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Soups and sermons in downtown Scranton

Elm Park United Methodist Church’s Lenten worship experience, “Soup and Sermon,” which begins on Ash Wednesday, will bring a number of area clergy to the pulpit for the noon downtown services.

The Rev. Rees Warring, a retired United Methodist clergyman, will present the first message on Ash Wednesday. Bishop John F. Swantek, who is a retired Polish National Catholic Church official, is scheduled for Wednesday, March 16; the Rev. Richard Malloy of the University of Scranton, Wednesday, March 23; the Rev. Douglas Postgate, pastor, Carbondale/Jermyn United Methodist Church, Wednesday, March 30; the Rev. Gladys Fortuna-Blake, pastor, Daleville and Maple Lake United Methodist Church, Wednesday, April 6; the Rev. Beth Jones, Scranton District superintendent, Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church, Wednesday, April 13; and the Rev. C. Gerald Blake Jr., pastoral associate, Elm Park United Methodist Church, Wednesday, April 20.

This worship experience in Elm Park’s chapel, at Linden Street and Jefferson Avenue, will run from 12:05 to 12:30 p.m. A light lunch will be served in the church’s dining hall from 12:30 to 1.

“Soup and Sermon” planners have designed the services to allow worshippers to have lunch and still return to other obligations within an hour.

Art, Events, , , ,

New York Folklore Society events

The New York Folklore Society has a number of professional development opportunities taking place in the upcoming months, including two “Gatherings” for Latino Artists, a Folk Arts in Education workshop in Western New York, and the upcoming Folk Art Roundtable, and an invitation-only professional development opportunity for folklorists working within New York State.

Second Latino Artists’ Gathering: Challenges and Opportunities for Traditional Artists in Rural New York

The New York Folklore Society, in collaboration with Go Art!, will hold its second Latino Artists’ Gathering on March 19, 2011 At the Homestead Event Center, Batavia City Center, Batavia, New York. Supported by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, the gatherings provide an opportunity for Latino artists residing in non-metropolitan New York State to come together to discuss issues and solve common problems. March’s theme will be “Challenges and Opportunities for Traditional Artists in Rural New York”, and we will hear of some of the current initiatives being tried to link artists across distances.

The schedule for the Gathering includes a presentation by Arturo Zavala, who has done extensive research on cultural entrepreneurship and is, himself, a traditional musician; a panel discussion by Western New York community members on the solutions they employ in their own work, and participatory dance and crafts workshops. The day concludes with dance performances from Puerto Rico and Mexico, presented by Borinquen Dance Theater and Alma Latina. For further details or to discuss attending, please contact us at (518) 346-7008 or via E-mail.

New York Folklore Society Gallery to feature the work of Bernard Domingo

To recognize the month-long run of The Lion King at Proctors Theatre in downtown Schenectady, The New York Folklore Society is featuring the bead and wire animals of Bernard Domingo. Originally from Zimbabwe but now living in New York State, Bernard uses wire and glass beads to create whimsical animals as well as other items such as motorcycles and flowers. Bernard has specifically crafted a large lion and a water buffalo to tie in to the performance of the musical. These, and many more animals, will be on display through February and March 2011.

The Gallery of New York Folk Art is located at 133 Jay St., Schenectady, NY. Gallery hours are Monday – Saturday 10:00 – 3:30.

New York Cultural Heritage Tourism Conference

The conference: Bridges to the Future, Empowerment through Collaboration in Cultural Heritage Tourism, A Cultural Heritage Tourism Symposium will take place at Colgate University, Friday, March 18th from 9 am to 3:30 pm at the Ho Science Center, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York.

Did you know that Cultural Heritage Travelers:

  • Consistently spend more money and linger longer than other travelers
  • In 2009 there were 118.3 million U.S. cultural heritage travelers
  • Cultural heritage travelers are dedicated shoppers at museum stores

This conference is for curators and staff of Cultural Heritage attractions, historical societies, and anyone who needs to drive more tourism business to their own front door. A conference fee of $30 per person includes the day’s events, luncheon, take home materials, refreshments, excellent presentations and time to network. Additional persons from the same business are only $25. Space restrictions
require that reservations be limited to the first 75 persons.

More information about the symposium will be forthcoming soon. Contact the New York Cultural Heritage Tourism Alliance by E-mail or at 315-521-3985.

