October 24, 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, 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.

OPENING REFLECTION

Kabir (version by Robert Bly)

Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive. Jump into experience while you are alive! …

What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death.

If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive, do you think ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten –

that is all fantasy.

What is found now is found then.

If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.

If you make love with the divine now,

in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire…

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 John

OPENING PRAYER

Spirit, Guide our voices and our thoughts, so that in telling our own stories and listening to the stories of others, we may gain some insight into the mystery of life and into the mystery of the Divine.

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjYqyb-BYWI

Mark 6:7-13

Then he summoned the twelve and started sending them out in pairs and giving them authority over unclean spirits. And he instructed them not to take anything on the road, except a staff: no bread, no knapsack, no spending money, but to wear sandals, and to wear no more than one shirt. And he went on to say to them: “Wherever you enter someone’s house, stay there until you leave town. And whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, get out of there and shake the dust off your feet in witness against them.”

So they set out and announced that people should turn their lives around, and they often drove out demons, and they anointed many sick people with oil and healed [them].

~~~~~~~

· Initial thoughts?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

o Halloween party – ideas?

CLOSING PRAYER AND BENEDICTION

Go in peace, filled with courage, strength and hopefulness to meet and engage each other with compassion, patience, and love.

Blessed be!

POSTLUDE

By John

October 10, 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, 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.

OPENING PRAYER

Thomas Merton

Go tell the earth to shake

And tell the thunder

To wake the sky

And tear the clouds apart

Tell my people to come out

And wonder

Where the old world is gone

For a new world is born

And all my people

Shall be one.

So tell the earth to shake

With marching feet

Of messengers of peace

Proclaim my law of love

To every nation

Every race. (continues…)

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 Andrew

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjYqyb-BYWI

Mark 6:1-6

Then he left that place, and he comes to his hometown, and his disciples follow him. When the sabbath day arrived, he started teaching in the synagogue; and many who heard him were astounded and said so: “Where’s he getting this?” and “What’s the source of all this wisdom?” and “Who gave him the right to perform such miracles? This is the carpenter, isn’t it? Isn’t he Mary’s son? And who are his brothers, if not James and Judas and Simon? And who are his sisters, if not our neighbors?” And they were resentful of him.

Jesus used to tell them: “No prophet goes without respect, except on his home turf and among his relatives and at home!”

He was unable to perform a single miracle there, except that he did cure a few by laying hands on them, though he was always shocked at their lack of trust. And he used to go around the villages, teaching in a circuit.

~~~~~~~

• Initial thoughts?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

o John Gerard - Nov.17th opening for Kevin So at Johnny D’s in Somerville

o Sara’s events

CLOSING PRAYER AND BENEDICTION

Go in peace and Drink in the Spirit!

POSTLUDE

By Andrew

September 19, 2009 Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by Marc Lavalle

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.

OPENING MEDITATION

Prayer by Kristin White

Prepare for the Goddess upon your tongue

– the taste of her wisdom in your mouth.

Prepare for Her scent within your nostrils

– the heady call of love and grace and justice.

Prepare for Her swirling purple beauty

– alive with lives of the past, ripe with anticipation of joy to come.

She is moving amongst our fingertips.

Extend our arms to welcome Her.

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 Marc

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

Mark 5:21-43

See handout - Long text!

~~~~~~~

· Initial thoughts?

· What does the sandwich structure do to the stories?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

God of grape and God of harvest

God of wine and grain and wind and sun

We give thanks for your Creation – earth, and vine, and weather.

We lift up laborers, who work the fields of the world, who bring forth sustenance.

We rejoice in our togetherness.

We love you, heart of our lives and source of our blessings!

And we thank you for these elements, for showing us that you are an embodied material reality and possibility – we join you by sharing this meal now.

Take, eat, drink –

everyone is welcomed at this table.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

o Wes’s class

o Tuesday – John Gerard

o Thursday – Celebrate Bisexuality Day

o Disciples Update

CLOSING PRAYER AND BENEDICTION

Goddess, in this place, in this gathering, we pray for change, to become new vessels, full of courage, wisdom, hope and calm.

May we become new women, new men, new people,

changed, shifted, grown strong and hopeful by your grace and by one another’s love.

May we leave this space different than we arrived. We desire to be new wineskins, strong and healthy, filled with your grace. May our strong bodies hold your grace, pouring it out for well-being and for joy. Go in peace and Drink in the Spirit!

POSTLUDE

By Marc

September 12, 2009 Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by Andew 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, 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.

OPENING MEDITATION

**Adapted from The Prayers of Kierkegaard, p. 59.

Spirit who is in all places, when we meditate on what we will say and how we will say it, you are present; when we have resolved to come into your sacredness, you are present, but perhaps this truth is not always real to us. So bless this gathering in order that each of us individually and communally will in this hour feel your presence and know that you are indeed present.

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 Andrew

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

Mark 5:1-20

And they came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes. And when he got out of the boat, suddenly a person controlled by an unclean spirit cam from the tombs to accost him. This man made his home in the tombs, and nobody was able to bind him, not even with a chain, because, though he had often been bound with fetters and with chains, he would break the fetters and pull the chains apart, and nobody could subdue him. And day and night he would howl among the tombs and across the hills and keep bruising himself on the stones. And when he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran up and knelt before him and, shouting at the top of his voice, he says, “What do you want with me, Jesus, you son of the most high God? For God’s sake, don’t torment me!” – because he had been saying to it: “Come out of that fellow, you filthy spirit!”

And [Jesus] started questioning him: “What’s your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he says, “for there are many of us.”

And it kept begging him over and over not to expel them from their territory.

Now over there by the mountain a large herd of pigs was feeding. And so they bargained with him: “Send us over to the pigs so we may enter them!”

And he agreed. And then the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the bluff into the sea, about two thousand of them, and drowned in the sea. And the herdsmen ran off and reported it in town and out in the country. And they went out to see what had happened. And they come to Jesus and notice the demoniac sitting with his clothes on and with his wits about him, the one who had harbored Legion, and they got scared. And those who had seen told them what had happened to the demoniac, and all about the pigs. And they started begging him to go away from their region. And as [Jesus] was getting into the boat, the ex-demoniac kept pleading with him to let him go along. And he would not let him, but says to him, “Go home to your people and tell them what your patron has done for you – how he has shown mercy to you”

And he went away and started spreading the news in the Decapolis about what Jesus had done for him, and everyone would marvel.

