Heatin' Up in Philly

After you take a right on 7th it will get really intense.
The closing words of a young man who gave us directions to the North Philly neighborhood of Kensington

Our lands are parched not by nature, but by imperial hubris. In such a world, these biblical visions of redemption as rehydration, of quenching every thirst, are compelling. May we persuade our faith communities to reclaim them for our theology, our liturgy and our political practices--watershed by watershed.
Ched Myers

We left the farm on Thursday afternoon and arrived in North Philly just a couple of hours later. The temperature had continued to rise, climbing towards triple digits with horrifying humidity. We immediately encountered scenes like this all over the city:

Most of these row homes don't have AC so this is, most likely, the only way to keep cool (and sane) on Summer days like these.

After arriving at the The Simple Way and getting settled into their House of Hospitality, we met the Esaus, a gracious young German couple on a pilgrimage of their own. They had just spent 4 days in Brooklyn and were scheduled to visit the Bruderhof community in upstate NY and the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina in the weeks to come. They are traveling by bus in the States, each with a simple backpack. And she's pregnant!

On Thursday night, the four of us attended an Alternative Seminary event entitled WADING THROUGH DEEP WATERS: Experimental theater, collaborative Biblical study, and a call to action to heal God’s Earth. Tevyn East and Jay Beck describe themselves as

local artists who are collaborating on a series of experimental theater pieces that utilize the powerful archetypes of the four elements (earth, air, fire, water) and stitch them together with storytelling, dance, and live music to connect the message of the Biblical prophets to the current environmental crisis. We hope that these pieces will help to reawaken our senses to the pain of Creation and push us into a greater awareness of the deep truth that our spiritual tradition has always been on the side of the oppressed, including the Earth herself.

This prophetic team of artists is really talented and very effective with the proclamation of their message that the citizen's of the Earth must repent from our using and abusing ways. And those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus must take seriously the biblical call towards love, care and stewardship of Mother Earth. Beck portrayed a splashing John the Baptist and Tevyn played the part of a singing-and-dancing Miriam (see Exodus 15:1-2). Here's a taste of the action:

Tevyn and Jay will be spearheading the Carnival de Resistance this Fall in Virginia.

We met Will O'Brien, the director of the Alternative Seminary, and his partner Dee Dee Risher, the editor of Conspire Magazine:

Will and Dee Dee started The Alternative Seminary 20 years ago to ignite the traditions of radical discipleship in a community of kindred spirits. The classes are 4-6 weeks and very affordable (about $60, including the textbook). The very first course he offered was a reading of the Hebrew Bible through the work of Walter Brueggemann's The Prophetic Imagination. He then transitioned to the New Testament and used some of Ched Myers' works (Sabbath Economics and Say To This Mountain). The courses are creatively and collaboratively designed and they fill up instantly.

We connected with Will on Friday morning for a cup of hot java at L'Aube Cafe, just a couple blocks from Project Home, where Will is the special projects coordinator. PH is the brain child of Sister Mary Scullion, a leader named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world a few years ago. They have 600 units of housing, focusing all of their efforts on what they name as a very tangible goal: ending chronic street homelessness.

Our good friend and former house church participant Jeff Craw rode the bus in from NYC to join us for the day.

Will took us on a tour of the facilities, greeting every resident by name and introducing us to many. Will is passionate about creating spaces where there is not an ounce of difference between residents, workers and donors. This is truly a picture of the egalitarian Reign of God taught and lived by Jesus.

Here's the thrift store boutique where residents get job skill training:

Not to worry, we dedicated about 30 minutes of the 100-degree afternoon to some historic sight-seeing. Here we are at Independence Hall, the sight of the signing of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

We ended our time in North Philly with a potluck with the good folks from The Simple Way. We packed into their corner housing unit for food and conversation:

The Simple Way is a community started by Shane Claiborne and friends in North Philly. They are committed to creatively caring for poor and marginalized folks in the neighborhood where they live with them in solidarity. Art and gardening are two obvious aspects of their work, but they are also focusing on after-school programs and ending gun violence:

They constructed an aquaponics project, an ecological laboratory connecting fish and plants without soil. This creates a symbiotic environment where fish provide nutrients for the plants and the plants clean water for the fish. The only thing required of humans is to feed the fish:

Before we set our sights on Baltimore, we drove an hour north to the 3rd largest city in PA: Allentown. We met up with Steve Kriss, a Mennonite leader who was introduced to us by Sheldon Good. Steve coordinated and facilitated a lunch with some of the members of a couple Mennonite communities (including Ripple Allentown) whose vision, identity and mission all overlap. These leaders gather frequently for shared meals, prayer and discussion and some of them are living together in intentional community. We were deeply touched by their obvious love for each other and the neighborhood they live in (not to mention their thoughtful and heartfelt prayer for our own discerning process at the end, even though we had only spent two hours with them!). An inspired community and genuine embodiment of God's healing presence in Allentown, indeed.