Events, , , , ,

Benefit reading to support One Story

On Tuesday, February 22nd at The Stone, you can support One Story at a benefit reading with a bonus: Amy Hempel, A.M. Homes, and Hannah Tinti will not only read, they will also join forces to perform a musical number. This event is part of a series curated by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. It will cost just $10 and all proceeds will go to support One Story!

Date/Time: Tuesday, February 22nd at 8 pm.
Curated by: Laurie Anderson & Lou Reed
Featuring: Amy Hempel, A.M. Homes & Hannah Tinti
At: The Stone, Lower East Side NYC, located on the Corner of Avenue C & 2nd Street
Price: $10. All proceeds benefit One Story. One Story is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supported by readers and by grants from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Amazon.com.

PNCC, , , , , , , ,

Church controversies

From the Bloomington Pantagraph: Streator parish mired in $35,000 dispute

STREATOR — The 86-year-old former head of the now-defunct Altar & Rosary Society of St. Casmir Roman Catholic Church had to make a trip to the police station Tuesday to explain why her organization did not steal $35,622 that a monsignor says belongs to the parish.

Dorothy Swital said she told the police the money was raised by her society and did not belong to the church, so the society was within its rights to transfer the two certificates of deposit to the newly created Altar Society of the Polish National Alliance in Streator. She said the new group’s mission is the same as its predecessor’s: raise money to aid the Catholic Church’s work.

Monsignor John Prendergast, who heads the St. Michael the Archangel Parish, which was created by the consolidation of four parishes last fall, called the transfers “unauthorized withdrawals” from a church account.

No charges were filed as of Tuesday. Police declined to comment on the investigation.

Prendergast said Tuesday that Swital was given “ample opportunity” to resolve the dispute without it going to the police and the public. He said now that the matter is in police hands, he cannot comment, other than to say “the church has survived for 2,000 years and it will survive this.”

The dispute is part of a continuing feud between some parishioners of the defunct Streator parishes and the Peoria Diocese and Prendergast. The diocese opted to close St. Stephen’s, St. Anthony’s, Immaculate Conception, and St. Casimir’s parishes and merge them into the new parish to cut costs and revitalize the Catholic Church community in the city, Prendergast said previously.

In a letter to Swital made public this week, the monsignor vowed to bring charges against her if she did not return the money by Feb. 4. With that deadline passed and the police complaint filed, Swital said she was asked by the police department to come in and make her statement.

“We raised that money,” Swital said Tuesday. “Any time they (the church) needed it for something, we’d give it to them.”

None of the money came from church collections, she said…

Also see State’s attorney to review Streator church funds

Of note, in the PNCC, Church organizations like the Women’s Adoration Society, YMS of R, and parent groups supporting the parish Schools of Christian Living are all independent and answerable only to their individual constitutions and membership. Of course they actively support their parishes and do thousands of positive and valuable things for the Church and their parishes. As with the ladies mentioned above, these societies are formed, organized, and governed on a principal of love for the Church and its mission. Clerical control is not what is necessary, but a community that abides by the democratic principals which subsists in the PNCC. For instance, per the Constitution of the PNCC:

ARTICLE V, SECTION 8. All of the funds, moneys and property, whether real or personal, belong to those members of the Parish who conform to the Rites, Constitution, Principles, Laws, Rules, Regulations, Customs and Usages of this Church, and subject to the provisions of this Constitution and Laws.

Similar statements are contained in the constitutions of the various Church Societies. For instance, the Constitution of the National United Women’s Societies for the Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament notes that the “Pastor serves as the Society’s spiritual advisor” (Article IV, Administration, Section 4). Funds are used in keeping with the Society’s mission and goals (Article II, Purpose, and Article III Membership and Responsibilities). Each Society controls its own funds (Article V, Dues and Funds) through its votes and elected officers (Article IV, Administration, Sections 1 and 2).

Also note, per the Church Constitution, the Pastor doesn’t control the existence and development of Church Societies, but supports them, seeing to fertile ground so that they may exist and develop.

ARTICLE XIV, SECTION 4. [The Pastor] organizes and is responsible for the conduct of a School of Christian Living, the Standard Church Societies and, whenever and if possible, a Polish School. He shall particularly take care that the School of Christian Living and the Standard Church Societies established by the Synods shall exist and develop within his Parish.