~~~~~~~

· Initial thoughts?

· Does today’s text shed any more light on the good news Mark is communicating?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BENEDICTION

Today is the beginning of everything. Go in peace, with new life, and Drink in the Spirit!

POSTLUDE

By Andrew

August 28, 2009 Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by Andew 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, 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.

OPENING MEDITATION

Adapted from Mary Daly’s, Wickedary

Ontological Courage is the courage to Be an Other, one who participates in the realm outside the parameters of patriarchal predictability. An Other has the Courage to refuse inclusion in the State of the Living Dead – the Courage to break out from the deadforms of archetypal deadtime – to take leap after leap of Living Faith. An Other has the Courage to Sin – to commit Original Acts of participation in Be-ing; the Courage to be intellectual in the most direct and daring way, claiming and trusting the deep correspondence between the structures/processes of one’s own mind and the structures/processes of reality. An Other has the Courage to Act on one’s own deepest intuitions as they are inspired by the Divine.

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 Andrew

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

Luke 9:57-62

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests; but the son of Adam has nowhere to rest his head.”

To another he said, “Follow me.”

But he said, “First, let me go and bury my father.”

Jesus said to him, “Leave it to the dead to bury their own dead; but you, go out and announce God’s imperial rule.”

Another said, “I’ll follow you, sir; but let me first say good-bye to my people at home.”

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is qualified for God’s imperial rule.”

~~~~~~~

· Initial thoughts? How do Jesus’ interactions strike you?

· Do we have commitments for which we are willing to Courageously Leap, for which we are willing to not look back?

· What Acts do we do toward these commitments?

· What kinds of support and encouragement can we offer one another toward each Other’s Original Acts?

· Does today’s text shed any light on our discussion?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BENEDICTION

May the Goddess bless you and bless you kindly. May you be Courageous, Sin Big and Drink in the Spirit!

POSTLUDE

By Andrew

August 22, 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, 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.

OPENING MEDITATION

by Donald Jeffrey Hayes, Earth Prayers, p155

Do not stifle me with the strange scent of low growing mountain lilies – do not confuse me with salubrious odor of honeysuckle!

I cannot separate in my mind

Sweetness from sweetness – Mimosa from wild white violets; Magnolia from Cape Jasmine!

I am from the north tide country, I can understand only the scent of seaweed; Salt marsh and scrub pine riding on the breath of an amorous fog!

O do not confuse me

With sweetness upon sweetness;

Let me escape safely from this gentle madness –

Let me go back to the salt of sanity

in the scent of the sea…!

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 John

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

Mark 4:35-41 (end of Ch. 4)

Later in the day, when evening had come, he says to them, “Let’s go across on the other side.”

After sending the crowd away, they took him along since he was in the boat, and other boats accompanied him. Then a great squall comes up and the waves begin to pound against the boat, so that the boat suddenly began to fill up. He was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. And they wake him up and say to him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are going to drown?

Then he got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be quiet, and shut up!” The wind then died down and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so cowardly? You still don’t trust, do you?”

And they were completely terrified and would say to one another, “Who can this fellow be, that even the wind and sea obey him?”

~~~~~~~

· Thoughts on today’s reading?

· Who is this ‘fellow’ anyway???

· What do they find so terrifying?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BENEDICTION

And now may the Goddess bless you all and bless you kindly – Be at Peace and Drink in the Spirit!

POSTLUDE

By John

Video Feature of The Pub Church

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!! :-)