down by the riverside, aint gonna study war no more..
I went to church this morning. Yep, big Hindu man avoiding Queens mandir and going Brooklyn church but something is calling me while I am here. After last night , witnessing, Alvin Ailey's Revelations , at the back of my head is how people have used religion to survive, and how some religious institutions worked with people to survive oppression. Even as other religious institutions prop up oppression.
So God is in my head , I have God, the time for some reason. Today I went to the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church.. which describes itself as "open, progressive and forward thinking" like the gospels of Jesus Christ.
It has been awhile in Guyana since I heard any religious institution stand up for any social justice issues. This church has a history of being part of the Underground Railroad for people escaping slavery, and for welcoming people who were rejected by other churches.
I had thought that NY was going to be a bizarre place. "god" is all things, so in NY I had expected that I would have to spend a lot of time wondering about hope and faith.. . When the priest asked us to think of thanksgiving i stood up and said thanks for all the strangers who stepped up. I hate being dependent on people, and I had to ask strangers directions and witnessed encounters between unlikely characters - one man ripped a poster down in the subway, started writing at the back with a pen . I felt a pang like oh oh.. mad man next to me. Then the pen not working and another younger man took out a pen and gave him. Mad man started talking to himself and I realised he was on the cell phone. Mad man talking loud, then i put my head down in the book I reading. Mad man then touched me lil hard, and I thought, right, I going to be mad, I gun fight now.. but the man told me to tell this other man that his bag leaking, which I had not seen because my head in the book.
Yeah.. so I stood up and thanked God for the church which opens its doors to people of 'any faith or none at all' and for the people who reminded me of the good part of humanity. For healing, I thought of the people who felt alienated from god and community and church. During the choir rendition of Study War no More.. i thought of the Christian woman who thought I was her polar opposite and adversary, and thanked God for the fact that we could bridge that , shaky bridge. And if yall know how powerful those songs are, I not shame to say, that with the things I am grateful for, that as I told the choir leader after, water run out me eye..
So God is in my head , I have God, the time for some reason. Today I went to the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church.. which describes itself as "open, progressive and forward thinking" like the gospels of Jesus Christ.
It has been awhile in Guyana since I heard any religious institution stand up for any social justice issues. This church has a history of being part of the Underground Railroad for people escaping slavery, and for welcoming people who were rejected by other churches.
I had thought that NY was going to be a bizarre place. "god" is all things, so in NY I had expected that I would have to spend a lot of time wondering about hope and faith.. . When the priest asked us to think of thanksgiving i stood up and said thanks for all the strangers who stepped up. I hate being dependent on people, and I had to ask strangers directions and witnessed encounters between unlikely characters - one man ripped a poster down in the subway, started writing at the back with a pen . I felt a pang like oh oh.. mad man next to me. Then the pen not working and another younger man took out a pen and gave him. Mad man started talking to himself and I realised he was on the cell phone. Mad man talking loud, then i put my head down in the book I reading. Mad man then touched me lil hard, and I thought, right, I going to be mad, I gun fight now.. but the man told me to tell this other man that his bag leaking, which I had not seen because my head in the book.
Yeah.. so I stood up and thanked God for the church which opens its doors to people of 'any faith or none at all' and for the people who reminded me of the good part of humanity. For healing, I thought of the people who felt alienated from god and community and church. During the choir rendition of Study War no More.. i thought of the Christian woman who thought I was her polar opposite and adversary, and thanked God for the fact that we could bridge that , shaky bridge. And if yall know how powerful those songs are, I not shame to say, that with the things I am grateful for, that as I told the choir leader after, water run out me eye..
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