August 15, 2009 Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by Maggie Keelan

WELCOME

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. In this space feel free to move about, help yourself to drinks/food, doodle, and express ideas openly!

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. All we bring is welcome; our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space.

INVOCATION OF THE FOUR DIRECTIONS

East

South

West

North

Center

Lighting of the Candles

OPENING MEDITATION

I am a million-of-years-old wonder!

I am an international…no…cosmic treasure.

I ought to be safeguarded in a museum somewhere like Paganini’s violin. I out to be gasped at, talked about in hushed, amazed, reverential tones.

Viewers would touch me gently and feel lucky. Daily newspaper headlines could say,

“(your name) exists again today!”

Radio and TV talk shows could discuss me, my ordinary events…that I saw a bluebird with my millions-of-years-old eyes and heard it sing with my highly advanced, evolutionary ears; that my graceful hands with opposable thumbs fed my sensitive mouth delicious strawberries that it tasted. Then, without a conscious thought,

my brilliant brain directed my masterful,

complex digestive system to assimilate and use them for fuel to wash dishes,

write poems, hold hands, laugh, and share kisses. No one would completely understand or

dare to finally say how my marvelous, magical, famous, fine self exists, really.

I am just, bottom line,

a million-of-years-old wonder.

You are too.

Blessed be.

TELLING OUR STORY

I see you!

I am here!

PEACE – TOAST

In this place we creatively express;

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

By Maggie

CELEBRATING OUR BODIES

Readings: (various)

All Respond: All bodies are beautiful

~~~~~~~~~~~

- What has been your journey with your body?

- What would you like it to be like in the future?

- How can you start that journey today?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

RELEASING THE DIRECTIONS

BENEDICTION

East – South – West - North - Center

The circle is open, but unbroken.

May the peace of the Goddess go in our hearts. Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again. Blessed be.

POSTLUDE

By Maggie

Musica and Fun!

We have a very special invitation to extend to you all! Our friend John Gerard, who is an awesome musician we love to watch perform, is going to be playing at a very cool venue not far from our house, sooooo We're making a party of it! Please come join us! Good drinks, good music, and great friends!

The Plan:
Thursday, August 13th. 7:30pm
Start at our house: email at thepubchurch(at)gmail(dot)com for directions
7:30 - 9:00pm - Jaclyn will be making delicious cocktails at our house; we have soda, beer and snacks too!
9:00 - 9:15pm - We all walk to The Western Front, less than 15 minutes away! $8 Cover
9:15 - ?????? - We enjoy the music! Other people will also be playing that night too before John goes on.

We hope you can make it. This is John's first time at this venue and we're all very excited about it!

Bring a friend and feel free to pass this along!! :-)

July 11, 2009 Gathering

MUSICAL PRELUDE

by John Gerard

WELCOME

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. In this space feel free to move about, order drinks/food, doodle, and express ideas openly!

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. All we bring is welcome; our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space.

OPENING PRAYER

(by Henry Horton, in Life Prayers From Around the World)

Our Mother, who is here with us on earth,

Sacred is thy being. Thy gardens grow.

Thy will be done in our cities

as it is in nature and in all that is yours.

Thanks be this day

for food, and air, and water.

Forgive us when we miss the mark

as we are learning to forgive one another.

And surrender us not unto extinction,

but deliver us from our folly.

For thine is the beauty, and the power,

and all life, from birth to death,

from beginning to end.

So be it, forever. Blessed be.

TELLING OUR STORY

Where do we feel most at home?

How did that become our home?

And can that be cultivated elsewhere?

PEACE – TOAST

In this place we creatively express;

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

Mark 3:20-22, 31-35

Then he goes home, and once again a crowd gathers, so they could not even grab a bite to eat. When his relatives heard about it, they came to get him. (You see, they thought he was out of his mind.) And the scholars who had come down from Jerusalem would say, “He is under the control of Beelzebul” and He drives out demons in the name of the head demon!” (skip 3:23-30 till next week).

Then his mother and his brothers arrive. While still outside, they send in and ask for him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they say to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside looking for you.”

In response he says to them: “My mother and brothers – who ever are they?” And looking right at those seated around him in a circle, he says, “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does God’s will, that’s my brother and sister and mother!”

~~~~~~~

· What is up with Mr. Anti-Relatives?!

· How does this connect with the text right before where he calls 12 to be his companions, “to be sent out to speak and to have authority to drive out demons”?

· What is up with the demon focus - again?

· And what is God’s will anyway?

SHARING OF RESOURCES

COMMUNION

One: God is with us.

All: Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BENEDICTION

Great, living God, never fully known,

joyful darkness far beyond our seeing,

closer yet than breathing,

closer yet than home,

Go with us now as we continue in openness and uncertainty, and Drink in The Spirit!

MUSICAL POSTLUDE

June 27, 2009 Gathering

NOTE: Next week The Pub Church will meet at Jaclyn, Jesse and Xochitl's place for a BBQ!

