A Listing of events and news of probable interest.
partially updated November 4,
2020 9 PM (times approximate)
NOTE: almost all in-person events for the
foreseeable future have been cancelled due to
coronavirus.
This page is being used for a sort of blog - what is happening
with religious groups locally,
and resources that may be useful for members of the community.
(If an address is not given for
something, you can probably find it listed here.)
In some cases these are specifically interfaith events, others
are events of one religion that are not primarily religious
services and where you might want to go to see a facility, learn
of the culture, or meet people from a different group. (I
do include Hindu religious services, as visitors may want to go
the that temple when something is happening and the schedule is
so unpredictable.) Some are civic events likely to draw
representation from multiple religious or ethnic groups.
In posting things, we have not always explored all the shades of
opinion, so we may not necessarily agree with the views of all
the organizers. We do hope to find things where many of
our readers will be either sympathetic or interested in polite
discussion of the issues.
The election has still not been called when I'm writing. As
of this morning the Washington Post Website expects Trump to win,
CNN expects Biden, NY Times does not know. I expect we won't
know for a week. There is an interesting discussion in the
Jewish Talmud (think Christian "Fathers of the Church", or Muslim
"Hadith") which says that before a pregnancy begins, it is
appropriate to pray for (e.g.) a boy or a girl; once the pregnancy
begins the gender is determined and one should stop praying for a
particular gender and merely pray for a safe delivery.
Perhaps that is an appropriate thought for the present situation.
I'm trying to decide on a costume to wear for Guy Fawkes Day,
Nov 5, a day for costume-wearing and fireworks in most of the
British Commonwealth. It commemorates a major plot by Guy
Fawkes and others to overthrow the government of England in 1605.
The kegs of gunpowder under the Parliament were discovered before
they exploded. Perhaps this is not the time to remember attempts
at violent revolution, or perhaps a good time to remember that on
that occasion the explosion was prevented. One version of the poem
goes "Remember, Remember. The fifth of November / Gunpowder
treason and plot./ I think of no reason why
gunpowder treason/ Should ever be forgot." The Jewish Historical Society will have a live stream
Nov 15, Sunday, 2 PM: Author Margery Kerstine, "Merchants on
Issaquena: Avenue of the Blues in Mississippi." Cultural history
of Clarksdale, Mississippi. details https://www.jhsmem.org
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81729127572
October 20
EARLY VOTING continues until October 29. Vote early
(or absentee). Vote in all the races, not just for
President. Be prepared to stay home in the days following
the election, if necessary, as there is a real risk of rioting and
violence due to a prominent individual who, in my personal
opinion, may possibly incite violence against Blacks, Muslims,
Mexicans, Chinese, Jews, and immigrants generally. (I hope
and pray there will be no violence, but have enough food at home
and be prepared.)
I still encourage people to be in close touch with friends
and especially with shut-ins, but but to avoid large meetings for
health reasons. Use this opportunity to look in on or participate
in online programs at houses of worship and organizations
you might not visit in "normal times".
Temple Israel will be having Zoom workshops (as part
of their "Lunch and Learn" series) "The Jewish Prayer Service: The
Logic Behind It All" at noon on October 23 and 30 (Fridays - if
you are Muslim, it will be over in time for the major Muslim
service of the week, held at 1 PM Friday at most mosques.)
At 7 PM on November 11, Rabbi Greenstein will have a
Zoom session discussing the World Zionist Congress and the
relationship betweem "Reform Zionism" and Israel. Click here to
register. Questions? Email Lynn Owen.
Rabbi Klein (Chabad) is offering a course from a
Orthodox Jewish perspective, "Secerets of the Bible", live
Tuesdays or Zoom Wednesdays, starting Nov 17. these are
outstanding courses, there is a charge for them. http://JewishMemphis.org
It is pledge season ("stewardship season") for many
religious groups. and that too is affected by the limitations on
live events. The umbrella Jewish Charity in Memphis, Jewish
Community Partners, is having a fundraising drive-in movie and
kosher dinner at Shelby Farms as a fundraiser (turn in your
pledge) event on October 22, reserve dinner by October 20 at
https://jcpmemphis.org/taste-of-israel
Holy Communion Episcopal Church says "Whenever someone
shares his or her story, you are standing on Sacred Ground. Come
share your stories with Hester and Jonathan on Wednesdays from 7-8
pm." To sign up for
the live Zoom discussion on Wednesday, pleaseclick hereor call the church office at 901-767-6987. They
traditionally have a big picnic to launch the stewardship
season; this year those who want to gather will have an event at
noon Sunday Oct 25, details of how they are managing it at https://myemail.constantcontact.com/CORRECTED-LINK--You-re-invited-to-a-Stewardship-Picnic-.html?soid=1101552278430&aid=p94dJ0Qxn3Q
From St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral:
Wednesday, October 21st- 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm - Meet Rev.
