Peace Ambassadors of West Texas, an interfaith group working to promote peace through understanding, invite all to join in the 2010 “Peace Begins with Me” Season of Peace. Becky Benes is serving as The Season of Peace coordinator.
The Season of Peace hosts an interfaith service this evening at 7:00 pm at Unity Church. The schedule is as follows:
1 a.m. today — Prayer vigil for peace and healing begins.
7 p.m. today — Interfaith prayer service, Unity Church of Christianity, 5237 S. Bryant Blvd.
9:30 a.m. Saturday — 9/11 Memorial Service at the 9/11 Memorial site by Celebration Bridge, behind the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, 1 Love St.
6:30 p.m. Sept. 16 — “One Peace at a Time,” a film by Turk Pipkin, San Angelo McNease Convention Center, 500 Rio Concho Drive. Sponsored by The Gathering-UCC.
12:30 p.m. Sept. 19 — Musical program with Dwain Briggs, Unity Church of Christianity, 5237 S. Bryant Blvd.
6:30 p.m. Sept. 21 — “The Many Names for God: Challenges of Interfaith Dialogue,” University of Houston world religions professor Helen Rose Ebaugh, ASU’s C.J. Davidson Conference Center, 1910 Rosemont Drive.
Midnight Sept. 21 — Prayer vigil ends.
The Gathering is showing the film, One Peace at a Time movie on September 16. All are invited to participate.
Over the 12 day Season, people are encouraged to pray for peace in their homes and faith communities.
Lonesome Rhodes: Rednecks, crackers, hillbillies, hausfraus, shut-ins, pea-pickers - everybody that's got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle. They don't know it yet, but they're all gonna be 'Fighters for Fuller'. They're mine! I own 'em! They think like I do. Only they're even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for 'em. Marcia, you just wait and see. I'm gonna be the power behind the president - and you'll be the power behind me!
Lonesome Rhodes: I'm not just an entertainer. I'm an influence, a wielder of opinion, a force... a force!
In the 1957 black-and-white film, A Face in the Crowd, the scariest Andy Griffith you ever did see plays Lonesome Rhodes a raucous hayseed that starts as an itinerant Ozark guitar picker who catches on as an incendiary inciter and then becomes a TV big time personality and political king-maker.Marcia Jefferies is the media shaker and mover that discovers him literally along side the road and helps to launch the career that becomes a monster.Could it be that the line between film and reality gets blurred upon occasion?
On August 28th Glen Lee Beck was the organizer and master of ceremonies for his Restoring Honor Rally at the Lincoln Memorial.The crowd estimates vary, but certainly multiple thousands came out to hear speech and song in a staged effort to let the rest of America know that there are citizens that feel passionately about the safety of their Christian Nation.
Mr. Beck’s admirers and supporters are attracted to and moved by “this [man] who stands for truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”, a recent letter to the editor writer allowed.The assertion is that Americans have lost their sense of honor as it “has been disappearing from our lives and dictionaries over the past 20 years, maybe longer.”The writer went on to say that what has to be done to save the country is to start making some changes as a nation, and as individuals, including recognizing that not only America, but the world as a whole needs God.
When there is such passion and conviction by admirers and followers one wonders why those who are not fans of Beck don’t get it?Just what accounts for such a dramatic split?
Mr. Beck presents himself as a common sense man come to lead the lost out of the wilderness and away from socialism, communism and a racist president.Supporters experience him as a man of passion and reverence who has overcome problems in his personal life to be their champion of truth, honor and the American Way.
His critics see a dog-and-pony circus clown who is now making 32 million dollars a year via crocodile tears and finger pointing as he rants Beck-basics from a self serving black board.
As the movie demonstrates this type of public figure is nothing new under the sun. There is a long line of American characters that have popped up, especially on the radios of the common man, telling all who would listen about what it takes to get on the right track.Aimee Semple McPherson in the 1920’s, Father Coughlin in the 1930’s, Joe McCarthy in the 1950’s and of course, Rush Limbaugh in more recent time have shouted down sin and stupidity as the protectors of American freedom, pride and exceptional values.
