Worship, Gotham! begins

Yesterday Adam and I went to church. Yes, I took the guy who I hope will someday become a rabbi to church. And he liked it!

Some of the highlights of what he wrote over at Worship, Gotham!

To kick off Worship, Gotham!, Christian and I thought that it would be best to start with a place that was familiar to at least one of us. We decided to go to Trinity Lutheran Church, a Lutheran Church in Astoria, Queens that Christian and his wife regularly attend. Part of the thinking in choosing this church was that since we already had a network of people that we knew around us, hopefully I would feel somewhat comfortable even as I, the religiously ignorant Jew, found myself in the middle of a traditional Lutheran service.

. . .

As for the actual theology that was expressed in the service, to be honest, I am just as confused about Lutheranism and Christianity now as I was before the service. In terms of general Christian Theology, I am still confused about the basic idea of the Trinity. Shortly before the service began, I had the opportunity to read the Athanasian Creed (which is accepted as truth by all Lutheran Churches and by many other Christian Denominations) for the first time and this only confused me more. Apparently, Lutherans, and Christians generally pray to three distinct concepts that are in fact one. The Creed states:

We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being.
For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another.
But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty.

. . .

I assume the idea of how three beings are actually one has been flushed out by countless theologians. The general idea seems to be that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all distinct, but yet at the same time are one. How this actually works out is still confusing. This might seem like basic Christian theology, but my knowledge of Christianity leaves a lot to be desired (the correction of this problem is one of the main points of Worship, Gotham!).

. . .

In all, even though there is still a fairly large amount I don't know about Lutheranism, I think today was a success. First, I got to meet a bunch of good people. Everyone at Trinity was amazingly welcoming and friendly. Before I even entered the Church, when I was standing outside trying to figure out if I was in the right place, a member of the congregation came up to me and made sure I was OK and assured me that the doors were open and I was welcome. When I got inside, this friendliness continued. Within minutes after I walked in and sat down three people came up to me, introduced themselves, and welcomed me. Secondly, I got to experience my second Lutheran service and my first traditional Lutheran service (the first involved electric guitars and a rock band and was a totally different experience).

Lastly, I managed to get out of bed before 1 pm on a Sunday, which is amazing for me. All in all, it was a good Sunday.

So we have to work out some theological kinks but that's what this whole Worship, Gotham! thing is all about. Read his whole piece here.

Next up, more church! Especially for me. As part of this journey I'm probably going to be pulling double church action on Sundays. In the morning with Wendy and later in the day with Adam. Hey, you can never get enough God.

Welcome Adam Who-is-not-becoming-a-Rabbi!

My friend, Adam, who inspired the beginning of our project called Worship, Gotham!, is now officially a writer on this blog.

Welcome, Adam!

Our history is a long one and goes as far back as working together on the Junior High School Science newsletter. Did I mention we were really cool back then?

Adam hails from Brooklyn, comes from a Conservative Jewish background, and seems to be intrigued by religion. I'm hoping his intrigue will someday translate into his becoming a rabbi but, for now, we'll just pray for him.

So, look out for postings from "Adam Who-is-not-becoming-a-Rabbi" (the pseudonym he chose for himself) and please make him feel at home.

Also, stay tuned for what is sure to become the coolest project ever!

(Image courtesy of Observer.com)

Worship, Gotham!

For the last two hours, I've been suffering from what I think may be my first-ever migraine. Advil hasn't worked and I hate bright light right now. But, through the pain, I received an email that got me excited and, if only for a few seconds, made me forget my pain.

My friend Adam Who-Is-Hopefully-On-The-Path-To-Becoming-a-Rabbi, sent me the following email:

Dude,

We've gone to Hare Krishna prayer worship, I've taken you to
Reformed temples, you've taken me to Catholic and Lutheran Church. Now
that I've got some free time (and I feel like I need to learn more about
different religious services since I am reading my History of Religion book and
don't understand the differences between religions), do you want to do a tour of
the most impressive houses of worship services in NYC? I figure we should
re-hit Catholic and Reformed Jewish (just for St. Pats and Temple Emanu-El), but
I am more curious about other religions and denominations of Christianity.
The Buddhist, Hindu, Islam, Ba'hai and the like will take some time to research,
but just off the top of my head we will need to go to Trinity Church for
Episcopalian, Jewish Theological Seminary for Conservative Judaism and Society
for the Advancement of Judaism for Reconstructionist Judaism.

Let me know if you are interested.

Adam

This is the kind of email that makes my day.

I long for the days when I had easy access to various religious services, leaders, and scholars. When I was a student at NYU I was the Vice President of the Newman Club at the Catholic Center. In addition to the regular Newman Club meetings and Sunday Mass, I had access to the Islamic Center just across the hall, met a few times with the Rabbi at the Bronfman Center, hung out and talked religion with Ba'hai friends, went to Buddhist meditation days, attended ecumenical services with other Christian groups, and broke bread with the children of Abraham.

Adam sent a follow-up email saying that perhaps going to the "impressive" houses of worship may limit our experience and I agree. We should go to the places where the rabbis, imams, pastors, gurus, etc will spend time with us, teach us about their religion, and let us ask questions.

This will probably require arranged meeting times, etc. But, if you happen to be a religious leader and are reading this, your services would be greatly appreciated as we set forth to explore the religions of NYC.

Worship, Gotham! <-- that's what I've decided our series is going to be called. I could see this becoming a great television show, a sort of lay God Squad. If only we had access to a camera and production studio . . . .

Happy Birthday to the all the oldies!

This month seems to have a lot of birthdays. Happy Birthday to all!

Last night we celebrated the birthday of my old friend Adam Who-should-become-a-rabbi. He turned 28 and there was talk of how old we were compared to our youthful high school days. Yes, High School was 10 years ago. And yes, some of us are fatter, balder, hairier in the ears and nose, married, etc. But, at 28, I think we're hardly old.

We're older, but not old. Plus, now we have jobs that earn us money that we can spend on things like places of our own, travel, big TVs, and beer - the important things in life.

So, Adam, you're not old. You're just little older and a little richer compared to 10 years ago. Enjoy being 28! 30 is coming quick.



(Photo courtesy of http://growabrain.typepad.com)