Jean Vargo, our new Interim Dean. Rev. Vargo will join us for a
discussion of her life and ministry, and we can ask questions
and discuss issues and questions close to our hearts. To join,
send an email to julie@juliebyrd.com with INTERIM DEAN in the
subject line by 6:30 pm October 21st. Julie will respond with
the Zoom information. Or join us on Facebook Live on theSt. Mary's Cathedral Facebook page. Click the
"video" button to begin watching live. The mosques of Memphis have some online program
essentially every day. See http://www.memphisislamiccenter.org/
for a significant slection. I am particularly
enthusiastic about "Stories of the Prophets and the
Companions", Saturdays at noon.
(While it is a bit early to recall it, the best Advent sermon
I ever heard was at Masjid As-Salaam. The speaker spoke of the
life of John the Baptist, recognized as an important prophet
by the Muslims - he gets somewhat bnetter press in the Quran
than in the Bible. One theme of the sermon was -
yoru children are about to be bombarded by toy advertisements
and Santa Claus stories. Be sure to review your John the
Baptist and Jesus stories so that you can regularly tell your
children interesting stories more appropriate for the season.)
My occasional urge for a Black church servcie is often
most conveniently met by First Baptist Broad which always has
a recorded service online at https://fbcbroad.org/
I'd appreciate people telling me of other services they
recommend that are available "online, any time."
Father Vieron, a long-time peace and interfaith activist in
Memphis, died Sept 29. His death is being widely covered in the local news. https://dailymemphian.com/article/17168/father-vieron-peacemaker-during-citys-turbulent-times-dies
The Art Museum at the University of Memphis is
reopening starting Oct 5, Mon - Sat 9 am to 5 PM. Maximum
ten people at at time e-mail Artmuseum@memphis.edu a couple
of days in adavnce with what day and hour you want to come.
While I've urged against going to places with lareg grousp of
people, this does seem to provide a possible outing without
exposure to too many people.
Sept 28, 2020
Changes in clergy at St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. Patrick
Williams' last day will be Sept 30. Eyleen Farmer's last Sunday
will be Oct 4. Deacon Drew Woodruff will be preaching through
October, with parishioner Adam Nelson. New Interim Dean Rev. Jean
Vargo will arrive in November and is expected to be here 18-24
months during the search for a new permanent Dean.
Remember the Civil Rights Museum event
Sept 29 (listed on Sept 21 news just below.)
Sept 26, 2020
Linda Marks has died of
Cancer. A longtime mainstay of the interfaith
community in Memphis, she became the interfaith coordinator of
MIFA in 2005. I'll put pointers to obituaries here as soon as I
can. She will be very sorely missed. MIFA's tribute to
Linda Marks is at MIFA_Marks.pdf
Sept 21, 2020
The Benjamin Hooks Institute, https://www.memphis.edu/benhooks/,
will have an online event Tuesday Jan 22 at 6 PM, at https://www.facebook.com/benhooksinstitute
"Voter Rights, Apathy and Suppression: A Conversation with the
Experts"
They will also have a program "A Complete Embrace: The LGBTQIA+
Black Community and the Black Lives Matter Movement", October 1 at
noon.
The National Civil Rights Museum will have an online Book Talk
with Q&A, VANGUARD: HOW BLACK WOMEN BROKE BARRIERS, WON
THE VOTE, AND INSISTED ON EQUALITY FOR ALL: VIRTUAL BOOK
TALK WITH AUTHOR MARTHA S. JONES
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 •
6:30PM Info and registration link at https://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/vanguard-book-talk
On Sept 29 at 6:30-8:00 PM the Civil Rights
Museum will have an online event, "Where do we go from here?
