There will be free snacks and soda. Please BYOB, if you’d like.

Ticket costs:
Presales: $5
Doors: $7
It’s a benefit, so prices are steeper than normal. If the cost is going to keep you from coming, we’d rather have you there than not, so we’ll work something out, just ask!

E-mail - jeremiah.n.alexander@gmail.com or kelly.musser@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns or want to purchase a ticket.

A few examples:  In the early nineteenth century property owning black men who had been voting had that right taken away – at the same time that the requirement for property owning was removed for whites allowing all white men the right to vote regardless of what they owned. Black men weren’t given the right to vote again until the 1870’s.  Frederick Douglas said in the 1860’s that there was no more racially prejudiced city he knew of – most schools were segregated, most social clubs, even the street cars.  It got a little better in the 1870’s and then much worse in the 1890’s.

I guess this hits me so hard because I am always hoping the world isn’t as cruel as it can be sometimes.  I want to tell the stories that speak of people who did not give in to racism – especially of people who didn’t give in because they loved Jesus and had his eyes to see the humanity of others.  There are some of those stories too, but not as many as I’d like.   I want to tell the stories of African Americans who were courageous in the face of these hardships and weren’t defeated by them.  There are many of those stories as well, but also there is a lot of defeat.  It’s hard to see it.

I think it hits me hard too because I am afraid of my own blind spots, afraid of the ways that, when I seek to work against racism I might actually be treating those I seek to walk with and help with a paternalistic mindset that is demeaning and dehumanizing – like I see in the words and actions of many of the Progressive Reformers.

One of my wonderful African American friends told me to stop beating myself up.  I so appreciate her love for me, and I have been in the “white guilt” phase of this journey before which is a phase one has to go through and not stay in.  But today I think I am just grieved.  Appropriately grieved - by the suffering of people that I didn’t know about before, that I hadn’t seen or wanted to believe never happened.  And I think I am appropriately aware that I am quite as capable of blindness as the white “do-gooders” of a hundred years ago.

The challenge is to see all this AND to have hope.

That’s where I am seeking to walk now – not in a place where I don’t look at the damage racism has done and is doing all around me  - because as a white person I often have to choose to look.  My appearance doesn’t require that I experience it every day, my family history doesn’t remind me of past injustices that still have repercussions today.  I now must do what my African American friends and many other oppressed people have had to choose to do for centuries – to feel the pain, acknowledge the injustice and choose Hope, choose Life anyway.

That’s the faith Jesus calls me to – a resurrection faith.

There are two sites where the work day will be happening. Two “shifts” will be between 9-12pm and 1-4pm. Please chose one:

- Frankford Ave garden (between lehigh and huntington, on frankford ave).
**Needs: A truck to haul some compost and mulch, shovels, other tools you have. Please label them though.
**contact: sarah mueller- sarahlmueller at gmail.com

- Future Germantown Farm (215 E Penn St., 19144)
**Needs: please bring a shovel if you got it! (labeled w/ your name)
**contact: amanda staples- amandastapes at gmail.com

For psalters Jay Beck & Scotty Krueger, creating a working Philadelphia headquarters has been a challenge.  They spent the better part of the last five years living on a converted veggie oil-powered school bus with the rest of psalters travelling around, leading worship, leading seminars, and experimenting with Exodus.   Some of those travels were international, most recently Jay & Scotty attended the World Christian Gathering of Indigenous People in Israel & Palestine.   Christians from around the world gathered to worship in their traditional cultural styles of music, dance, and dress…it was a great time to learn and network and visit friends and various sites in the Jerusalem area.

Scotty & Jay with a bedouin friend in the Negiv, the desert of Christ's temptations.

Inspired not only to compose new psalms that bring together both worship and social justice, psalters are in the process of developing the Croatan Training Center & Studio located at 2007 Frankford Ave, the same building as our Frankford & Norris congregation meets.  Jay has already taught a series of West African Drumming classes so dozens of people got a taste of how transforming and fun it can be to learn.  The studio will not only be a place for psalters to practice and record, but also a resource to make connections with other musicians and friends.  The Training Center aspect will feature a library of cultural and theological books and videos as well as various classes and workshops by our team as well as other musicians from Philadelphia and around the world.  More from Jay on Croatan Training Center & Studio here.

The team has also been commissioned to compose and perform the music for a new play by Director Lear Debessonet and Playwright Lucy Thuber called Quixote.  “A site-specific performance based on Cervantes’ classic tale ‘Don Quixote’…this production re-imagines the intersection of art and its community” (from stillpointproductions.org).  It will run in Philadelphia this Spring, and perhaps NYC this fall.

The team continues to participate in local worship teams for Circle of Hope (inluding a special 9pm worship time at 1125 S. Broad St on March 22), as well as other local performances, seminars, and worship times.   This summer may feature a short tour in mid June that includes the Ichthus Festival in KY.

