidence
Misinformation
Analysis
Memorial
Collapsing Skyscrapers

9-11 "Changed Everything", Including the Laws of Physics
Within 10 seconds of the onset of its destruction -- when none of the rubble had yet reached the ground -- most of the South Tower was already reduced to dust and shredded steel.
When WTC 2 disintegrated into an exploding cloud of dust, obliterating 1000 vertical feet of intact structure from top to bottom almost as quickly as a rock would fall the distance, the news anchors were ready with a word to describe the phenomenon: collapse. To wit -- the Towers fell down and crushed themselves. Never mind that no steel-framed skyscraper had ever totally collapsed of its own weight due to any cause or combination of causes -- be they bombings, severe fires, earthquakes, or hurricanes -- other than controlled demolition. Never mind that the precipitous, explosive, and symmetric disintegration of the Tower didn't look anything like such a building would look if it could collapse due to collision- and fire-induced structural failure. The shock of the novelty of the attack itself could be relied on to suspend the disbelief of nearly everyone watching. The CBS anchor describing the South Tower collapse footage recorded just a few minutes earlier seems incredulous at the speed and completeness of the collapse but unquestioningly blames gravity for the destruction.
I mean when you look at it the building has collapsed, that Tower just came down.
By the time WTC 1 disintegrated, 27 minutes after WTC 2 did, the collapse of skyscrapers hit by planes had become inevitable. This was reinforced by the repeated reference to the 767-200s as "jumbo jets" -- even though they are less than half the size of a 747 -- and repeated assertions that no one had ever anticipated fuel-laden jets crashing into buildings -- when in fact the building designers had contemplated just that scenario.
Later that day not even plane impacts were necessary to level skyscrapers -- as simply being in the vicinity of the World Trade Center was sufficient to level Building 7.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg Update.

Rolling Stone magazine has a gushing oiece on or for New York's billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg.
I think if I win the Mega Millions Lottery I will buy a couple of terms as mayor too, and open a media outfit for which City beat reporters can dream of landing good jobs at and so will kiss my a$$ the entire time I'm in office.

Just a daydream.