- Economic Justice.".
Information and link at https://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/keepers-of-306
The Indian Cultural Center and Temple has a special series
of services on Saturday Sept 26. Due tio the epidemic, they have
extremely limited on-site attendance.
However, the picture in the announcement for this one is so
striking that lots of people (especially if you have never been to
ceremonies at the ICCT) may enjoy just seeing the web page: https://icctmemphis.org/all-events/yearly-events/venkateswara-sahasra-kalasa-abhishekam/
Videos of these sorts of ceremonies are available online, e.g.
Google "Sri Venkateswara Sahasra Kalasa Abhishekam"
Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Repentance, is sunset Sept 27-28
Next Lynching Sites of Memphis meeting is
Sept 28, on Zoom
The next part of the Jewish holiday season is Sukkot, the fall
harvest festival, remembering the years in the wilderness after
the exodus from Egypt (celebrated, for example, by eating
outdoors in a temporary booth, a "sukkah." From sunset on
October 2 to sunset on October 9. There is a nice
supplementary source of peace-and-justice information (which is
relevant, following the Exodus!) at https://theshalomcenter.org/ShareSukkotResources.
In particular, many Jews decorate their sukkah (booth) with
pictures of important teachers, and the selection of posters
downloadable from this site may be of interest to other peace,
justice, and civil rights activists.
For example, they have a Ruth Bader Ginzburg poster at https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/default/files/storiypics/ushpizin_6_rbg.jpg
Sept 13, 2020
The Sept 13 Virtual Pilgrimage to Elmwood Cemetery is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9b9mIRm7ao&feature=youtu.be
(Memorial to the Martyrs of Memphis, the health
care workers who died in Memphis in the 1878 epidemic.)
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, starts at sunset Sept
18 (Friday) and goes through sunset Sunday. The ten "Days of
Repentance" end with Yom Kippur, the holiest day for the Jews, on
Sept 27-28 (sunset to sunset). These are normally the days
of highest synagogue attendance; this year, of course, most Jewish
organizations are encouraging participation via Zoom or online
services. Note that some traditional Jews are reluctant to use
electrical devices in some ways on the Sabbath and holidays; so,
for example, Baron Hirsch Congregation will hold a major
Rosh Hashanah program on Thursday evening Sept 17 at 7:30 PM, with
the major sermon being that evening rather than at the usual time
in the sanctuary. https://zoom.us/j/7471651421 https://www.baronhirsch.org/
Synagogue gift shops often have found this a
busy time, and of course have to cope like other organizations
with the pandemic. The Temple Israel Gift Shop, for example, will
discuss needs and accept orders over the phone, for pickup or
local delivery: 901-937-2782
ASBEE synagogue (Anshei Sphard-Beth EL Emeth) has voted to
move from their present location on East Yates north of Walnut
Grove, seeking a location probably nearer Yates and Shady
Grove. Many members live in that area and would like to have
a location within walking distance, as many traditional Jews
prefer not to drive on the Sabbath. The present building
will probably close October 16. From October 1, 2020 through
December 31, 2021, ASBEE will share some of the facilities
of Baron Hirsch Congregation on Yates Road.
The Bornblum Jewish Day School has
erected covered outdoor spaces and is trying to have as many
classes as possible outdoors.
Sept 1
Chabad (orthodox Jewish, but everyone is welcome)
will have a Labor Day / New Year's Party Outdoors, Sept 7
(Monday), 11-12:30,
register at http://JewishMemphis.com/birthdayparty.
Intended for children 6-13. $8 per child. Social distancing
observed, favors individually packaged.
August 30.
On the web page of Calvary Episcopal Church,
Rev Amber Carswell reflects on how difficult it is to remember
the darker parts of church history. https://calvarymemphis.org/a-summer-lenten-experience/
In a comment there, I remind people of Stephen Haynes' book "The
Last Segregated Hour" about what Second Presbyterian
went through in the effort to integrate.
Rabbi Micah Greenstein will be in the Zoom "Rector's Forum"
session at Calvary on Sept 6, 9 AM with Rev Scott
Walters, https://calvarymemphis.org/event/rectors-forum-sabbath-in-a-time-of-separation/
Among the many interesting churches one can visit online during
the pandemic is the Washington National Cathedral
(Episcopal) https://cathedral.org/
The August 30 service at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EPVSE-BpuA
has the sermon by Rev. Marianne Budde starting at about 43:30
I've been watching the soap opera "Shtisel" on Netflix.
