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Jun. 25th, 2013 06:03 pmToday I learned how to kick my friends!
And also a lot about the history of colonialism and how it reflects both the history and concept of mission and where the Anglican Communion is throughout the world.
The past few days, like last week, have been really busy in terms of training and processing information. Yesterday was a multi-faith day, we went to Eldridge St. Synagogue, St. Peter's Church, poked our heads in to St. Paul's Episcopal, visited the Park 351 Mosque (AKA "Ground Zero" Mosque, actually located about three blocks away, which is a lot further mentally in New York than in Ohio), Charlotte's Place run by Trinity Wall St, and Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist center. Aside from the Buddhist center, I actually felt pretty well-informed beforehand about the other religions and religious observations. Thank you, years of religious studies focused on the Abrahamic threesome.
Interestingly enough, the place I felt most isolated and cut off was in the Catholic service we attended at St. Peter's. One, it was a mid-day service so they were going very quickly, and it was harder to find where the service information and wording was being found. Two, it was off-putting to go face-to-face again with the fact that because I was not baptized into that one denomination, I am not welcome to receive communion. It's been a long time since I was in Catholic schools, and while at that time I'd processed it, I'd forgotten how unwelcome it always made me feel in grade school and high school to be the one sitting while everyone else received. I went up for a blessing, but it was not at all the same feeling. Three, there's apparently been a language shift in the past few years, and so even reciting the creeds was not the same experience. I tripped up a lot on the language, which felt more church-jargon to me than something that everyone in the laity would be able to follow and articulate.
We didn't get a chance to attend services at the synagogue or the mosque. I didn't mind not attending services with the synagogue, I've been to enough Jewish services to have a feel for the liturgy and the language. I would really have appreciated staying long enough at the mosque to be present for at least one of the prayers. The presenters demonstrated the prayer pattern, but most of the session was spent talking about their experiences as American Muslims. The female presenter, Hanadi, had been 16 and living in New York when September 11th happened. Her school actually was shut down for two months afterwards, and only opened back up with police escorting the students, from kindergarten through seniors in high school, from the buses to the school doors, because otherwise they would be attacked for being openly Muslim. I think that was the fact that pissed everyone off, we could not understand how people could blame children for the actions of adults living halfway across the world. People don't blame me for IRA bombings, for example, and I'm obviously of Irish descent.
...But really, today one of the other YASCers taught a group of us the basic steps of Capoeira, which is this Brazilian fight/dance movement. So we learned two kicks and a dodge, as well as the basic step that everything comes out of. We got to take turns kicking at each other.
And also a lot about the history of colonialism and how it reflects both the history and concept of mission and where the Anglican Communion is throughout the world.
The past few days, like last week, have been really busy in terms of training and processing information. Yesterday was a multi-faith day, we went to Eldridge St. Synagogue, St. Peter's Church, poked our heads in to St. Paul's Episcopal, visited the Park 351 Mosque (AKA "Ground Zero" Mosque, actually located about three blocks away, which is a lot further mentally in New York than in Ohio), Charlotte's Place run by Trinity Wall St, and Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist center. Aside from the Buddhist center, I actually felt pretty well-informed beforehand about the other religions and religious observations. Thank you, years of religious studies focused on the Abrahamic threesome.
Interestingly enough, the place I felt most isolated and cut off was in the Catholic service we attended at St. Peter's. One, it was a mid-day service so they were going very quickly, and it was harder to find where the service information and wording was being found. Two, it was off-putting to go face-to-face again with the fact that because I was not baptized into that one denomination, I am not welcome to receive communion. It's been a long time since I was in Catholic schools, and while at that time I'd processed it, I'd forgotten how unwelcome it always made me feel in grade school and high school to be the one sitting while everyone else received. I went up for a blessing, but it was not at all the same feeling. Three, there's apparently been a language shift in the past few years, and so even reciting the creeds was not the same experience. I tripped up a lot on the language, which felt more church-jargon to me than something that everyone in the laity would be able to follow and articulate.
We didn't get a chance to attend services at the synagogue or the mosque. I didn't mind not attending services with the synagogue, I've been to enough Jewish services to have a feel for the liturgy and the language. I would really have appreciated staying long enough at the mosque to be present for at least one of the prayers. The presenters demonstrated the prayer pattern, but most of the session was spent talking about their experiences as American Muslims. The female presenter, Hanadi, had been 16 and living in New York when September 11th happened. Her school actually was shut down for two months afterwards, and only opened back up with police escorting the students, from kindergarten through seniors in high school, from the buses to the school doors, because otherwise they would be attacked for being openly Muslim. I think that was the fact that pissed everyone off, we could not understand how people could blame children for the actions of adults living halfway across the world. People don't blame me for IRA bombings, for example, and I'm obviously of Irish descent.
...But really, today one of the other YASCers taught a group of us the basic steps of Capoeira, which is this Brazilian fight/dance movement. So we learned two kicks and a dodge, as well as the basic step that everything comes out of. We got to take turns kicking at each other.