Chicago Now looks back in history at the conflict that led to the founding of an independent Polish Catholic Church in Chicago (which later became part of the PNCC) in Civil War at St. Hedwig (2-9-1895). Note the key phrase I have highlighted:

Like the flag of Poland, there was white and red. Blood was on the snow outside St. Hedwig church–and a bit of red pepper.

St. Hedwig parish had been founded in 1888 to serve Polish Catholics in Bucktown. The pastor was Rev. Joseph Barzynski. He was a member of a religious order–the Congregation of the Resurrection, or Resurrectionists.

Now, in the early months of 1895, the parish was engulfed in civil war. One faction supported the pastor. The other side had gathered around Rev. Anthony Kozlowski, the young assistant who’d recently arrived from Poland. Kozlowski was not a Resurrectionist.

Depending on which side you listened to, there were many reasons for the conflict. Was Kozlowski attempting a power-play to become pastor? Were the Resurrectionists too autocratic? Was someone stealing money from the St. Hedwig treasury? What role should lay people play in a parish? Who should hold title to parish property?

A majority of the parishioners backed Kozlowski. There were protests at Sunday Mass. The police placed guards at the church. On the evening of February 7, the situation turned violent.

About 3,000 people, mostly women, tried to storm the parish rectory. The pastor and his new assistant barricaded themselves inside. The police guard called for backup…

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, , , ,

The concept of assent in a democratic Church

The Polish National Catholic Church rightly takes pride in the fact that its people, all its people, function as its legislative body. Per the Constitution of the PNCC:

ARTICLE VI — CHURCH AUTHORITY

SECTION 1. The authority of this Church is vested in three branches, namely: legislative, executive and judicial.

…

SECTION 3. In administrative, managerial and social matters, this Church derives its authority from the people who build, constitute, believe in, support and care for it. It is a fundamental principle of this Church that all Parish property, whether the same be real, personal, or mixed, is the property of those united with the Parish who build and support this Church and conform to the Rite, Constitution, Principles, Laws, Rules, Regulations, Customs and Usages of this Church.

SECTION 4. The administration, management and control over all the property of the Parish is vested in the Parish Committee elected by the Parish and confirmed by the Diocesan Bishop, and strictly dependent upon and answerable to the lawful authorities of this Church.

The Church is democratically governed, that is, its people make the decisions and express their will at Holy Synod, both the quadrennial General Synod and at Diocesan Synods.

One of the problems frequently seen in other Churches, with similar democratic forms of governance, is the constancy of faith, morals, Tradition, doctrine, and liturgy (within liturgical Churches) under a democratic decision making processes. Are there limits to democracy, and can democracy trump all things?

In a democratic Church, are you one vote away from deciding Jesus is not true-God and true-man, from denying the Virgin birth, from turning the resurrection into a fuzzy myth narrative of confused and poor disciples who carried along the beautiful message of Jesus because it was oh so special to them?

There are those, even within the PNCC, who take Bishop Hodur’s teaching on the democratic nature of the community of Church as a license to make everything subject to democratic process. This form of thinking places the individual in charge of the Church’s teaching, and frees them from the constraints of ‘all that old stuff we’ve gotten way past.’ They use enlightenment arguments, Bishop Hodur arguments, other Churches are doing it arguments, it suits me better arguments, and its unfair/unjust/un-democratic arguments. They only argument they fail to see is the Catholic argument, the linkage to the universal constant within which we strive to overcome what is personal to reach what is Divine.

InsideCatholic, a strongly apologist website which easily resorts to the “heretic” and “exommunicated” argument does make a solid point in Episcopal/Catholic Conversion Is a Two-Way Street:

The developing story of the new Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans continues to unfold in the media, boosted by the Anglican Communion’s instability due to the Episcopal Church and their co-revisionists in the Anglican Church of Canada. Less reported has been the equally well-trafficked path away from Rome and toward the Episcopal Church.

In 2009, Episcopal bishop and gay celebrity Gene Robinson crowed that his New Hampshire diocese was brimming with disaffected Catholics, drawn to the promise of a more inclusive church. While Bishop Robinson’s celebration was premature … he was not misrepresenting the source of some new pew occupants.

“Pope Ratzinger,” Bishop Robinson declared, referring to Benedict XVI by his given name in a late-2005 speech, “may be the best thing to happen to the Episcopal Church . . . . We are seeing so many Roman Catholics join the [Episcopal] church.”