Email if you need directions :-) thepubchurch(at)gmail(dot)com

MUSICAL PRELUDE

by Andrew Prete

WELCOME

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. In this space feel free to move about, order drinks/food, doodle, and express ideas openly!

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. All we bring is welcome; our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space.

OPENING READING

Meister Eckhart, Thirteenth Century

What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to Jesus 1400 years ago if I do not also give birth to him in my time and in my culture?

TELLING OUR STORY

PEACE – TOAST

In this place we creatively express;

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

Mark 3:13-19

Then he goes up on the mountain and summons those he wanted, and they came to him. He formed a group of twelve to be his companions, and to be sent out to speak, and to have authority to drive out demons.

And to Simon he gave the nickname Rock, and to James, the son of Zebedee, and to John, his brother, he also gave a nickname, Boanerges, which means “Thunder Brothers”; and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alphaeus; and Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who, in the end, turned him in.

~~~~~~~

· What is Jesus up to so far?

· Preparing a revolution?

· What is up with the demon focus?

· A reading from Archbishop Oscar Romero, from Voice of the Voiceless, p. 71.

SHARING OF RESOURCES

COMMUNION

THE INVITATION

One: God is with us.

All: Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BENEDICTION

“The time is up!

God’s way is closing in. “

Go now in peace, with Spirit - to break the silences, to resist the tyrannies,

and to drink in the Spirit!

MUSICAL POSTLUDE

June 20th Gathering

MUSICAL PRELUDE

WELCOME

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. In this space feel free to move about, order drinks/food, doodle, and express ideas openly!

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. All we bring is welcome; our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space.

OPENING READING

Adapted with words from Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider, p.41

What are the words you do not yet have?

What do you need to say?

What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own,

until you will sicken and die from them,

still in silence?

Jesus said, “The time is up! God’s way is closing in. Change your ways and

put your trust in the good news!”

Today is an invitation to Say our words!

Resist the tyrannies, change our ways,

and do our work!

TELLING OUR STORY

PEACE – TOAST

In this place we creatively express;

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

Mark 3:7-15

Then Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a huge crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard what he was doing, a huge crowd from Judea, and from around Tyre and Sidon, collected around him. And he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him on account of the crowd, so they would not mob him. (After all, he had healed so many, that all who had diseases were pushing forward t touch him.) The unclean spirits also, wherever they faced him, would fall down before him and shout out, “You son of God, you!”

But he always warned them not to tell who he was.

Then he goes up on the mountain and summons those he wanted, and they came to him. He formed a group of twelve to be his companions, and to be sent out to speak, and to have authority to drive out demons.

~~~~~~~

· Any initial thoughts on today’s reading.

· Danger in the crowds?

· Preparing a revolution?

· Warned them not to tell – why?

SHARING OF RESOURCES

COMMUNION

THE INVITATION

One: God is with us.

All: Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BENEDICTION

“The time is up!

God’s way is closing in.

Change your ways and

put your trust in the good news!”

Go, Say your words! Break the Silence,

Resist the tyrannies, Change your ways,

Do your work and Drink in the Spirit!

MUSICAL POSTLUDE

May 23, 2009 Gathering - BBQ Afterward!!

WELCOME

 

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. In this space feel free to move about, order drinks/food, doodle, and express ideas openly!  

 

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. All we bring is welcome; our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space.

 

OPENING READING

By Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook (p. 120)

 

This I have always known – that if I did not live my life immersed in the one activity which suits me, and which also, to tell the truth, keeps me utterly happy and intrigued, I would come someday to bitter and mortal regret.

 

SILENT MEDITATION

Be Still and Aware of the Divine presence within and all around us.

 

TELLING OUR STORY

 

PEACE – TOAST

 

In this place we creatively express;

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

 

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

 

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

 

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON 

Mark 2: 13-22

 

Again, he went out by the sea. And with a huge crowd gathered around him, he started teaching. 

¹⁴As he was walking along, he caught sight of Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the toll booth, and he says to him, “Follow me!” And he got up and followed him. ¹⁵ Then, Jesus happened to recline at table in (Levi’s) house, along with many toll collectors and sinners and Jesus’ disciples. (Remember, there were many of these people and they were all following him.) ¹⁶And whenever the Pharisees’ scholars saw him eating with sinners and toll collectors, they would question his disciples: “What’s he doing eating with the toll collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷When Jesus overhears, he says to them: “Since when do the able-bodied need a doctor? It’s the sick who do. I did not come to enlist religious folks but sinners!”

John’s disciples and the Pharisees were in the habit of fasting, and they come and ask him, “Why do the disciples of John fast and the disciples of the Pharisees, but your disciples don’t?” ¹⁹And Jesus says to them: “The groom’s friends can’t fast while the groom is around, can they? So long as the groom is around, you can’t expect them to fast. ²⁰But the days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast, on that day.