These days of course fear mongering is daily fair on 24/7 on cable news.If a viewer sits for too long in front of the tube it becomes very difficult to keep separate the paper tigers of our mind versus the real tigers of our lives as the echo chamber amplifies constantly.
When conviction and hostility flow like a raging river separating neighbors and community what can be the solution?Could it be as simple as not doing to others what we don’t want done to us? Oh, but wait, that might close the circus and take away multi-million dollar incomes and influential positions of adulation.Once again, that doggone Golden Rule, it can be just so inconvenient at times.
Labor Day was established to honor workers and commemorate their contributions and struggles, past and present, to bring justice and dignity to the workplace and to society. Since its founding 100+ years ago, the struggle for justice and dignity in the workplace continues. Currently, more than two million full-time, year round US workers live below the poverty line, struggling to pay for necessities such as food, housing, healthcare, transportation, and childcare. Since 1996, thousands of faith communities have focused Labor Day weekend services on injustices facing low-wage workers and the religious community's efforts to support workers' struggles for living wages and family-sustaining benefits.
The Gathering will join this effort Sunday night as well as reflect on what makes "work" - whether it's sweeping, teaching, painting, preaching, banking, gardening, or whatever else - sacred. Our monetary offering will be designated for an organization whose "work" is to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth by helping others work: Heifer Project. They stress that "by giving families a hand- up, not just a hand-out, we empower them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope."
In addition, you are invited to bring the classic healthy hardy budget meal: one pound bags of beans and one pound bags of rice for a special "September Beans and Rice" offering for Project Dignidad. (See below for further story.) Our potluck will be dishes containing beans and rice and anything that accompanies this delicacy.
Gathering for Worship Labor Day Weekend Sacred Work Sunday, 5 September 5:30 PM, 618 Locust Street
We've got a lot going on in The Gathering and much to share with each other, so this evening will be full of engaging with the Spirit and discussing and deciding things that shape who we are. You are encouraged to participate. The Gathering is a collaborative community where, just as our bell banner symbolizes, each voice is unique and important in making up the whole chorus. We say we welcome all into the "full life and ministry of The Gathering" and that doesn't just mean others - it means us, too!
Recognizing the time issue, we will not have a regular pot-luck; feel free, however, to bring a sack supper if you'd like. Our monetary offering will be designated for The Gathering; you are also invited to bring school supplies which will be donated to Austin Elementary, the school zone in which Promenade Square (618 Locust) resides.
We'll watch Academy Award Nominee The Garden, and discussion will be lead by Maurice Toliver.
Synopsis: The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.
But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.... The powers-that-be have the same response: "The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do." If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?
We'll share garden fresh vegetables and other treats while we watch the movie, so easy-to-eat-on-your-lap garden-fresh kinds of things are suggested for our potluck. In observance of Ramadan, and in response to the devastating floods in Pakistan, our offering will be designated to help Pakistani flood victims.
The Taizé community, based in Taize, France, is an ecumenical monastic order with a strong devotion to peace and justice through prayer and meditation. Prayer and silence are at the heart of the Taizé experience.
The 100-strong community of Catholic and Protestant monks is drawn from 30 countries across the world. The community has become one of the world's most important sites of Christian pilgrimage. Over 100,000 young people from around the world pilgrim to Taizé each year for prayer, Bible study, sharing, and communal work. Through the community's ecumenical outlook, they are encouraged to live in the spirit of kindness, simplicity and reconciliation.
The community seeks to include people and traditions worldwide. They demonstrate this in music and prayers where songs are sung in many languages, and include chants and icons from the Eastern Orthodox or other pieces of scripture, repeated and sometimes also sung in canon.
Sunday's Gathering worship experience will be a Taize service of prayer and meditation. Our offering will honor our own ecumenical effort devoted to peace and justice - West Texas Organizing Strategy. Our potluck theme is, of course, simple French fare.
We affirm the inherent dignity and sacredness of human beings and the value of all life in the universe. We welcome and celebrate persons of all racial and ethnic heritages, all gender identities and sexual orientations, and all faith perspectives into the full life and ministry of The Gathering.
