Friends, Followers & Faith: How Social Media are Changing the Church

with Elizabeth Drescher

We’ve reached a new cultural moment in which social media like Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, and Foursquare are shaping religious and spiritual experience to the same extent they impact the rest of our lives. What does this mean for the church?

In her recent book Tweet If You ♥ Jesus: Practicing Church in The Digital Reformation, Santa Clara University religion professor Elizabeth Drescher explores the impact of the shift from broadcast media -- where mainline churches took a backseat to evangelical and non-denominational celebrities--to digital media--where mainline rational traditions prepare us for new ways of communicating, connecting, and leading.

Here are All Saints we first became aware of Dr. Drescher's work when she interviewed Susan Russell -- Senior Associate for Communication -- while doing research forTweet If You ♥ Jesus. Further conversations about the role of All Saints Church as a leader in "multiplatform convergence" led to an invitation to come visit and we are delighted to welcome her to share her work and wisdom with us on December 11th.

So come be informed and inspired by Professor Elizabeth Drescher. Sunday, December 11 during the 10:15 Education Hour in Sweetland Hall. For more information email nsigmund@allsaints-pas.org

All Saints @OccupyLA | November 28, 2011

photos by: Kristin Bedford

Advent Wisdom from Richard Rohr: First Sunday of Advent

This year during Advent we are inviting the All Saints community into shared reflection focused on meditations by our Lent Event speaker: noted author, teacher, mystic, contemplative and activist Richard Rohr.

A Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr is founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation, a prolific author and a powerful force for God’s love, justice and compassion.

COME, LORD JESUS

“Come, Lord Jesus,” the Advent mantra, means that all of Christian history has to live out of a kind of deliberate emptiness, a kind of chosen non-fulfillment. Perfect fullness is always to come, and we do not need to demand it now. This keeps the field of life wide open and especially open to grace and to a future created by God rather than ourselves. This is exactly what it means to be “awake,” as the Gospel urges us! We can also use other a words for Advent: aware, alive, attentive, alert, aware are all appropriate. Advent is, above all else, a call to full consciousness and a forewarning about the high price of consciousness.

When we demand satisfaction of one another, when we demand any completion to history on our terms, when we demand that our anxiety or any
dissatisfaction be taken away, saying as it were, “Why weren’t you this for me? Why didn’t life do that for me?” we are refusing to say, “Come, Lord Jesus.” We are refusing to hold out for the full picture that is always given by God.

“Come, Lord Jesus” is a leap into the kind of freedom and surrender that is rightly called the virtue of hope. The theological virtue of hope is the patient and trustful willingness to live without closure, without resolution, and still be content and even happy because our Satisfaction is now at another level, and our Source is beyond ourselves. We are able to trust that he will come again, just as Jesus has come into our past, into our private dilemmas and into our suffering world. Our Christian past then becomes our Christian prologue, and “Come, Lord Jesus” is not a cry of desperation but an assured shout of cosmic hope.

REFLECT
What expectations and demands of life can you let go of so that you can be more prepared for the coming of Jesus this Advent season?

Stephen Mitchell in the Rector's Forum this Sunday, 11/27

How does the universe work?

That question pulses at the heart of the world’s great literature. We at All Saints are drawn to those who think deeply and/or write lyrically about how the universe works. Jesus, Job, the Psalmist, Homer, Gilgamesh, the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, the poet Rilke and others have been translated, usually from the original language, by our friend, Stephen Mitchell, who will join us in the Rector's Forum this Sunday, November 27, at 10:15 a.m.

He has now translated The Iliad in a way that his editor told me brought tears to her eyes. Stephen has a gift for taking ancient texts and bringing them to life with an accessible and contemporary grace.

"When I interviewed Stephen in Oprah Winfrey’s radio studio for the Oprah’s Soul Series," said Ed Bacon "his centered calmness, his love of wisdom, his brilliant mind, and his soul shaped by years of Buddhist meditation all worked together to change my life. I want each of you to experience this friend of mine."

A sixth-grade memory of a drawing of the Greek goddess Athena inspired Stephen Mitchell to tackle Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad. He had tried to read other translations but was unable to get past the first part. The image of Athena floating in the air wearing a fluid garment, helmet on head, spear in hand, captured his imagination and made him want to create an English version of The Iliad with the music he felt in that drawing. For several years he immersed himself in the Greek, to find a way into the epic that would make the story come alive for him. Criticized by some for using English slang in places and not producing an exact translation, he has been praised by others who feel he captures the essence of the epic, brings it alive, and makes it enjoyable to read. Copies of six of his books will be available.

Please join us and tell your friends and family. If you cannot be with us in person on Sunday, watch the live video stream of the Forum here at 10:15 a.m. Pacific.

BOYCOTT BLACK FRIDAY: Join us @ Occupy L.A. for an Interfaith Celebration of Hope and Abundance

“BOYCOTT BLACK FRIDAY” INTERFAITH SERVICE
@ OCCUPY LA

Friday November 25, 2011
10:30-11:30am
Main Square of Occupy LA, City Hall

JOIN US FOR A SERVICE OF GRATITUDE, APPRECIATION AND BLESSINGS FOR THE ABUNDANCE WE HAVE AND OUR HOPE THAT WE CAN SHARE THEM WITH EVERYONE IN OUR COUNTRY.

Music |Scriptural Readings in the OWS “Mic Check!” format |Fruit Basket Offerings of Thanks |Sights, Sounds and Smells of Many Religions |Ending with a “Jericho-Style” Walk around City Hall with the sound of the ram’s horn

SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Carissa Baldwin-McGinnis; All Saints Church Director of Peace & Justice

For more info contact: Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater/OLA Interfaith Councilmember
626-644-7542
or
occupylosangelesinterfaithsanctuary@gmail.com
@OccupyLAFaith
FB: Occupy Los Angeles Sanctuary

"The Elders" @ Occupy L.A.

On Sunday, November 20th, a newly organized independent group of elder leaders from many of the defining American social justice movements of the 20th century led a service of solidarity and conversation with OccupyLA demonstrators. Similar events with other notable elders were held in San Francisco, Oakland and New York.

All Saints Rector Emeritus George Regas (pictured below with members of All Saints at the rally) was one of the speakers here in Los Angeles as a hearty crowd gathered on the steps of City Hall in spite of the Sunday afternoon downpour.

More photos here [photo credit Laura Aguilar] ... and for more information on OccupyLA and how you can help support this witness for econonic justice, visit the All Saints website.

Together again: Ed Bacon & Oprah Winfrey!

News from Harpo Studios this week:

Super Soul Sunday News! On Sunday, November 20, 2011, we will be airing The Oprah Winfrey Show: When Life Breaks You Open featuring Ed Bacon, Elizabeth Lesser and Michael Beckwith

Ah, yes. We remember it well. Ed described it in a recent Huffington Post blog:

As a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show in January 2009, I said, "Being gay is a gift from God." Those seven words -- spoken to a call-in viewer from Atlanta -- set off a ripple of response that lit up Oprah's switchboard, almost crashed our parish email server and continues to bring people toward us here at All Saints Church in Pasadena. And that moment continues to be for me an iconic example of how important it is for people of faith to confront discrimination against our LGBT brothers and sisters by standing up and by speaking out.

So if you missed it the first time -- or you just want to watch it again -- then tune in (or "TIVO on") to "Super Soul Sunday" on OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network) on Sunday morning between 8-11am ... details here ... and check it out!