Queer Shabbat is back! Bring a favorite vegetarian dish to share and join other Keshet members for a relaxed Friday night meal.
Details:
Friday, January 23, 7:00-9:00 pm
At a Keshet member's home, Brookline, MA, 02445
RSVP by Tuesday, January 20 for address to Elyssa at [email protected] or 617-524-9227.
Keshet works for the full inclusion of GLBT Jews in Jewish life. [http://www.keshetonline.org]
Riggs reports on a crazed Christian trying to win Jews over to her side outside Temple Ohabei Shalom on Beacon Street the other day:
"Do you know about our Lord, Jesus Christ, Saviour of the nations?"
Er ....... I'm all set, thanks. She doesn't give up so easily. My mouth says no, her ears hear GO! I keep walking, a bit faster now since she's physically touching my jacket. Her crazed eyes bugging out and peeping at me as she preaches.
Oh, they do, they do. Overmatter reports on a full-bore rantfest at the Friends Meeting of Cambridge:
... Today a very sweet old lady stood up in the balcony to say how she had been comforted this morning by a simple bumper sticker that said something like, "Relax. Smile. God is in charge." And of course, a room full of Quaker Cantabridgians wasn't going to let THAT lie. Sure enough, a woman in expensive clothes stood up immediately and rattled off the first paragraph of every bad story on the front page of the Times today.....which led to lots of angry ranting about Israel, Israelis, and the media. ...
To find the Baby Jesus that Brookline Police report was stolen sometime over the weekend from a nativity scene at St. Mary of the Assumption Church.
No more Spiritual Life by Rich Barlow - see note at the end of today's column.
Michael Paulson reports on a wedding yesterday at the now cracked Old South Church - it went just fine, only with a piano instead of an organ (since the organ might have caused plaster to fall on people's heads).
Paulsen also provides a copy of an e-mail message from Rev. Nancy Taylor on short-term fixes and more permanent solutions, all of which will be paid for by the MBTA (including the hiring of organ and stained-glass consultants).
Earlier:
The breaking news at Old South.
Alecia Batson reports on a crack that starts at the foundation, goes at least 30 feet up and is large enough at some points to put your hand in. And it's on the Dartmouth Street side, right where the MBTA is doing its never-ending Copley work, which is why she's written an open letter to the T (speaking for herself, not the church) asking what it's going to do about it:
... The organ should not be played, now, as it could prompt large portions of the plaster to fall. This directly affects the Boston Secession concert that will take place there tomorrow evening, Friday, 5 December 2008, as the concert makes use of the organ. Will my friends' concert take place? We do not yet know. Tomorrow, structural engineers will determine if the sanctuary is even safe for habitation. Will church services take place this coming Sunday? Only time will tell. ...
Michael Paulson asks some members of the local clergy: Why be thankful when times are tough?
I've noticed this week that Belmont already has their holiday decorations up across the street downtown.
Anyone up for creating a spreadsheet of the 351 municipalities of our Commonwealth with the dates that the towns first put up winter holiday decorations?
Stores and commercial ventures don't count; that's capitalism at work: only town/city government or the like decorations count.
How come Belmont isn't in the Neighborhoods listing? Too sleepy a place?
When the economy is going in the tank what do you do? Design a neighborhood based on Feng shui!
Sure, Charles Glassenberg could just get his lulav and etrog from his synagogue, but he prefers to go hard core and get them from the Israel Book Shop in Brookline:
But instead, Good Girl Gone reports the two large signs right in the middle of BU's Marsh Plaza warning people to accept Jesus or they'll burn in hell actually made her feel good:
... Clearly, according to the two people holding those signs, I am destined to go to hell, simply because I'm Jewish. But what I got from this experience, was a sense of contentment with my own religion. In Judaism, we would never tell someone that by simply not believing a certain principle, they will end up in hell. ...
Michael Paulson reports, posts video of the event on Boston Common today.
Pahkcah02 reports that while her rabbi in Stoughton discussed Aaron Feurstein (you know, the Malden Mills guy) in his Rosh Hashanah sermon, her sister's rabbi down in Baltimore discussed the life of Samuel "the Chief" Levine of Boston - who was both a ward boss under James Michael Curley and her great uncle. His life gives one a chance to reflect on what sort of life you want to lead in the year ahead, she writes.
Scott Pomfret, author of Since My Last Confession: A Gay Catholic Memoir, reports he is no longer welcome as a volunteer at St. Anthony's Shrine in Downtown Crossing, despite eight years of service, because of the publicity surrounding his book. Also, the shrine has disbanded its GLBT Spirituality Group:
Down in Washington, Michael Paulson notices how many Bostonians are inscribed on the walls at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception's Memorial Hall. Being a reporter, he gets to the bottom of why "the list of donors read like a Boston-area phone directory."
NECN reports on efforts to have a Worcester woman who died in 2007 be declared a saint.
Also see: Little Audrey Santo's Official Web Site.
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