²¹“Nobody sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, otherwise, the new, unshrunk patch pulls away from the old and creates a worse tear. ²²And nobody pours young wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and destroy both the wine and the skins. Instead, young wine is for new wineskins.

~~~~~~~

·        Thoughts on today’s reading.

·        Questions?

·        Why don’t religious folks need a doctor?

 

SHARING OF RESOURCES

COMMUNION

 THE INVITATION

One:  God is with us.

All:  Yes she is.

 

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

CLOSING PRAYER

 

Great, living God, never fully known,

joyful darkness far beyond our seeing,

closer yet than breathing,

go with us now as we continue to drink in the spirit! 

May 16, 2009 Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by John Gerard

WELCOME

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. In this space feel free to move about, order drinks/food, doodle, and express ideas openly!  

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. All we bring is welcome; our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space.

OPENING PRAYER

By Alfonso Ortiz, Earth Prayers (p. 125) 

Within and around the earth,

within and around the hills,

within and around the mountains,

your authority returns to you.

TELLING OUR STORY

 

PEACE – TOAST 

In this place we creatively express;

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

By John

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON 

Mark 2: 1-12 

Some days later he went back to Capernaum and was rumored to be at home. And many people crowded around so there was no longer any room, even outside the door. Then he started speaking to them. Some people then show up with a paralytic being carried by four of them. And when they were not able to get near him on account of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. After digging it out, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus noticed their trust, he says to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”

Some of the scholars were sitting there and listening wondering: “Why does that fellow say such things? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except the one God?”

            And right away, because Jesus sensed in his spirit that they were raising questions like this among themselves, he says to them: “Why do you entertain questions about these things? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat and walk’?” But so that you may realize that on earth the son of Adam has authority to forgive sins, he says to the paralytic, “You there, get up, pick up your mat and go home!”

            And he got up, picked his mat right up, and walked out as everyone looked on. So they all became ecstatic, extolled God, and exclaimed, “We’ve never seen the likes of this!”

~~~~~~~

·        Thoughts on today’s reading – Great News?

·        Interruptions – what do we do with them?

·        Healed to go?

SHARING OF RESOURCES

COMMUNION

 THE INVITATION

One:  God is with us.

All:  Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BENEDICTION

When will you be Angelic? When will you take off your clothes? When will you look at yourself through the grave? When will you live with naked honesty? When will the world of “heaven” meet the world of earth?’ Until we meet again, let us keep these challenges close to heart. And continue to drink in the spirit!

POSTLUDE

By John

May 9, 2009 Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by Andrew Prete 

WELCOME

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. In this space feel free to move about, order drinks/food, doodle, and express ideas openly!  

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. All we bring is welcome; our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space. 

OPENING PRAYER

by Pat Kozak, Life Prayers (p. 193)

Rise up, child of earth

Let life rise up in you,

full-term, new-born.

Time enough in wondrous darkness,

Echoed sounds of voices, stirrings,

splashings of new life.

Relinquish to memory this one mystery

We yearn to know and will again

in after-death.

So much latent

still to rise

Until our risings lifts us to a depth

that questions every truth

we’ve ever known.

 

Mud-stirred of first clay.

Plaything of a potter who fell in love

with her hands’ work.

Blessed be her handiwork.

Blessed be the work of her hands.

Blessed be.

TELLING OUR STORY

First pub church stories 

PEACE – TOAST 

In this place we creatively express;

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

By Andrew 

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON 

Mark 1:1-8 

The good news of Jesus the Anointed begins with something Isaiah the prophet wrote:

            Here is my messenger,

            whom I send on ahead of you

            to prepare your way!

            A voice of someone shouting in the wilderness:

            “Make ready the way of the Lord,

            Make his paths straight.”

So John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness calling for baptism and a change of heart that lead to forgiveness of sins.

~~~~~~~

·        Thoughts on today’s reading – Great News!

·        What we stated with; who are are; how we are to continue

·        Stop, start, continue

SHARING OF RESOURCES

COMMUNION

 THE INVITATION

One:  God is with us.

All:  Yes she is. 

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BENEDICTION

 When will you be Angelic?

POSTLUDE

By Andrew 

April 18th, 2009 - Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by Andrew Prete

WELCOME

Welcome to The Pub Church! We are a church in a pub and the Spirit is with us. In this space you are free to move about, order drinks/food, doodle, and express your ideas openly! 

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. Our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space.

OPENING PRAYER

John 13: 34-35

‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

God, help us to fulfill your commandment and not stumble over lesser things. 

TELLING OUR STORY

PEACE – TOAST 

In this place we creatively express; 

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

By Andrew

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON 

Psalm 133

1How very good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity! 

2It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes. 

3It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore. 

Leviticus 8:10-12

10Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and sanctified them. 11He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its utensils, and the basin and its base, to sanctify them. 12He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him, to sanctify him.

~~~~~~~

• Thoughts on today’s reading

• Thoughts on Easter

• Comments or thoughts on sanctification

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

THE INVITATION

One: God is with us. 

All: Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Updates on thepubchurch.blogspot.

ONE year Anniversary Celebration! 

BENEDICTION

Love one another and through this sacred love be sanctified. Go in peace, Amen.

POSTLUDE

By Andrew