Lady Liberty – Our Neighborhood in the News

In the early morning hours of June 21st, two men stole the Statue of Liberty (a replica) from Vox Pop. The Kensington community was up in arms over the theft but for the first couple of weeks it was mostly a local story. That changed on July 4th when the culprits posted a video on YouTube in which the statue is decapitated, after which the words “DEATH TO AMERICA” appear subliminally, then long enough to read. This led to a media maelstrom that catapulted Vox Pop into the national news.

Enter Tom Kirk, the Floor Manager of One If By Land, Two If By Sea (OBLTBS), a five-star restaurant in the West Village known for its rich history (it boasts connections to Alexander Hamilton and William Burr) and as a popular place to propose marriage. Tom telephoned Debi Ryan of Vox Pop and offered to donate their Statue of Liberty replica located on the restaurant's rooftop garden.

The rest as they say, is history. Lady Liberty was lowered by ropes and wheeled across the Brooklyn Bridge, eventually making its way to Vox Pop.

Putting all this in some kind of meaningful spiritual perspective was made easier thanks to one of our lectionary texts, namely the story of the beheading of John the Baptist. That Sunday's sermon capitalized on the desecration of the statue and the text for the day to explore the nature of violence. My take on the whole affair was to liken the actions of those who stole to the statue to the KKK during the Civil Rights movement, i.e., carrying out acts of intimidation under the cover of darkness.

The thrust of Western Religion, viewed psychologically, is a revelation of projection. For example, when Jesus intervenes prior to the stoning of a woman he uttered his now famous comment, “Let him who is without sin throw the first stone.” Too often religiously inclined believers see this as some kind of magic formula that miraculously stopped the violence of the crowd. But when we strip the story of it's religious overlay it's possible to interpret it another way. Imagine Jesus as a being far enough ahead of his time so as to see that the mob's violence was in fact the result of each individual member projecting their own guilt onto the intended victim. By getting the attention of the individual members of the mob (“Let him who is without guilt…”) and forcing them to examine their own shortcomings Jesus throws a wrench in what the French Historian of Religion Rene Girard calls the “single-victim mechanism” more commonly referred to as scapegoating.

This same mechanism can be seen to be at work in the beheading of John the Baptist. As the story has been handed down to us, Herod had taken his brother's wife as his own, an egregious thing to do even for a Roman Emperor. Herod apparently knew what he had done wrong and as a result he had stopped short of killing John, who he (Herod) had locked up in prison. Rather than dealing with his own issues, Herod ends up landing on the solution of cutting John's head off. Needless to say the revelation of scapegoating reaches its zenith in the execution of Jesus and his prayer, uttered during the execution itself, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

1.  This is what it looked like just before it was stolen.

2.  Here's Debi Ryan making the police report.

3.  Just before it was stolen the statue had been newly refurbished by Rennie Weinstein (pushing the statue).	4.  Everybody, including these neighborhood kids, loved the statue.
5.  An event was held decrying the theft. The message went out that no charges would be pressed if the statue were returned unharmed.	6.  This is how we got it down from the restaurant's rooftop garden.
7.  Then came the the fun part: wheeling it across the Brooklyn Bridge.	8.  Pausing for a photo.

9.  Arriving back in Brooklyn at Vox Pop (corner of Stratford and Cortelyou Rd.).

10.  Celebrating the statue's arrival.

Music for a Noble Cause!

Please come support the Rwandan Book Drive by listening to two enormously talented musicians, Rene Collins and Debbie Deane. Both have played at ASBC in the past and both are donating their time and talents to support the book drive we've been part of that will be shipping thousands of books to orphans in Rwanda.

When: Thursday, May 21st at 8PM.
Where: Vox Pop (1022 Cortelyou Rd.)
More: www.voxpopnet.net

Sixth Annual Children of Abraham Peace Walk

Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others walking in Brooklyn for peace.

Open Mic with a Soul
Moved to the First Monday of the Month!

Join us at 7:00PM at the Parsonage/our house church - 566 E. 7th St., between Cortelyou Rd. and Ditmas Avenue (also between Coney Island Avenue and Ocean Parkway)

Come and share a poem, song, piece of artwork or a personal reflection.

Subject matter that touches on spirituality (from any tradition or your own Personal perspective) is encouraged. The atmosphere/vibe is informal. We’ve Done about three or four of these and each one’s a little different, but mostly it’s folks playing a song or reading something they’ve written. When our Senior Minister (Rev. Tom Martinez) attends he usually offers a slide show to music.

Other photographers interested in showing images beginning in September can use this link to contact .

Among the News from the UU District of Metro NY
From the April 2007 Issue

“Rev. Tom Martinez, minister at All Souls Bethlehem Church (Brooklyn NY), sees a meaningful interface between worship, justice, and the arts, and engages in what he calls Photography Ministry in the form of slide shows synchronized to music during worship."   [ Read the Full Article  (in Adobe PDF format)  ]

Website for UU Singles

UUsingles.com provides matchmaking services for Unitarian Universalists and other like-minded liberal religious thinkers. They make it fun to meet other singles while promoting the inherent worth and dignity of every individual - a fundamental principle of Unitarian Universalism. Individuals age 18 and older of all sexual orientations are welcome to join. Posting ads is free and membership dues are modest.

Special features include:

Minimal Advertising. Keeping true to their values, the owners limit the amount of advertising you will be exposed to while connecting with other singles.

Commitment to Social Justice. UUsingles.com donates ten percent of all profits to further the work of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (http://www.uusc.org).

Privacy. Your email address will never be sold or shared with another company or organization.

100th Anniversary Service!

Our Special 100th Anniversary Service was a music-filled worship service on Sunday, July 1, 2008, in the afternoon.  The service was held at Trinity Lutheran (just a few blocks away from the Parsonage at the intersection of E. 8th Street and 18th Avenue).  A potluck meal and informal reception followed the 90 min. worship service.  Several of our own musicians (Terris Krueger, Rev. Matthew Fox, Tom Peters, Erika Kulnys and others) participated in this special event.

Mother's Day at ASBC

Our Mothers Day worship service touched on the pro-peace sentiments at the heart of Mother's Day. 
To learn more, click on this link to a Mother's Day For Peace video.

– Matthew Davis Fox's Ordination – On Sunday, March 4, 2007 we celebrated the ordination of the Rev. Matthew Davis Fox. Matthew has been assisting Rev. Martinez on Sundays since graduating from the Pacific School of Religion and returning to the greater NY area. Now that he's been ordained into the United Church of Christ, he will serve ASBC as a full-fledged Associate Minister. This is in addition to Matthew's full-time call to serve the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Matthew's ordination was a very special day in the life of the Church Parishioner Claudette McLennon pauses during the post-ordination celebration for a photo with ASBC Minister Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Bill Nye, while Margaret Haas looks on (background, left). (click for larger image)

– UCC's 50th Anniversary – 50th Anniversary celebration of the United Church of Christ denomination (at the Church of the Evangel, in Brooklyn, NY). UCC is one of three denominations with which ASBC is affiliated - see home page. (click for larger image)

April Blues