It is an Israeli soap opera, the adventures of an extended
ultra-orthodox Jewish family (named Shtisel) living in an
ultra-orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem. In mixed Hebrew
and Yiddish, with English subtitles, for those who'd like practice
in listening to those languages, and interesting insights into the
family and social dynamics. No politics, and no "religion" except
as it is interwoven into the family life. But a nice look
into a religious subculture, and nice language practice if you
want it.
Sept 1, 1 PM."Married
to The Rabbi" - title of the book to be discussed (Zoom) by
the Jewish Historical Society. Hear from
panelists Janice Rothschild Blumberg, Pat Bloom, and Jeanne
Danziger as they share insights about being a Rebbetzin in the
American South during the transitional years of the second half
of the 20th century.
Note - the Zoom page refers to 2 PM EASTERN Time - 1 PM Central Panelist: Jeanne
Danziger is a first generation American born in Ohio and
transplanted to Memphis in high school. While in college she met
and married the newly ordained assistant at Temple Israel, Rabbi
Harry Danziger. Harry later became Senior Rabbi in Memphis where
they have lived virtually all their married lives. Jeanne is an
educator with an M. A. in History who has taught high school,
preschool, and continues to tutor public elementary school
students. Jeanne furthered her goal to change lives by becoming
the Director of the Job Bank and later Marketing Manager of the
Mid South Food Bank at MIFA , Metropolitan Interfaith
Association, which became the largest social service agency in
West Tennessee. MIFA was formed after the assassination of
Martin Luther King. Jr by a broad religious coalition to
address critical community needs. Jeanne remains involved in her
Memphis community and advocates especially for cultural,
educational, and social justice issues. She is also devoted to
Temple Adath Israel in Cleveland, MS, which Harry serves as
visiting Rabbi.
August 28
In a reach across ethnic or religious lines, it was
interesting to see a note of appreciation from The Memphis
Jewish Foundation to the
Greater Memphis United Chinese Association, which donated
1,000 medical face masks for "our partner agencies." The Memphis
Jewish Federation spoke to GMUCA’s Wang-Ying Glasgow, who said: “I
really believe that we are all in this together against the virus.
All of us need to be united and get together in the fight against
the virus, so we can all get back to normal. Our organization was
fortunate to get a lot of masks, which will help save lives.”
While I was originally drawn to the author G K Chesterton
by his Father Brown Mysteries and his religious writings, I've
recently been reading "A Miscellany of Men", written I think about
1912. Its diatribes about the state of English politics of that
day could have been written about American politics of
today. E.g. the politicians were debating whether the
British annexation of the Orange Free State should be
managed by Liberals or Conservatives, rather than about whether it
ought to be annexed at all. Was British democracy working as
it ought? Chesterton thought it was not. I recommend the book as
an amusing and enlightening read. Free for Kindle on Amazon or in
other formats at Gutenberg.org, as is most of Chesterton's
wonderful writing.
August 27
Henry Littleton, a Roman Catholic Deacon and a long-time
mainstay of the Memphis interfaith community, has a new
position that will be of great interest to many of us. He
writes" << I have a new position
with the Diocese, the Bishop appointed me the Diocesan Director of
the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) in West
Tennessee. The national office for CCHD is in DC, and it is a
Catholic foundation that awards grants to 501c3’s Social Justice
Organizations that develop community based programs based on input
from the residents of impoverished neighborhoods, and provide
training so the residents manage the day to day operations. An
example is a county wide tenants association for those living in
Section 8 Housing. This is new for West Tennessee, and I need find
ways to get the word out so groups that qualify will contact me
and apply for grants. If you would be so kind to put the word out
to you contacts I'd be most grateful.