Roman Catholics and Episcopalians have swapped places for years, easily facilitated by related liturgical forms and practices. Unlike other Reformation-era churches, the Church of England, then a geographic arm of the Roman Church, maintained the forms and hierarchies of its parent. The Anglo-Catholic wing of Anglicanism is the closest to its source, in many cases conducting services that are more recognizably Catholic than the post-Vatican II Mass. Some American conservatives see Rome’s embrace of theological orthodoxy — reasserted by Benedict and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II — as a compelling alternative to an increasingly listless Episcopal Church.

Similarly, liberal Catholics tied to their forms of worship enjoy the option to embrace the Episcopal Church’s “Catholicism Lite” without the inconvenient frowning upon birth control, abortion, or whatever the latest sexual lifestyle innovation might be.

The point being that if Church is merely choices, one may find the most comfortable outward portrayal of Church for oneself. One may find that place where a loose set of choices is constantly put up for personal and collective vote as the mood strikes today. It is a stunning lack of constancy and perseverance on the narrow road (Matthew 7:13-14).

As with any linear analysis of possible alternatives, one can find the place of balance. In the PNCC the balance point lies at the junction between democracy and assent. Democracy is a governing principal, and self determination over what one gives to build the Church. No one can take the parish, or the Church itself, away from those who “build, constitute, believe in, support and care for it.” In the same manner, no one can use the power of the vote to take the Catholic out of the Church, similarly taking catholicity away from those very same people.

At the XXIII General Synod, a perfect example of balance was on display. The Church Doctrine Commission presented two papers, “To Live in the Spirit of God,” which addressed Church teaching on current moral and bioethical issues, and “Eschatology in the PNCC: A Clarification.” Both were presented, not for a vote, but for the assent of the faithful.

In accord with the Constitution of the PNCC:

ARTICLE VI — CHURCH AUTHORITY

SECTION 2. In matters of Faith, morals and discipline the authority of this Church lies in the hands of the Prime Bishop, Diocesan Bishops and Clergy united with them. This authority is derived directly from God through Jesus Christ, agreeably with the words of our Savior: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20).

“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18)

The Church’s Catholic nature of Church precludes votes on doctrine and its Holy Tradition. As PNCC faithful, we are bound to conform our lives to the Church’s teaching, not as a matter of choice but as a matter of becoming.

Of course, we are not all there, conforming our lives and our choices perfectly to the Church’s guidance. It is difficult to lay down ones life (John 15:13). We all struggle in the gulf between our sinfulness and perfection, the gap between what is earthly and Divine within us. As we travel that road in growing closer to God’s desires for us, as we climb the ladder, we are called to become, to strive for that which is promised to the faithful. That promise is best fulfilled under the guiding and protecting hand of sound orthodox doctrine and Tradition — not a fuzzy assumption that we are any more right today in our personal choices than people have been for 2,000 years.

Yes, a Church can have a democratic form of governance and hold its Catholic faith through assent.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, Political, , , , , ,

Idle hands are the devil’s tools

From The Southern: Teens rocked by unemployment

Katie Pemberton is one of the lucky ones.

Pemberton, a Benton Consolidated High School senior, had no trouble landing a job the Franklin County election office, a requirement for her participation in the BCHS work program.

“I’ve been working here since the end of August, and I’ve had other jobs before,” she said. “It was really pretty easy to find one.”
Others weren’t so lucky, according to program coordinator Sandy Blackman, a BCHS teacher.

In years past, the school-to-work program had an enrollment of 15 to 20 students who attended school half a day and worked, for pay, at jobs in the community the other half of the day.

“We now have six kids,” Blackman said. “The jobs just aren’t out there.”

While Blackman doesn’t always match students to jobs, she does send out a letter to local businesses describing the program and asking employers to consider hiring her students.

Before the start of this school year, she sent out 250 such letters.

She got only one reply.

“We’ve had businesses that hire a student every year, but not this year,” she said.

The national economy is likely the culprit in the disappearance of teen jobs, she said.

“The kids come to me to ask about job openings and there just aren’t any,” Blackman said. “Some businesses can’t afford taking on another employee right now.”

Not alone

Blackman’s students aren’t alone in their failure to find a job.

