Posts Tagged ‘philadelphia’

Best things that happened this week: 6/15/10

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010by melissadipento

A collection of good things happening all around us lately.

See Paul (and his journey) on our wall
On Sunday, 51 people gathered at Broad and Washington for the monthly network AMPM, a public meeting designed with kids and families in mind.

Courtney Jones recaps what happened on Sunday:

“We went on a journey with Paul and Silas, got thrown in jail, sang praises, had an earthquake, and introduced the jailer to Jesus.  We also learned to do the Fanga (a Nigerian dance) and ate trail mix as part of our journey!”

As part of the journey, the kids (with some help) created a huge map that shows all of the places Paul visited along the way. The map is now hanging up in our hallway for all to enjoy!

The AMPM happens every second Sunday at Broad and Washington at 10am. Join us next month!

Stakeholders met

Over 40 people from the Broad and Washington congregation turned out to Rod and Gwen’s backyard on Saturday night for a stakeholders meeting. Rod said he was encouraged and energized by the meeting and the peaceful, but intense discussion was amazing.

New song to sing along

Bryce led the Haddon and Fern congregation with a new song he had written, along with Kent and Lizz, based on psalm 30. Nate Hulfish said it was the first new song created by the congregation and he felt moved by it.

Why this pain? Why this pit?
You’ll hear no praises from the dust…
…while I am dust.

I will exalt you –
I will exalt you –
I will exalt you, O LORD

You turned my wailing into dancing
You gave me clothes to wear, and covered me with joy –
My heart will sing and sing and sing to you
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever

Art Shop Garden Fest

Over 50 artists came together at Frankford and Norris on Friday and Saturday to selling their wears and homegrown warm weather crops. The first summer Art Shop was a big success!

Film Screening

On Thursday, Broad and Washington hosted a film screening of Soldiers of Conscience. Over 30 people turned out for the event. The film documented the lives of eight American soldiers, including four who decide not to kill and become conscientious objectors and four who believe in their duty to kill if necessary.

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Posted in Community, Creative Arts, Dialogue | No Comments »

Shalom House Festival

Monday, May 4th, 2009by admin

One of the beautiful things about peacemaking is that it is more than just a job, it is a worldview and a way of life. When we shift our thinking to that of non-violent peacemaking our decisions and reactions are painted with that brush as well. The upcoming shalom house festival will highlight stories of violence, but also of notable peacemakers we have encountered. We hope that these peacemakers can serve as an example for how to prepare our minds for the violence we encounter. I would like to share with you the following story of an outstanding peacemaker:

A Late-Night Break-In
Adapted from an essay in John Howard Yoder’s What Would You Do? for the MCC Gun Violence Packet.

Angie O’Gorman was awoken late at night by a man kicking open her bedroom door and standing menacingly by her bed. He was “verbally abusive” towards her.

As a Christian committed to non-violence, O’Gorman was struck in that moment by the futility of responding to the situation with violence – “somehow I could not imagine this man standing patiently while I reached under my pillow for my gun” – so she decided to do something unexpected: She struck up a conversation.

She asked him what time it was. They talked about it. She asked him how he got into the house. He told her he had broken through the window on the back door. She told him she didn’t have enough money to replace the glass. He responded by discussing his financial problems. Finally, she asked him to leave, and he said he had no place to go.