I am continually reminded working while working with the homeless that the most significant factor for facilitating change is being a person of authentic compassion. When I met Brian and Brenda Robinson, I knew they possess that same quality. I wanted for some time to find a way to participate with Brotherly Love because their love for Germantown youth is contagious and inspiring. So when I was on Circle Venture, I jumped at the chance to work with Brotherly Love Urban Youth Services (BLUYS). A recent developments in the life of BLUYS is the opportunity to move locations, which allows them to shift focus to working with younger youth in part of Germantown that they are particularly invested in. My work with BLUYS has been to help out with a group of people in fundraising efforts. There are two fundraisers that we are working on, one is in partnership with local botanical nurseries to get proceeds from sales and the other is the annual banquet. When you hear about these fundraisers please engage in them as you are able to help finalize this transition and to continue the work of Brotherly Love changing the lives of youth in Germantown.

Shalom House is in the midst of rule writing. You might read this and wince at the thought. But give it second one.

At the urging of the Shalom House Guidance Team, we are crafting the Shalom House community Rule. The purpose of the Rule is to articulate our common practices of mutual living. The hope is that the Rule will guide us through daily life and help us communicate who we are to others. Since Shalom House is relatively new and forming, it’s not uncommon to find ourselves asking, “So what do I do with myself today?” The Rule will help us create a rhythm for our lives and for the community.

Living by a community rule is as ancient of a practice as community-living itself. We were reminded recently at a Circle of Hope conference on intentional community that Christians have been living together in community since the very beginning. This is not a new idea and there is a lot to be gained from studying the lives of communities throughout the ages.

First, we had to wrap our heads around the idea of just exactly what a rule is. Over the last few months, we’ve studied older and more recent community rules. Through our journey we learned about the Northumbria Community in England, the Benedictines, the Carmelites, the Poor Sisters of St. Claire, and New Monasticism. We found Rules that contain everything from what kind of livestock to keep, to the type of work people would do; from what times of the day to pray, to hosting visitors and what to wear, all with the intention of constructing a life with God. Some things we couldn’t relate to, others seemed rather outlandish, and yet other things resonated with us.

Here are some elements of a Rule that we’re thinking of for our community dedicated to peacemaking:

Prayer: We want to pray together daily.

Relationships: We tend to our relationships with one another.

Work: We work to generate income and to take care of our house.

Rest and Recreation: We rest, relax and enjoy life.

Action: We devote time to working out our common mission of peacemaking.

Money: We have a common purse where we share our income and expenses.

Conflict: We go to one another when conflicts arise.

On the two past attempts to leave clothing, I spent hours talking to higher and higher ranking prison officials begging them to let the clothing through.

On this third attempt, once again the guard at the drop off window told me that there was no approved slip for the clothes, so she would not accept them, and once again I asked if she could check with the Lieutenant in the man’s prison cell block to see if a slip was submitted. This time there was movement. An hour later the original slip from a month ago surfaced, and the guards took the clothes to be placed with my friends personal items (well, most of the clothes, they still refused some of them for other reasons). One of the guards apologized for not taking the clothing on an earlier date. I was relieved. The experience brought me to two reflections:

The difficulty of working with prisons, and how the community of Jesus has the power to overcome this difficulty.

I considered all the movement from our community of Circle of Hope that it took to get those clothes to my friend in prison:

E-mail from his family asking if our team could help him get clothes.

E-mail and a phone call to Martha at Circle Thrift to arrange for store credit at Circle Thrift for him.

A visit from Raleigh and Howard to our friend in prison to ask him his clothes size.

A trip to Circle Thrift to pick out clothes (which were quality, and his size!).

2 trips to the prison, 2 refusals. 2 more visits with my friend asking him to resubmit a slip.

1 hearing in a jumpsuit, witnessed by Katie Jo, another Prison Connections teamer.

A prayer request at my cell group and at a Prison Connections meeting that he could get these clothes before the sentencing hearing.

An extra hour in the prison waiting room, and voila! He gets the clothes!

The need for grace.

The guard apologized. Perhaps by reflex I think I responded , “That’s OK”. And the guard added, “Tell your friend we’re sorry he didn’t get the clothes earlier, too”. His candor defused much of my cynicism. I often find myself needing to be redirected from cynicism when visiting a prison with the team. There’s a hundred rules posted all over the walls of the waiting room and visiting room. Some of them are silly. There’s so little flexibility in this system. But if I pause and remember grace I can see that the guard is overwhelmed. The system is overwhelmed: and how could it not be, it’s attempting to address serious crimes largely by means other than the grace of Jesus! If we don’t bring that grace with us, it’d be easy to slip into the same mode of distrust and hardness towards people that builds criminals and prisons. Another moment of reflection and I realize that honestly I’m not all that organized either, and I need grace, too. There’s grace for all of us, and that grace is stronger than the structures that we invent to lessen each other.

Before I left there was an exchange. I thought I was dropping off clothes. But it turned out that this prison only allows for one set of outside clothing per inmate. The guards placed in my hands the clothes he was wearing when he came to the prison. I found myself deeply moved folding the T-shirt and corduroys which were his last garments worn before coming to this place. I told Dave, the PC teamer with me, that we’ll make sure his family gets these.

Visiting prisoners is just one way that the Prison Connections team is serving the people and families who are encountering the criminal justice system. We’re interacting with people in prisons, their families, their guards, the criminal justice system, and we’re trying to do so as a part of a community rooted in the safety and love of Jesus Christ