Peace, love & joy,
Deacon Henry
Littleton Diocesan Director
CCHD Office of Justice & Peace Catholic Diocese of Memphis
TN 901-553-3924 >>
St Mary's Cathedral is making major plans for
Martyr's Week, which will be of unusual interest to all of
us this year. This week (ending Sept 13) commemorates the lives of
the nuns who chose to remain in Memphis during the Yellow Fever
Epidemic of 1878, when many of the residents of Memphis
fled. The nuns stayed in Memphis to act as nurses and care
for the sick and dying - and many of theese nuns died in the
effort. The week leading up to Sept 13 will have special
programs online; on Sept 12 there will be special gift bags
distributed to the needy at Constance Abbey; starting bat 6 AM on
Sunday Sept 13 there will be available online both a special
service and a virtual pilgrimage to Elmwood Cemetery.
A recent study by the Episcopal Diocese of Memphis suggests
that approximately half of the Episcopal parishes in Memphis are
in less strong financial health than they would like (This does
not mean, typically, that they are in any real trouble, just that
they would like to improve.) Some more detail about this process
is available at http://www.stmarysmemphis.org/news/update-from-the-wardens-and-interim-dean/
Hurricane Laura is due near Memphis this evening.
Presumably, there will be a lot of electric, telephone, and
internet outages. One supposes that mopst church's online programs
will be back by Sunday. It appears from the internet that First Baptist Church -
Broad is still having large in-person services on
Sunday. I hope this does not cause disease spread; I still
urge people to stay away from large group events. But I do
enjoy some of the traditions of the mainly-Black churches in
Memphis, and enjoy these services online: https://fbcbroad.org/
August 24
The "positive test rate" for Memphis was down to 11.4 percent -
still viewed as unacceptably high. Stay away from large live
meetings.
There are still enough online meetings to keep one fully
involved in whatever one wants to be involved in - just don't
forget to be in touch with housebound friends by phone or
computer. Just this evening, for example:
This evening, MICAH: Monday, August 24, 6-8pm Issues Night: Issues
Night is when we focus on what we're working on for our Issues and
Actions to move forward together. RegisterHEREto receive the Zoom link
Their next major public
meeting will be October 25.
This evening: Lynching Sites Project of Memphis.
Structural Racism, Part 2: The March
Continues Monday, August 24, 2020 at 7:00 pm CST
For our 4th Monday LSP Community Meeting, we will be joining the
American Psychiatric Association's Dr. Altha Stewart, Dr. Aletha
Maybank, Dr. Kevin Smith, and Dr. Jeffery Geller for a virtual
town hall meeting. https://lynchingsitesmem.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e1ae7609f4a50de6a2754a3bd&id=f605d49d10&e=d430cebda2
It is time to plan for Absentee Voting.
https://www.shelbyvote.com/voting-absentee
has the rules as to who can vote absentee and a link to
print the absentee ballot application. It is not too early to
request an absentee ballot for November 3 , and given possible
mail delays I would strongly encourage you to apply before October
3 if at all possible. If you are over 60 or have any health
problems, or are a caregiver for such a person, (doctor
certificate is NOT required) seriously consider whether you should
vote absentee. If you will not be voting absentee, consider
finding a time for early voting when there is minimal crowding or
waiting at the early voting site. The registration deadline for
new voters is October 5; generally, first-time voters musty either
register or vote in person.
If you know anyone who has not been
counted in the Census, time is drawing short. PLEASE contact your clergy and
suggest that they urge everyone in the congregation to be
counted at https://census.gov
(whether or not they are a citizen. The object is to count all
US residents; the result determine how much federal aid our
cities, county, and state receive, among other things.
I have, in a sense, been away
traveling. Not physically, but online. Having been feeling
the lack of an opportunity to travel, I've been visiting some
places that were important to my father as a young adult, places
he took my mother to visit when they were courting or
newlyweds. A couple of these are churches that have
interesting places in modern American history, in religious and
even political activism. I'm speaking of the Arlington
Street Church in Boston , https://www.ascboston.org/,
and The Riverside Church in New York, https://www.trcnyc.org/
Both have excellent libraries of sermons and videos, and
interesting discussion groups. In particular, the Riverside site
led me to two lectures, starting with ,Bonhoeffer Otherwise: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and
the Religion of Whiteness,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbzUovK44RA,
one of the most interesting speakers I've heard on the "problem of
whiteness". The talk wanders a bit at first, but in part it
says that Western Europe tried to come up with a doctrine that
would justify taking resources from Africa, Asia, and the
Americas. It did that by inventing the notion of racial
superiority. This came home to roost, Bonhoeffer argued, when
Hitler decided that the doctrine of racial superiority could be
applied even within Europe. This, the speaker argues, shows the
great risk of recognizing race as a dividing feature within
humanity. I'm oversimplifying of course, but trying to tempt
you to the lectures.
