Wednesday, September 19, 2012

St. Paul's Chapel & Locating the Sacred: Two NYC Faith Experiences

Halfway through a busy third week of my internship year in New York, I wanted to write a real quick post about two amazingly powerful, but very different, faith experiences I had over the last two weekends.  Despite having grown up only a couple hours north in Connecticut, I never really spent much time in the city until this year... attending a taping of TRL sometime in middle school, an Iraq War protest in high school and a couple Yankees games notwithstanding, I really hadn't experienced New York very much.

St. Paul's Chapel
One of the things I always wanted to do here was to walk around Greenwich Village following all of the old Dylan related spots... cafes he played at, the street where the picture on the cover of the The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was taken... stuff like that (I'm a huge nerd), so I set out to do just that two weekends ago, and Molly was nice enough to come along with me.  It was a pretty nice day out and we definitely had fun in the village, especially hanging out in Washington Square Park, but near the end of the afternoon we still didn't feel quite done... we wanted to experience a little more, so we decided to take a long walk down to the financial district.  While I originally intended mainly to get a picture of me fighting that golden bull statue that is somewhere near Wall Street (I think), we ended up decided to spend some time reflecting near ground zero, and that's when the faith experience started.  Given that it was the weekend before 9/11, we had little success getting tickets to see the new memorial, but we did have a chance to visit St. Paul's Chapel, an amazing place I had somehow never heard of before.  St. Paul's Chapel, part of the Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church parish, withstood the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings across the street and ended up serving as a place of respite for rescue and construction workers, as well as an active memorial site.  Weekly worship still takes place in the space, and it continues to act as pilgrimage place for over a million folks every year.  What an amazingly powerful example of a faith community serving its community.

Alhaji Papa Susso
This past weekend, I had very different but still amazing faith experience while attending a concert in the Queen's Botanical Garden as part of the ongoing Locating the Sacred festival organized by the Asian American Arts Alliance.  It was absolutely perfect weather out... just a little cool with a breeze and surrounded by a beautiful garden I was blessed to be able to listen to traditional music from around the world.  Entitled "The Gift of Wisdom," the event featured four distinct performances: Mala Desai began with a devotional Odissi dance from India, followed by a kora performance by a lively master named Alhaji Papa Susso.  Yoon Sook Park was absolutely amazing playing the kayagum (a Korean zither) and Ikhlaq Hussain followed her up by an epic sitar performance.  The highlight of the evening though, I think, was when all of the performances came out and played together at the end of the show.  Some of the music last weekend was specifically religious in nature, some wasn't, but the best part of the event was that it helped a really diverse crowd explore what can be held up as truly sacred, no matter what faith (or lack of religious faith) one might ascribe to.  I'd highly encourage folks in the city to take part in the remainder of the festival events throughout the city this week... everything's being wrapped up by a choreographed flash mob in Washington Square Park this Sunday.

All I can say in conclusion at this point is, boy, this city if full of opportunity for dialogue and shared experience with persons of really diverse faiths and backgrounds... what an awesome blessing.

God's peace,
Dustin

Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Thursday, September 06, 2012

Ecumenical Worship, Congolese Religious Leaders and the Politics of Nutrition: First Impressions at the United Nations

Boy, I've had an absolutely amazing first couple days interning at the Lutheran Office for World Community, the office that connects Lutherans worldwide with government missions, non-governmental organizations and other church bodies at the United Nations in New York.  Working on behalf of both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran World Federation, the office gathers information that guides churches in implementing humanitarian responses, discerning public policy responses and other activities.  Outside of typical "first day at work stuff" like setting up emails, getting ID cards and going on a tour of the place, most of my first day was dominating by a visit to the UN by a delegation of religious leaders from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The delegation brought with them heartbreaking stories about ongoing violence in the eastern Kivu provinces of the DRC at the hands of the newly formed militia M23, a group the religious leaders alleged to be armed by neighboring Rwanda's government.  While their message decidedly oversimplified the issue, neglecting to recognize the DRC government's own failings to foster security in North and South Kivu for instance, I did find it extremely empowering to see pastors and other religious taking a leading role in bringing global awareness to horrible situation that gets little press attention, especially in the US.  For a more nuanced treatment of the subject, check out this article.

Yesterday I attended a Working Group on Food and Hunger meeting.  While I definitely realized I have a lot of catching up to do on food and hunger issues, especially in their global manifestations, there was one particular part of the discussion that greatly humbled me.  As an American, I of course think of the concept of "nutrition" as good thing... it means folks not only getting enough calories to eat but the getting the right type of calories.  From the perspective of some folks from developing countries however, we gain the insight that trying to insert more "nutrition" language into this year's upcoming UN General Assembly resolution on food security might look like a code word for Western companies to cash in on things like increased vitamin exports.  According to some in the Global South, using terminology such as "diet-diversification" would make more sense.  While it might seem like a minute detail, it was really interesting for me to hear how at a place like the UN, folks really are working together to foster greater understanding across languages and cultures.

I've also realized how important of an ecumenical function the Lutheran Office for World Community plays... this morning I had a chance to help lead worship for a group that included folks from the Methodist Church, the Mennonite Church, the United Church of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church and the Salvation Army (I may have missed some others).  I was pretty nervous not to offend anyone, but we ended up having a great discussion on Romans 2, singing and worshipping our Creator together.  I definitely had never led such a diverse service before, and thus it was a great learning opportunity for me.  Even more importantly though, I can't help but think worshiping together in such a manner each week could greatly contribute to greater ecumencal understanding at all of our respective churches.

Well there you have it... my first impressions at the UN.  Now I'm off to hear deliberations on a small arms treaty and later today I'll attend a meeting on human trafficking... I'm very, very blessed to have such an amazing opportunity for learning at the Lutheran Office for World Community.

God's peace,
Dustin

Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin really likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.