After being scattered this summer as far as Istanbul, we gathered for the first Vespers of the fifth year of Bethany House – how time flies! The Bethany House residents wanted to have a cookout to celebrate Joe’s belated birthday and prepared ingredients for three kinds of kebabs, as well as baba ganoush (with eggplant from the Community Garden), pita bread, potato salad, tzatziki, and brownies for dessert. We were joined by Pastor Karen, David and Linda (who brought yummy zucchini salad and three bean salad), and Amelia, the newest resident of Lawrence Road House. We did a little gardening (less than planned) and cooking (more than planned) and enjoyed being together after busy summers.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Here is our tree
This year again we decided to cut our own Christmas tree (well…go to a tree farm that didn’t have pre-cut trees and point to the one we wanted so they could cut it down for us, wrap it, and attach it to the top of our car 🙂 )
We went to Bear Swamp Tree farm right here in Trenton! (300 Basin Road, Trenton NJ) Once again we had a really pleasant experience with very kind workers who made it so easy to carry our tree home. I would recommend this tree farm to everyone. We bought the biggest tree I’ve ever had for Christmas (all trees only 40$ no matter the size)…It reaches all the way to the top of our high ceilings at Bethany House. The only challenge is getting enough ornaments to cover it..and to get it to stay standing (our wonderful cat has knocked it down twice)
Here is our tree all lit up.
Happy Holidays from us here at the Bethany House!
No snow + no rain + no hurricane + 2 jack-o’-lanterns =
trick-or-treaters at Bethany House! Halloween has special significance for us, because Bethany House opened in October 2011 during a pre-Halloween snowstorm and marked its first anniversary in October 2012 sheltering residents and friends of residents (including Stephanie, who is now a current resident) during Hurricane Sandy.
This year, the weather finally cooperated and we welcomed lots of neighborhood children with pumpkins given to us by Linda and David and carved by Hannah, as well as chocolate. At one point Joe actually had to go to the store to buy more candy! Afterward we roasted pumpkin seeds and had a few guests over.
Community of Communities: An Intentional Community Network!
Bethany House is now part of an even larger community–a community for communities!
We are now listed on two different websites where people who are looking for an intentional community to join can find us. It’s great to know that we are one small part of a growing network of intentional communities popping up across the globe!
http://communityofcommunities.info/
Click the link to this site and search Trenton under cities. Bethany house is the only intentional community listed in Trenton.
http://directory.ic.org/records/?action=view&page=view&record_id=24504
I encourage you to click through both these sites to see just how many communities there are out there.
Vespers 5/16/2013
Last Thursday the Bethany House was truly blessed with an incredible gathering which focused on understanding more what it meant to be in community and on how to foster a healthy community.
Lois really inspired me to further pursue community living and to continue learning how to creating and live in “a value system based on compassion, equality, justice, and economies of caring.” I am further inspired to “make friends on purpose” and work to find and create an environment where “all of us can bring our gifts and needs, struggles and strengths to the circle, exchanging wants, needs, and offers in authentic egalitarian community.”
Here is a list of some of more favorite quotes from Lois (which Linda provided):
“Inclusion is the next civil rights movement.”
“Reciprocity is about mutuality: expressing mutual action and relationship.”
the 7 P’s: People, Passion, Patience, Processes we Practice, Principles, Picnics, Play
“The definition of poverty to us is: Money, Friends, and Meaning.”
Thank you so much, Lois, for your insights into fostering community.
Co-host Cherry showing us a graphic depiction of our learnings for the night.
Sharing a meal that Bill and Debby Davis so graciously provided.
View of the group. Photo being taken by Dave Byers
4/25/13 Viewing of Unveiled
On April 25th, instead of our weekly Vespers meetings, we chose to go to New Brunswick to view the play Unveiled, written by Rohina Malik. In this play Rohina acts as four different Islamic women in a post 9/11 United states.
The main, and to me, most poignant message of the play was the line “get to know me!” This line seemed to speak against the human tendency to group all individuals in one negative category, or to assign a negative stereotype to a person because of their appearance or religious background, without knowing the person as an individual. (i.e. the assumption that all Muslims are terrorists). It seemed as though Rohina hoped to work against negative stereotyping of Muslims by exhibiting our shared humanity through this play.
Residents, Linda, Antoinette, and Pastor Karen pictured with play-write and actor Rohina Malik.
Residents, Linda, and Pastor Karen pictured with Susan.
February 26, 2013 – An Evening with Michelle Alexander
Tonight we traveled to the Livingston campus of Rutgers for “An Evening with Michelle Alexander.” Professor Alexander is the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, which we are reading and discussing at Vespers services during Lent. Before her speech, we learned about the Mountainview Project, which helps former prisoners matriculate at and graduate from Rutgers. It was inspiring to hear from students in the program who have turned their lives around.