The Jewish Foundation of Memphishttps://jcpmemphis.org/community/jewish-foundation-of-memphis
is a donor-advised charitable foundation, similar to the Community
Foundation of Greater Memphis https://www.cfgm.org/
Such an organization accepts donations at a date convenient to the
donor and holds the funds (invested), later distributing them to a
charity when and where the donor chooses. This is extremely
convenient for tax planning, record keeping, and estate
processing. (I'm happy to tell you more, so are they.)
The Jewish Foundation is celebrating its silver (25th) anniversary
with an online lecture by a distinguished Jewish scholar, Rabbi
Daniel Cohen of Stamford, Connecticut, 6:30 PM on August 25.
Free; register at https://jcpmemphis.org/foundation-events
While most churches are not having Wednesday evening suppers
at this time, many are going to continue Wednesday evening
acrtivities on-line. One example is ST Mary's Episcopal Cathedral,
http://www.stmarysmemphis.org/
Memphis Theological Seminary will be meeting online this
semester. The YMCA is trying to organize appropriate forms of Day
Care and/or places where pupils who lack supervision or computer
facilities at home can particpate in on-line learning.
Do continue to connect with houses of worship through on-line
services and activities - and then let them know by e-mail or
phone or other means that you are still paying attention! And
keep in touch with friends by phone and any other means that
work for you. But large in-person gatherings are still a
very dangerous thing to do.
The City of Memphis still has a Covid information page at https://covid19.memphistn.gov/
including information on when and where to get tested.
on August 15, 7 PM, Playback Memphis will have an online
performance, "Virtual Memphis Matters", a program in
honor of Congressman John Lewis. Charge $5 up https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4638713?blm_aid=4234241 on August 16 - 22 the NBA and WNBA sponsor a week-long
"anti-racist teach-in". I think the price for each event is
$50 which insludes a book. But the program is well worth reading
even if you don't want to spring for $50, not least to see the
books they are selling. http://www.randomhousebooks.com/campaign/antiracist-teach-event-series/
Lynching Sites Project of Memphis will have a Zoom meeting
August 24, 5 PM. Several excellent videos of their earlier
meetings are at https://lynchingsitesmem.org/
We are reminded to GIVE BLOOD. While the Bloodmobile
is no longer doing the usual circuit to houses of worship, you can
go to any donation center and crtedit it to your favorite house of
worship. What used to be "Lifeblood" is now
"Vitalent", https://www.vitalant.org/Home.aspx
Missing out on Church trips? Temple Israel is going
to try a "Zoom tour of Israel", Sundays 11 AM, August 23 |
Ashkenazi founders and Israeli culture
August 30 | Mizrachim/Sephardi founders and Israeli
culture. September 6 | Soviet emigres, Ethiopian
Jews, and the new Israeli culture through photographs, videos,
music, and other sources. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85318698597?pwd=MW1rU3dIRHVLdVVtbkVWN2UySTFPZz09#success
Are other Memphis organizations trying other substitutes for
church trips?
Of course, in this period of on-line travel and on-line
conferences, national and international organizations provide
fascinating opportunities.
For a "tour" of Israel, West Bank, and Gaza with a
group that defines itself as primarily pro-human rights, see the
symposium (charge) August 16 (Israel) and 23 (West Bank-Gaza)
at https://www.progressiveisrael.org/what-we-do/israel-symposium/israel-symposium-2020/
MIFA needs volunteers to deliver "Meals on Wheels".
(Some earlier volunteers are now unable due to age or other
conditions.) "Our current model—delivering hot meals and
shelf-stable or frozen boxes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
mornings—will continue for the foreseeable future. Due to the box
deliveries, some moderate lifting is required.....If you would
like to deliver meals or help with phone check-ins to senior meal
clients, please contact Kristi Estes at kestes@mifa.org or (901)
529-4521." https://www.mifa.org/
They are also planning an online event: Anna Word and the
MIFA team are working to engage the community and donors in ways
that are conducive to the current environment. It will host its
first virtual event on Oct. 7, featuring Matthew Desmond, author
of “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.” https://community.mifa.org/ourcityourstory
This month at the Indian Cultural Center and Temple has
included special devotions and bathing of the symbol of
Krishna. My friend VV Raman has provided an essay about
Krishna for those who wonder what the "Hindu Sunday School"
equivalent of Krishna stories would be like. Click Here.
