Citylights Update (Upcoming Sabbath: Jan 28, 2012)
Hello Lights,
Last Saturday, Jan 21, we began talking about friendship but the deft mind of Rev. Vince Anderson and courageous heart of Sarah Edwards took us off the maps into some refreshingly deep theology of the nature of God. We closed our glorious heresy session close to the floor, to where God and dirt are, a fitting place for any talk about lofty topics. Thank you Vince and Sarah! You blessed us!
This coming Saturday, Jan 28, we are starting our new series “Meeting Jesus for the First Time Again.” We all know about Jesus, some of us too much. For the next several months we will try to unlearn the meaning of some of the texts, hear from diverse set of voices, and engage our hearts, minds, and bodies in the exploration. Our guest speakers will be Peter Rollins, Bo Eberle, Bowie Snodgrass, Stephen Phelps, Amichai Lau-Lavie and several others (up-to-date-info will be available on the calendar tab of this website). BRING YOUR FRIENDS! We will start this Saturday with “Meeting Jesus for the First Time Again (Part 1): Learning to Love Well.” I will share my story of waking up to Jesus 10 years after I was baptized. Karen, Tanja, and Sarah E. will provide music and worship components for the service!
Our retreat/getaway has been moved to February 24-26 and we are booked and getting overbooked! If you are stil interested, please contact Rosemary ASAP at rosechun(at)yahoo.com). IMPORTANT: We regret, but we will NOT be able to organize the worship service in NYC on Feb 25. Those of you who have to stay in, this might be your day to take a break from religion and spend a day with God, after sleeping in!
We are organizing a Yoga class as a part of our morning. Right now we are negotiating the space and time issues without our great hosts, Quaker Center. The plan is to start in February. More info to follow. Here is a message from our instructor Carmen Rusu:
During a Citylights retreat last year, Samir invited me to teach a Yoga class. This was an eye-opening experience for me. I realized how much joy Yoga can bring, both to my students and to me, as the instructor. That was when I decided to delve deeper into the study of Yoga. Now, one year later, here I am, just having completed 200 hour level Yoga training and fully certified as a teacher. What initially started out as a pure physical exercise has turned into a journey of self discovery and celebration of life. I want to thank the Citylights community for all the amazing support you’ve given me along the way. As an offering to my community, I would now like to use my newly acquired skills to teach a Yoga class every Saturday before the Citylights service (for example from 9:30 to 10:30). It will be geared to beginners but I will offer modifications for every level, so that all the participants can benefit from it. I will emphasize not only the mastery of asanas (the physical poses), but also pranayama (breath control) and meditation. In addition, together we will look for the ways to integrate what we learn with our Christian story, practices, and theology. At this point, please let me know (carpathian_air(at)yahoo.com) if you are interested, so that Samir and I can explore the issues of space, timing, storage, possible small costs and other logistics. I would be very honored to share a part of this wonderful journey with you! Namaste!
Sabbath can’t come too soon,
Samir Selmanovic, Coordinator, Citylights Community











