May 30th, 2013
This letter was sent to the St. Lydia’s congregation on May 27, 2013
Dear Lydians,
Last Sunday night we read the story of the Holy Spirit descending on the apostles in wind and fire…and then on Monday we read it again. St. Lydia’s is growing, and in response to this growth, we’re doing everything we can to make more room at the table. This past week, we launched our Monday night service, the first step in a process to give our community the room we need to grow.
At our Community Meeting in March, St. Lydia’s voted to accept a proposal brought to the community by the Leadership Table entitled, “Room At the Table.” The proposal outlined a plan for the next few years that will allow St. Lydia’s to not only grow, but to become financially self sustaining by 2016. It is a multi-stage plan, which envisions one, bold movement to accommodate our growth. Stage 1 was the launch of our Monday night service last week. Stage 2 is a significant fundraising effort, entitled the “Room at the Table” campaign, and Stage 3 is a move to our own storefront space in a centrally located area in South Brooklyn.
Once installed in our location, we will be able to leverage the space to generate income, which will cover the cost of our rent and the associated expenses, while salary and operating expenses will be covered by the giving of congregants and donors.
It’s an exciting time at St. Lydia’s — a time for us to listen to the voice of the Spirit as she outlines God’s vision for our community. God is calling us to feed those who are hungry, and to bring justice and healing to a world in pain. Our job is to be open to God’s vision for our community, and to trust God to give us the tools we need to carry that vision out.
I am pleased to report that, in addition to the launch of our Monday evening service, we have taken a second, important step toward our goal. On Saturday, May 11, Table Leaders Phil Fox Rose and Aaron Solder, and I met with Pastor Ruben Duran, Director for Development for New Congregations, Pastor Jack Horner, Director of Evangelical Mission in our Synod, and Pastor Mary Baumgartner, the Chair of the Outreach Committee in our Synod, for a review meeting. We presented a proposal I had worked up based on the Room at the Table proposal, and a business plan the Leadership Table and I have been developing and fine-tuning, showing how we plan to move toward financial sustainability. We then requested that, in keeping with the plan we had presented, the national and local church offices supply the funding for a full time pastoral position for 2014 and 2015, until the congregation will be able to take on that financial responsibility in 2016. All those gathered were immensely supportive of our proposal, and agreed.
And so it is with great joy that I announce that, beginning in September, 2013, I will be stepping into a full time, compensated position as Pastor at St. Lydia’s. The ability to work full time at St. Lydia’s will mean an enormous shift in the amount of time and energy I have to give to our ministry, and will allow me to devote myself fully to this congregation we are building together. It is with saddness that I complete the four years I’ve spend directing the children and family music program and First Presbyterian Church, but also with joy for this next stage of ministry.
We’ve placed two important building blocks in our plan, and we have a few more to bring into place as we continue to make room at the table at St. Lydia’s. As I so often say, we are building St. Lydia’s together, and you are invited to take part. Please share with me your perspectives on this developing project. Your thoughts, ideas, and reflections are an integral part of my ability to lead this community. The Leadership Table will be at work developing the ideas and concepts we’ve been working on. Over the next few months, you’ll be hearing more about this unfolding project and how you can put yet another block in place as we move toward a sustainable future.
Love,
Emily
May 24th, 2013
Ingredients:
Rice
Yellow beans
Onion
Saffron
Turmeric
Boil the yellow beans and cook the rice with oil and salt (beans and rice shall be cooked in separate pots). Once they are cooked, mix the cooked rice with boiled yellow beans and fried onions, add turmeric and salt. Let this mix cook for 30 minutes. Then serve.
–Prepared with our help by Tima on May 19, 2013
May 24th, 2013
Ingredients:
Chick peas
Beans
Lentil
Leek
Parsley
Spinach
Persian-style noodles
Dried mint
Onion
Garlic
Cut all of the vegetables and boil vegetables and all ingredients (except onion, garlic, and mint) together. Once they are boiled, cook them for 20-30 more minutes. After the water with all ingredients is boiled, you will add noodles.
In a separate pan, fry onion with garlic, until they are golden in color, then add dried mint to it and fry all three together. (This fry mixture is a topping for the soup, so don’t mix with the soup at the begining).
Ready to serve.
–Prepared with our help by Tima at St. Lydia’s on May 12, 2013
May 24th, 2013
by David Wojahn
Under the trellised arbor, and our supper’s over
in the memory I’ve found myself inside.
L not speaking, and beside us the river
sliding softly by. Now the light will fade
to moonlit water. And in memory I work
to make this lingering accurate and sweet.
White ouzo and her hand that lifts the grapes,
first to her lips, then to mine. I may as well speak
to moonlight as to her. And the walls of Bruges
light up again, a costume jewelry pearl string.
Her profile and her shawl hugged tight against the breeze
in memory’s flammable celluloid—flaring
and gone, replaced by bread and grapes, a checkered
tablecloth. The two chairs stare each other down,
empty now, upon which moonlight flickered
all night. The bread and grapes drip mist as dawn
carves the morning with a chilly wind,
slicing away both moon and fog. Now someone
without a name appears—first the fevered hands,
Dustdevil quick, that grope for the food in vain.