August 9 Noon
I can't resist recounting a bit of
early Memphis history and other stories. (Prompted by
the LGBTQ item just below). Well before the Civil War,
Temple Israel (then located down in the Pinch district, near the
river) hired a rabbi. The rabbi's brother had a store, and kept
the store open on Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath). The rabbi, one
Saturday afternoon (not at the synagogue) urged people to
patronize his brother's store. The synagogue board, feeling he had
violated the sanctity of the Sabbath, voted to fire him. The case
went all the way to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that the
courts would not interfere with a house of worship's decision to
fire a minister, if the decision was based on theological
questions.
A decade or two ago, in an earlier stage
of the disputes over homosexuality, a church committee asked me (a
Jew) if I'd be upset if my rabbi was a homosexual. I replied that
in Jewish law, in my view, being a homosexual was exactly as
offensive as eating a ham sandwich (which is somewhat more
offensive, than, say, eating a cheeseburger.) All are prohibited
by traditional Jewish law; I personally very much doubt that today
a majority of Memphis Jews would propose firing a rabbi for eating
a ham sandwich. Most branches of Judaism would put the ham
sandwich and homosexuality in the same category.
I've always been a fan of the small
church in Memphis which, early in the days when other churches
were proposing to turn away homosexuals, erected a sign "We are
not a museum for saints, we are a hospital for sinners."
My family has for decades been
unusually willing to relate to other religions. In the 1960's, my
mother met a young lady whose Roman Catholic Bishop had turned
down her request for a marriage annulment. My Jewish mother said,
"Let me call the Pope and see what I can do." The lady got a papal
annulment; some details are at http://ordman.net/Edward/Monitor/Pope.html.
Memphis Islamic Center, with very limited in-person events,
maintains its live-stream programs. The weekly "Jummah" Sermon is
Friday at 1 PM; on August 14 it will be given by Imam Anwar
Arafat, one of my favorite Memphis preachers. https://www.youtube.com/user/MemphisIslamicCenter.
They continue a variety of online programs; the new one Thursdays
at 9 PM is "Let's Talk About It", about difficult or taboo topics,
by Sheik Yasir Fazaga. Anwar's regular talks on
difficulties faced by Muslims are Saturday at 9 PM.
On August 10 and 17, the Indian
Cultural Center and Temple continues the practice of
bathing the image of Shiva. Due to the virus, attendance is very
limited. "Shravan month is dedicated to Lord Shiva.The entire
month is considered auspicious to seek the blessings of Shiva.
Shiva Abhishekam [bathing the image] is performed with milk, curd,
honey, ghee, sugarcane juice, coconut water, bilpatra, flowers
etc. This kind of abhishekam gives prosperity, achievement of all
desires, eliminates negative forces, getting rid of negative karma
and will give you immense joy and success in life."
August 9 7 AM
I've been quiet for a few days for
a bizarre reason - a microburst from the remnants of Hurricane
Isaias hit the street in rural New Hampshire where I'm sitting out
the virus. I describe the location of New London as "a
village in the woods, 15 miles north of the nearest McDonalds"
although the small college here will be having students start to
return in a few days and our town status of "no local community
transmission" may not survive that change. At least a dozen
trees were down near houses on our block - I don't know how many
more in the woods we own behind our house. The pine coming down in
our front yard was 90 feet tall, 32" in diameter, blocked the
driveway, and just missed the house. The one in the back
yard crushed our lawn furniture; the next door neighbor had one
land on and damage a rear deck. No injuries in our neighborhood,
but cleanup will take a while and we'll probably need to have a
bunch of other trees (no longer "protected" by the end ones on the
row) taken down.
The local LGBTQ community is
upset by a recent action in the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
banning two such groups from meeting in church facilities. Memphis
was (I think) the first diocese in the US where the local Bishop
invited them to meet in the cathedral (monthly pot-luck suppers
advertised here, prior to the epidemic) to actively pursue the
task of keeping these members and their supporters active in the
Church and having their religious needs met by the church.