O’Gorman offered him sheets and a place to stay downstairs. He accepted. In the morning, they ate breakfast together, and he left voluntarily.

~~~~~
Be with us for a festival centered on peacemaking on Wednesday, May 13th, from 6:30-8:30 pm at Circle of Hope’s Frankford & Norris space.

Over dinner, musicians will share their original songs, Shalom House will tell stories & explain the vision, and we invite you, to bring your stories of urban violence to reflect on with one another.

Please let us know if you can join us so we have plenty of food (soup & chili!) for you. As we try to reduce our impact on the environment, please bring your own place settings. Call Shalom House at 215-474-1195 or email mimi.copp@shalomhouse.us, or emily.kephart@shalomhouse.us.

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Posted in Circle Venture, Community, Dialogue, Peace, Planning, Resources | 3 Comments »

Makin Whoopee

Sunday, February 1st, 2009by joshua grace

Another Love Feast! Last night about 260 of us or so trekked over to Camden in celebration of what God has been doing and looking to what’s next. It was a little different than love feasts past (although, aren’t they all unique as our traditions continue to develop?).  One thing that was the same, there was a lot of love going around…a lot of making whoopee (Dr. John’s version here) in the holiest of ways.

A few reflections of really great moments from last night…wanna share some of yours?
1. We met in Camden! Our congregation exists  (officially open)!  It was awesome to have Jenny Laxton & the team leading us to worship.  We were in a flow for a while needing to meet at BW for almost a year-and the past 2 have been somewhere else.  Will we even fit at 1125 this April?  Whoopie!

2.  Circles of 10. I think a lot of people had the sensation “I don’t know most of these people!”.   If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t know a lot of people, too.  Getting in those circles of 10 helped some people make new connections-but I loved hearing from friends who were having a pretty cool moment of “I’ve been part of the community longer than anyone else in my group!  I didn’t realize how much of a bridge-builder I need to be!”  Whoopie.

3.  Bryan Robinson, pastor. I am grateful for his return to a fuller pastoral capacity.  Whoop-whoopie!!

4.  The covenant. Rod laid it out well… “how do we keep this group [and more] together?  This covenant of love.”   We had to make some changes to the process for how people join our covenant.  It required maybe some more processing beforehand.  There were more than 30 people who wanted to do it.  The recommender didn’t get to make a speech this time, just the person wanting to make the covenant.  Maybe next time we’ll have the person recommended only say a sentance and let the recommender talk more.  Maybe we’ll need to do the process locally and just show pictures of the people in a video because we don’t have 5hrs to hear everyone’s story. A big whoopie!

5.  Whoopie pies. God bless whoever brought those!  They even work so good with my little theme, here!

I’m grateful that we survived another 4months as a circle of hope.  We try to do a lot of things that are really hard.  We try to follow the Spirit, and it leads us close to and through danger.   I am excited to see where God takes us this next quarter!

PS-The batteries for my camera were dead yesterday and I didn’t get new ones. Did anybody get some shots from the feast or the baptisms that they would post on the Flickr group?

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Posted in Community, Dialogue, Family | 5 Comments »

Tuckahoe & Yorkship!

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008by joshua grace

The most astonishing things that I have ever seen are hands down watching my daughters being born.  Rarely am I speechless, and both times I had a system-overload of joy.  I had the privilege of being beside Martha for her labor, and was so proud of her that my face was about to shatter because I was smiling so hard.  Just the other day I was talking to Helena (who is now 7) about what it felt like to hold her for the first time (and that I was the first person to ever tell her “I love you”, etc).  A lot of friends are experiencing childbirth this season-just a couple weeks ago Nakai Rivera was born to Julius & Melissa, and a couple are on the way at any moment (Jon & Holly-in labor right now, Adam & Tara, Aubrey & Jacob, Kate & Adam, Katy & Zach).  What a wonderful season of birth!

When a cell multiplies I’m have a similar sense of those feelings-the gratitude, the joy.  God works similarly, and I try to drink it in.  This week our network is experiencing something a bit larger than one cell multiplying-a new congregation is being born.  The “soft launch” of a new Public Meeting at Tuckahoe & Yorkship in Camden is this Sunday at 6pm.  I am grateful today for Nate & Jen Hulfish and the rest of the formation team as well as the dozens of people who are coming along side our wonderful Birthing God to help this new congregation into the world!  The grand opening will be on November 2nd, and it calls for a celebration.

Here’s a South American alpaca dam giving birth to her new cria!

Next weekend (Oct 10-12), we’ll be celebrating that birth at the Discerning Retreat as well as other major happenings (or births) this year.  We finally unleashed the Director of Operations (hooray Liz!), our first fulltime Circle Venture (hooray Jeremiah!), Rod’s 4mo sabbatical 12yrs in the making, the purchase and 5week long rehab of 2233 Frankford Ave for Circle Thrift (hooray volunteers!), and we’re in the midst of renovating 2007-09 to expand the home of the Frankford & Norris congregation.

We’ll also have time to take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime grant from the Lilly Endowment to subsidize part of the cost.  We’ll take what the cells have been inputting-answers to those basic questions we do every year “where is God calling us to go, who is God calling us to be?”-and discerning further refinement.  We’ll experience in a special way how God is taking little bits from many places and turning them into something that can be known.  We’ll be away together to listen, to worship, to discern, to share, and to be one.  There are just a few spots left-you don’t want to miss!

Sometimes I’m not sure if we come alongside God or God comes alongside us when this new life arrives.  I am grateful that so many of us are in that mix!

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Posted in Action, Circle Venture, Community, Dialogue, Family, Planning, Resources | 2 Comments »