According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, the national unemployment rate for teens ages 16 to 19 was 25.4 percent in December. While that number dipped slightly from the 26.2 percent unemployed at the start of 2010, it represents a huge increase from December 2006, when only 14.6 percent were unemployed…

And from Bloomberg Businessweek: The Youth Unemployment Bomb

From Cairo to London to Brooklyn, too many young people are jobless and disaffected. Inside the global effort to put the next generation to work

In Tunisia, the young people who helped bring down a dictator are called hittistes—French-Arabic slang for those who lean against the wall. Their counterparts in Egypt, who on Feb. 1 forced President Hosni Mubarak to say he won’t seek reelection, are the shabab atileen, unemployed youths. The hittistes and shabab have brothers and sisters across the globe. In Britain, they are NEETs—”not in education, employment, or training.” In Japan, they are freeters: an amalgam of the English word freelance and the German word Arbeiter, or worker. Spaniards call them mileuristas, meaning they earn no more than 1,000 euros a month. In the U.S., they’re “boomerang” kids who move back home after college because they can’t find work. Even fast-growing China, where labor shortages are more common than surpluses, has its “ant tribe”—recent college graduates who crowd together in cheap flats on the fringes of big cities because they can’t find well-paying work.

In each of these nations, an economy that can’t generate enough jobs to absorb its young people has created a lost generation of the disaffected, unemployed, or underemployed—including growing numbers of recent college graduates for whom the post-crash economy has little to offer. Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution was not the first time these alienated men and women have made themselves heard. Last year, British students outraged by proposed tuition increases—at a moment when a college education is no guarantee of prosperity—attacked the Conservative Party’s headquarters in London and pummeled a limousine carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Bowles. Scuffles with police have repeatedly broken out at student demonstrations across Continental Europe. And last March in Oakland, Calif., students protesting tuition hikes walked onto Interstate 880, shutting it down for an hour in both directions…

Couple disaffected youth, the hopelessness that the new economy has wrought (no, you never will catch up with your parent’s standard, much less gain any power) and throw in a few friends who learned the fine art of IED making in Afghanistan and Iraq, and — well you know who they’ll be targeting first.

Our challenge, particularly as Christians, is not to pull the wool over their eyes, or gloss over the struggle, but to show them that there actually is something else. We have the place where worldliness and all that comes with it is of little importance, where small community and self-reliance make for a good and positive life, the place where we work together, for each other and for the Everlasting. Should we teach them about iPods or I-we-and-Thee?

As it was in 1897, so it is today in the year 1910, that Bishop Hodur is a supporter of reform in the civil or the social spirit, he is for the nationalization of the land, of churches, schools, factories, mines and the means of production. He has stated this openly and states it publicly today, he does not hide his sympathies for the workers’ movement and he will never hide them, and he considers himself nothing else than a worker in God’s Church.

But the bishop is an opponent of erasing religion from the cultural work of humanity — indeed, Bishop Hodur believes strongly and is convinced that all progress, growth, just and harmonious shaping of human relations must come from a religious foundation, lean on Divine ethics, and then such growth will be permanent and will give humanity happiness. — Straz, 21 Jan. 1910.

Art, Christian Witness, Perspective, Xpost to PGF, , ,

It’s Not Just Black And White – Jailing Everyone

The Arizona State University Art Museum presents It’s Not Just Black And White by Gregory Sale – Social Studies Project 6, February 1 – May 14, 2011. The Season Opening Reception will be held Friday, February 18th from 7-9pm. Social Studies Project 6 will be installed in the Turk Gallery of the ASU Art Museum’s Nelson Fine Arts Center location.

With a population of roughly 6.5 million, (Arizona has) over 40,000 inmates. The state of Washington, with a population slightly larger than Arizona, has roughly 18,000. — The Arizona Republic, January 28, 2011

A recent Pew Center report indicates that in 2008, one in 33 adults in Arizona was under correctional control, which includes jail, prison, parole and probation. Twenty-five years ago, this number was one in 79. What has changed so much is not human nature, but the offenses for which we incarcerate and the imposition of mandatory sentences. — Rep. Cecil Ash, R-Mesa (Ariz.) quoted in the Arizona Capitol Times, December 11, 2009

It’s not just black and white is a three-month-long residency exhibition with Gregory Sale, a Phoenix-based artist who will work through artistic gestures to initiate and host dialogue, aspiring to give voice to the multiple constituencies of the corrections, incarceration and criminal justice systems. The ASU Art Museum gallery space will operate as a site for developing and displaying visual and mediated exhibitions, dance and other staged events, discussions and readings.