Then the pale light shows the open mouth
and rippling throat, white face on black water,
sparrow-flock fast, its spiraling path.
But the bread and grapes stay where they were,
their smell tormenting that famished ghost, helpless
to even lick away the dew that gathers
on the grapes, blue fluted sides of the wineglasses.
Dawnlight, everything dripping wet, and the chairs
stare at each other, alone. Sometimes on the riverbank
you can sense an odor—of grapes, or sex, or memory.
It swirls through the moonlit grass. And now wakes
someone always mute, someone without a body
weaving also through the half-lit grass.
The hoarse wail of someone who cannot speak,
who reaches out but cannot touch the grass,
and only the nostrils flare. Now the dawn will break,
late autumn cold. To crave so endlessly the warmth—
the blood-pulsing fingertip, the body to embrace,
the pungent smells commingling. To rise like breath
and slither through the trees and tangle every branch
in this unappeasable longing, this endless lust
for touch and smell which afflicts the dead.
The souls in the trees face the gathering light.
Other times, in the ground, the rain torments them.
–Read at St. Lydia’s on March 21, 2013
May 24th, 2013
By Li-Young Lee
From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.
From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.
O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.
There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
–Read at St. Lydia’s on March 28, 2013
May 24th, 2013
by Thulani Davis
as i fly over this time
rising over only this
so much painted suffering
unseen grimaces and stares
among spruce greens
these few forests left
all of us trying to be alone
quiet and blind.
*
i see soldiers in bus stations
with colored names
polaroid shots
their girlfriends chew gum
smile wide
*
in all this silver of sky
like stars these wheels
car gears lampshades
electrical refuse
zen oiled and greased
the believers now so many
now so tired of the sad songs
the endless yearnings for war
and more and more
*
dumb cries i sigh
trying to get out of town
i am writing on the wall
it will be painted over
like all the songs
once outside
but as i fly over this time
*
dianne is dancing
touching the far reaches
leaping and teaching
she strokes and struts the air
none of us stumbles
or fears their lives
steel beams and rail tracks
strike an E-flat, B-flat, A
E-flat, B-flat, A
dianne is dancing
no one can handle the hostages
terror is abandoned
because of light
breaking in leaves
because the center is gone
we are still breathing
and the swing is our bodies
–Read at St. Lydia’s on May 5, 2013
May 24th, 2013
by W. S. Merwin
Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
smiling by the windows looking out
in our directions
back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you
with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is
–Read at St. Lydia’s on Sunday, May 12, 2013
May 24th, 2013
Here’s what we did for around 40, cut back to about the size of a meal for around 6:
2 cans of canellini or Great Northern beans, strained
1.5 32oz boxes of veggie broth
1-2 heads of Escarole, cleaned and chopped or shredded into pieces around 1″ wide
1/3 to 1/2 lb of peeled garlic cloves (we bought pre-peeled by the pound — a bulb or two should do)
2 tsp Dried oregano
1 tsp Red pepper flakes
Sea salt to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Preheat oven to 400. Lay the whole, peeled garlic cloves and douse liberally Olive Oil. Roast with for 20-30 minutes (until soft). We just placed the pan directly into the oven while it was still preheating, but we also have a convection oven.
While this is roasting, place the strained beans, veggie broth, oregano, and red pepper flakes into a pot. Cover and bring to a low simmer.
When garlic is done, mince with a food processor and add to pot along with shredded escarole. Cover again and continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add sea salt (and pepper if needed) to taste.
Note: Everyone is tempted to add onions, scallion, shallots, and/or leeks to this. Try to resist this temptation. The roasted garlic and red pepper hold their own beautifully.
–Prepared by Richard at St. Lydia’s on Sunday, April 21, 2013
May 14th, 2013
Squeezebox is a place for our Song Leaders, as well as congregants, to learn the songs we sing at St. Lydia’s.
Hello Song Leaders!
Below you will find all the songs we’ll be singing this summer at St. Lydia’s. Since the Summer takes us through three whole months, there are a selection of songs for you to choose from in most categories. Listen, and see what you’d like to learn and teach!
Gathering Song
“Sing God’s Praises Glory Hallelu” (this one is a new one!)
“Jesus We Are Gathered”
“Caribbean Hallelujah” (also new, and on its way!)
Candle Lighting Song
“Evening Lamps Are Lit”
“Come Light of Lights”
Table Acclamation
“Summer Table Acclamation”
Prayer Song
Click here to choose a Prayer Song
Offering Song
This is a new category this summer, a song that calls us back from clean up for the offering and announcements.
“A-men!” (to come)
“Know That God is Good” (to come)
Closing Hymn
June: Come Down O Love Divine
July: O Praise to Thee My God This Night
August: Day Is Done
May 14th, 2013
Squeezebox is a place for our Song Leaders, as well as congregants, to learn the songs we sing at St. Lydia’s.
This song, written by Cristi Cary Miller and Kathlyn Reynolds, and originally titled “Antiphonal Glory Hallelu,” creates an warm invitation into worship as a Gathering Song in the summer months. It begins as a call and response, and then the phrases overlap to create a little bit of interest. Listen to “Sing God’s Praises Glory Hallelu”
