Re: Incarnation...in Garden City: I'm hanging around to learn old things in new ways...
- Thomas Tittmann
- Oct 11
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 27
I'm grateful for finding this sacred space...Not because of pink Lenten vestments; rather, because of Pink Floyd!
In April, Garden City's Cathedral of the Incarnation presented us with "Moon as a Sacred Mirror" - a program that combined science, spirituality and sounds. Thanks Barbara H for letting me know about it. The sounds were provided by "Us and Floyd" - a terrific Pink Floyd cover band.
You can learn more about these past events by clicking on the links at the end of this post.
The Center for Spiritual Imagination
While on my April "moon walks" during their series of creative offerings, I discovered a subset of the Cathedral known as "The Center for Spiritual Imagination."
Curious? Let these lyrics play in the background as you stroll around their site...
"We'd like to help you learn to help yourself
Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes
Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home"
--Mrs Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel
Two of the Center's upcoming events that may interest you:
Weekly Meditation and Contemplative Prayer
Mondays 6:30pm to 7:00pm ET
Monthly Center Down Contemplative Sessions
I'm in West Hempstead and will be driving there. If you live near me want to join, call 516-850-2493
NEW EXPERIENCES...
My family has had a centering prayer/contemplative prayer practice for almost 50 years. Over time, some things we do regularly can become stale. To help me learn about this body of practitioners, I enrolled in and completed their course called "The Incarnation Method of Prayer." It's been breathing new life into stale places.
A helpful component is that it uses some familiar sources I grew up with in the charismatic renewal as it is presenting me with NEW WAYS to utilize what I had previously been given...as well as offering me new territories to explore...
I’ve been benefiting as I travel to inner places and outer spaces with the Center for Spiritual Imagination ---from the dark side of the moon and now to Brooklyn…
An important component of our time at this gathering was maintaining silence. As an example, we ate our lunches in silence. I joined a few others who sat here in the courtyard garden space in front of St. John's. Several times, I noticed passersby glancing in to see what we were doing.
I heard a few ask our celebrant Fr. Ben DeHart, "What's going on?"
Jazz Eucharist
To avoid giving my sometimes distractable mind more distractions...I chose not to take any photos or videos...So, to give you an idea of how this type of ceremony could be conducted... here's a recent clip from St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Portland, OR. The other 12 videos from this "gig" (1) are also on their YouTube channel.
(1) No sooner did I write the previous paragraph than "gig" provided a perfect example of a distraction BUT one that I'll share with you. My "Holy justification, Batman!" rationale is Incarnation's inclusion of Pink Floyd in their April 11 "gig" that you can check out at the links at the end of this post.
Sample Jazz Eucharist
Josue Perea, one of my fellow Jazz participants at St. John's and facilitator of the event had a shirt with this image. As you'll see below this icon, it's a real club/church in San Francisco...
"Mission: To paint the globe with the message of A Love Supreme, & in doing so promote global unity, peace on earth, & knowledge of the one true living God."
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Speech at 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival
"God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create-and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations."
"Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music."
"Modern Jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument." "It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls. Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down. And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith."
"In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.""We must use time creatively."
Encore: From the cushion to the concrete
In meditation circles, we are reminded that what happens on our prayer cushions is supposed to carry over into our daily lives...
Here's an example: A few days after my participation in the Jazz Eucharist, this next song "appeared" in my search results...and, while I was searching for something else.
"...and the tongue of the "mute" shall shout for joy..."
"In and Through the Body..."
I feel that another reason I was drawn to Incarnation is that the "incarnation" in their name has to do with our bodies and I'm at a place in my journey of spirit where I've begun to re-experience and appreciate my own body.
My wife Eileen and I have an ongoing conversation about the body and spirit dichotomy. How, in some circles the role of our bodies in downplayed...
As I'm experiencing it, why would our spirits be given bodies if they aren't an important part of the experience?
I add, that's why in the Garden story, I imagine G-d creating us - so G-d could actually experience life from a corporeal perspective.
Continuing...looking at OUR relationship with the Divine...its depth, it's closeness depends on how much WE experience the Divine...
I'm seeing this new awareness as helping me move from spending a lot of time in my head to moving "Furthur" into the other parts.
I was first introduced to Trevor when he played a "gig" at Mulcahy's in Wantagh.
Distractions that lead us to healing spaces...
Perhaps Fr. Adam and Kristin might consider using these 3 enCHANTresses in a new form of prayer chanting in the Center for Spiritual Imagination's contemplative prayer sessions. The chants are a powerfully healing component of their "Exploring the Incarnation Method of Prayer" course that I've just completed.
In the spirit and energy of JANIS...
Previous Posts About the Cathedral
#music #humor #CathedralOfTheIncarnation #BarbaraH #GardenCity #meditation #ContemplativePrayer #CenteringPrayer #PinkFloyd #JazzEucharist #Brooklyn #SaintJohnsEpiscopalChurchParkSlopeBrooklyn #FatherBenDeHart #SaintGabrielsEpiscopalChurchPortlandOR #ReverendAdamBucko #KristinVieiraColeman #SaintJohnColtraneChurch
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