As the title It’s not just black and white implies, the intent of the project is to expose and examine the many often conflicting viewpoints, perspectives and values that are generated from serious considerations of justice and public safety. The project will provide the opportunity for the public to explore the impact of modern criminal justice through fact-based tours, dialogues and programs – offering more first-hand experience of the many strands that make up this complicated narrative.

ASU Art Museum Social Studies Initiative

The Museum’s Social Studies initiative is a series of residency exhibitions, begun in 2007, that explore this dialogue-based, process-oriented context by literally bringing the studio into the museum, and by engaging the public directly in the creative process of exhibition-making in the space where “the art object” is usually found.

The ASU Art Museum continues to transform museum traditions by returning to the original sociological function of the institution – to encourage the circulation of ideas embedded in the archive, to provide a safe place for curiosity and to create an exchange point for the flow of conversation between and among artists, curators, collectors, students, social and governmental institutions, and the public.

It’s not just black and white is supported by grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Friends of the ASU Art Museum.

Other events:

Collecting Contemporary Art: The FUNd at ASU Art Museum
Curator: Heather Lineberry
Dec 18, 2010 – May 14, 2011
Location: ASU Art Museum
Cost: Free

Collecting Contemporary Art features a selection of works acquired in part or in whole by the FUNd at ASU Art Museum, an endowment established by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. From monumental found-object installations to print portfolios of etchings and lithographs, the international pieces share a current of experimentation and an exploration of social and political concerns. The exhibition charts the Museum’s collecting goals and exhibition history over the past 15 years, with significant representation of Latin American and Latino artists, artists from Arizona and artists in residence at the Museum. Artists represented include Kim Abeles (Los Angeles), John Ahearn (New York), Abel Barroso (Cuba), Sandow Birk (Los Angeles), Xu Bing (China), Deborah Butterfield (Montana/Hawaii), Enrique Chagoya (born in Mexico, active in the U.S.), Colin Chillag (Phoenix), Sue Coe (born in England, active in the U.S.), Jon Haddock (Tempe), Kcho (Cuba), Los Carpinteros (Cuba), Aimee Garcia Marrero (Cuba), Paulo Nenflidio (Brazil), Adriana Varejao (Brazil) and Kurt Weiser (Tempe).

Citadel: An Installation by Patricia Sannit
Curator: Peter Held
Feb 5, 2011 – Apr 9, 2011
Location: Ceramics Research Center
Cost: Free
Opening Reception: Feb. 18, 2011, 7-9 p.m.

Patricia Sannit, a Phoenix-based artist whose vessels are influenced by cultures worldwide, is literally breaking new ground for her installation Citadel — with the assistance of scores of community volunteers. Citadel is a 10-foot diameter structure inspired by an Iraqi archeological site called the Citadel at Erbil, in the Kurdish region. Sannit’s new direction explores the layering of time and history through the medium of clay.

Re-Thinking the Faculty Exhibition 2011
Feb 19, 2011 – Apr 30, 2011
Location: ASU Art Museum
Cost: free
Opening Reception: Feb. 18, 2011, 7-9 p.m.

This year, the faculty show takes a new direction. It represents the beginning of an exciting set of possible partnerships, exchanges and experiments between the School of Art and the ASU Art Museum. It’s also the first instance of the museum’s rethinking and revitalizing the way we do things, as part of our Re-Thinking the Museum initiative.

Art historian and writer Robert Atkins was selected to open Re-Thinking the Museum as juror/curator of the ASU School of Art Faculty Biennial Exhibition. During the month of November, Atkins reviewed submissions, visited artists’ studios and discussed opportunities for site-specific installations as he selected work for the 2011 exhibition.

Arizona State University Art Museum
Mill Avenue at 10th Street
Tempe, AZ 85287-2911
Telephone 480-965-2787

Christian Witness, Events, Political, , , ,

IWJ National Conference

Attend IWJ’s National Conference in Chicago June 19-21. Join in celebrating 15 years of fighting for workers’ rights and help plan IWJ’s future at IWJ’s 2011 National Conference at DePaul University in Chicago.

IWJ’s national conferences are unique in bringing together religious, community, labor and business leaders; faculty and students; low-wage workers, government professionals and members of the legal community under one roof to connect and discuss ways to reclaim justice for people. Click here for more Information and to register.