Then Professor Alexander spoke powerfully for over an hour about the racial construct and consequences of the War on Drugs. (more to come)
First Lenten Vespers, 2/14/2013
This week’s vespers kicked off a season of Lent centered around intentional discussion of the book, The New Jim Crow written by Michelle Alexander. We were led in discussion by one of our own residents, Laura Colee, and had a truly enlightening time of sharing and learning.
Laura got the idea of reading The New Jim Crow during Lent in October in a conversation with Pastor Karen.
Laura further explains,
“The logic for reading the book during Lent is that Lent is a time of honest reflection on ourselves, our society and our God in preparation for Easter. I’ve heard some people lately refer to Lent as a time that is “traditionally reserved for a type of psychological purging that leads up to the Crucifixion.” (See: http://www.atheismforlent.net/) I think this book is a tool that allows us to more honestly look at a horrendous system in our American society – to have conversations about it and then act upon what we’ve learned. It is a truth-telling book -I’d even call it a prophetic book- that can aid us in this season of reflection.”
The conversation of our first Lenten Vesper was certainly thought provoking at the least, if not an intense and emotional experience due to its reality shifting presentation of justice and social control in the United States of America. Some guests around our table shared personal experiences of dealing with the failings of the criminal justice system and its inhumane subjugation and discrimination of people who commit crimes.
It is jarring to think of our “criminal justice system” as an unjust system which has created an under-caste in the United States. How can this be? Alexander points to the fact that the United States has the highest incarceration rate for any industrialized nation even though our crime rates are very similar. We see an overwhelming racial disparity with who is targeted in the “War on Drugs.” Law enforcement has largely targeted poor black communities even though drug crimes of all levels are committed at the same rate by people of any race. This injustice system has created an under-caste of people who are secondary citizens with limited rights and freedoms, and has left us questioning why this happened and how we can bring justice back to the criminal “justice” system.
We were joined by our hosts from Nassau Presbyterian Church, who provided the meal, as well as friends from Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Thank you to all who contributed to this Valentine’s day vespers!
Discussion guide: Christian and American Reflections on Prison
Reasons for Community
We live in a world where independence is glorified. Where it is not okay to need people, where we are taught that we need to figure things out on our own, and where being dependent on others is weakness.
This message, I believe, is one of the many lies that we are fed as we grow up. This lie, if believed, can be debilitating and can serve to be more thing that brings a person to feel like there is something wrong with them.
The Bible says that “two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work, when one falls down the other is there to help him up” and “a three stranded cord is not easily broken.” The Bible also says that “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed.” I believe that we were not created to go through life alone, and that trying to figure things out one one’s own leads to failure and despair.
In life there are countless challenges that we encounter. Whether it be trying to find one’s place in the world, figuring out the next step in life, or even personal, relational, and familial issues. Each of these challenges, if one tries to conquer them on their own, can be mindnumbing, crushing and debilitating. And that is okay. There are certain things in life that happen where it is okay to not be able to handle it all alone.
It should be noted that being dependent on others is not meant to be draining to others, because in a good community it is known that that person can depend on you also. It is mutual sharing of the burden of suffering that we all carry.
Why did I choose to live in a community? Because I know that I am nothing and can do nothing on my own, and that without others there is no reason to pick myself up when I fall. Without others there is no one to help me see through the situation clearly. Without others there is no one to help me better understand what the right thing is. Without others there is no one share unconditional love with.
A very applicable quote, which I learned in Uganda, says that “If you want to go fast, travel alone. But if you want to go far, go with others.”
On our own, we fall harder, and there is no one there to help us up. With others, we are caught when we fall and carried when we cannot walk another step.
January 10, 2013 – Vespers Service
Happy New Year!
The commitment by Nassau Presbyterian Church and Westminster Presbyterian Church to host a Vespers Service every month means that we enjoy seeing some friends on a regular basis; tonight’s attendees included Dave P. and his son Dave, who have joined us before, as well as his daughter Kate, who joined us for the first time. Dana D. also joined us.
We began with a feast from Trenton Kebab House to celebrate the new year (the labne – sour cream with walnuts, dill, and garlic – was especially delicious) and a cranberry-apple cake baked by Sheena. Then the elder Dave led us in playing the Insights color game, which helped us learn more about our personalities. (A simple version is available at www.insights.com.) We also discussed Richard Rohr’s “cosmic egg” concept (which shows that “my story” of “just me” is a component of “our story” of “we are,” which is a component of “the story” of “what is”) and journaled about these stories.
Bethany House of Hospitality 