Invited speakers include:

  • Kim Bobo, Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice
  • Arlene Holt Baker, Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO
  • Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor
  • Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister Emeritus of The Riverside Church and President of the Healing of the Nations Foundation

Those attending are also invited to IWJ’s 15th Anniversary Gala, Monday June 20th from 6-9pm. Ticket costs are included with your registration.

Christian Witness, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

The Amish in Poland

From the Warsaw Gazette (Gazeta Warsawa): Polski Amisz: W Warszawie nie da się żyć (Amish in Poland – No life in Warsaw)

People come from all over Poland to Cezarowa, where they live. They look, nod, smile, then talk about them. They live in the forest, they have seven children, and time. They bake bread, and rarely shop. He wears a beard, she … etc.

Jacob Martin: We cannot live in Warsaw. Warsaw residents do not know how to use time. They do not have time because of the money chase, which equates to happiness for them. Once, at night, people sat on benches in front of houses and talked about everything. Now they only have time to sit in front of the television. They become depressed, go to a psychologist. There, for an hour, they talk and pay for talking with a neighbor. Anyway, here it is a bit like a village. But, people still do not want to cooperate. Everyone must have his own tractor. The world is stupid…

Anita and Jacob Martin (she is 43, he – 41) come from large Amish families who settled in Pennsylvania. The Amish strictly observe norms of behavior. The most orthodox do not use phones, household appliances, and use horse-drawn carriages for transportation.

17 years ago, several Amish families came to Poland on a mission. They were representatives of progressive churches, which allowed the use of electricity and cars. They settled in Cezarowa near Mińsk-Mazowiecki, building a settlement. The project collapsed after three years. All but Martins’ returned to the States. Their families did not accept their decision to stay, and the Amish community renounced them. In Poland, they are alone.

Jacob Martin: This project had no chance. American missions cannot succeed in Europe, because people have a different mentality. What can we say to the Poles? That our religion has 400 years of tradition? People will respond: and our’s has two thousand years of tradition!

Jacob Martin: There are three things you need in life: food, clothes and a house. However, people are chasing after things they do not need. Throughout the year they work hard to have two weeks off and spend their savings. Instead of considering what God wants, people do what they want and think it gives them good luck.

The church, which sent the Martins’ to Poland no longer exists.

Jacob Martin: There are communities to whom Lord Jesus comes quietly once, and to whom He never returns.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

The Immigrant Mosaic in Massachusetts

From the Boston Globe: Massachusetts’ ethnic mosaic

The story includes interactive maps, clusters of interest, state averages, and search tools.

Polish immigrants make up 5.3% of the state’s population. I had always thought that Poles had primarily congregated in the Chicopee area. In fact, Adams, MA has the largest percentage of people self-identifying as Polish-Americans — 29.1% of the local population. The story also notes the unfortunate breakdowns we see in the social fabric of a community, with R.C. church and business closings.

Adams, a small town in the Berkshires, has long had a significant Polish presence. Immigrants came in the early 1990s to work in the textile mills, and today about 28 percent of residents report Polish ancestry. Lisa Mendel of the local chapter of the Polish National Alliance said they hold a Polish dance classes for kids each Tuesday night. “We still try to hold onto our Polish culture and traditions,” she said. Yet some have faded. A Polish deli closed a couple years back, as did a Polish Catholic church.

The rest of the story:

Ever since the Pilgrims landed, waves of immigrants have come to Massachusetts, weaving themselves into the fabric of cities and towns with their food, music, idioms, and culture.

By far the largest, and most defining, were Irish, tens of thousands of whom crossed the ocean in the mid-19th century to escape famine. Many moved south of Boston, settling in coastal suburbs that became known as the Irish Riviera. Statewide, nearly one in four residents are of Irish descent, newly released Census data show.

Until the late 19th century, immigrants to Boston were almost exclusively from western Europe, primarily England, Scotland, and Ireland. But in the 1880s, immigrants began arriving from Poland, Russia, and especially Italy. Like the Irish before them, they settled in Boston, then gradually migrated outward.

In recent decades, an influx of immigrants from Portugal and Cape Verde, Asia, and an array of Spanish-speaking countries have settled in Massachusetts, creating vibrant clusters across the state that endure today — from Puerto Ricans in Holyoke to the Portuguese in the New Bedford area. – Peter Schworm

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