Many other religious groups in Memphis have shared this inclusive
view; Temple Israel was one of the first to perform same-sex
"commitment" ceremonies back before same-sex marriage was allowed. https://amp.freep.com/amp/3223393001
The Commercial Appeal article about Steve Montgomery is online HERE
I'll almost certainly post more later today.
August 3
The city of Memphis website https://memphistn.gov/
now has a link to the Centers for Disease Control Website at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
which has excellent general information about, e.g.,
when to stay home. The CDC no longer has
detailed nuimber of cases conspicuously available, perhaps because
some politician decided that that was not a good idea. Weather.com
has made the link to its county-level statistics much harder to
find, but they are still there- https://weather.com/coronavirus/l/cf7c4d91383804902826ab3cf92ec38a294f540c33ebe5020dc5c776a37caf85was the Shelby County statistics this
morning. The graph for Shelby County there is jagged but, on the
whole, still rising.
There have been a very large number of notes about the passing of
Rev Steve Montgomery, from charities (e.g.MIFA) and
other churches. While it is just one among many, I've saved and
reproduced the letter from the Memphis Islamic Center HERE.
August 2.
David Waters, in his wonderful article about Rev Steve
Montgomery (link in my July 31 note below) provided the
link https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52ff9ea2e4b0aca487c84c7b/t/5afc3b00f950b71b08ea9b08/1526479619017/Idlewild+Sermons.pdf
to a full book of Steve's sermons published in 2015. The
introduction is a wonderful piece of autobiography. I know that
many people don'y expect old sermons to be important reading,
particularly today when we can listen to sernons online, but I do
have to offer as bait that the first sermon in the book
starts "Prayer: Dear God, all we have to do is open the morning
newspaper
to realize that there are dividing walls of hostility all around
this world you created, even walls in our own hearts. So we come
to you seeking your peace, because sometimes that’s all we have.
Help us to hold tightly to your vision of a world at peace,
beginning with our own lives. Startle us with your love for the
whole world. Amen."
David's May 2019 article, on the occasion of Steve's retirement,
is at https://dailymemphian.com/section/metro/article/4881/Waters-A-pastor-and-a-prophet-departs-Idlewild Memphis Islamic Center has issued a partial reopening
statement sililar to that I noted on Jul 31 from Masjid Ar_Rahman;
MIC will start August 9 and intends that all group services will
be outdoors under large covered area.
July 31
Rev Steve Montgomery has
died. Among many tributes is a letter sent by Rev
Sandy Webb of Holy Communion Episcopal which I have taken the
liberty of putting online HERE.
He will be very much missed. There is a good obituary
at https://dailymemphian.com/section/metro/article/15836/steve-montgomery
Some Memphis Mosques will
be experimenting with very limited
reopening. Again, I am reporting this but very much
urging people to stay away from large group gatherings; The Muslim
religious leadership continues to stress that protecting health is
of the highest importance and that praying may always be done in
private, the obligation to attend the noon prayer and sermon on
Friday (Jummah) remains suspended. I've reproduced the
announcement from one of the mosques HERE, which may be of interest.
(The Friday sermon - the Khutbah - will be ten minutes
instead of the usual thirty. One other word non-Muslims may
find puzzling is "wudu". This is the ceremonial careful washing of
the hands and feet before prayer; there is normally space to
do this at the mosque but people are now requested to do it at
home.)
July 30
Rev Steve Montgomery of Idlewild
Presbyterian was badly injured in a bicycle accident July
28. He has long been a leading voice in The Memphis
religious community and a strong supporter of interfaith
activities and work for minorities and the oppressed. At last
report he is the ICU at Methodist Hospital. on a ventilator but
responsive to voices of family. The instructions being sent are to
pray; if desired send notes/cards to the Montgomerys at 189
Belhaven, Memphis, TN 38117; hold off on gifts of food or flowers
due to allergies. AT present word seems to be circulating
through the ministerial community rather than at https://idlewildchurch.org/
or https://www.facebook.com/1750idlewild/but those sites give the
opportunity to pray with members of Idlewild.
If you haven't yet heard a talk by
Rabbi Jeremy of Temple Israel, he'll give a talk
about the importanmt modern Jewish Philosopher Abraham
Heschel (also a major Civil Rights figure) at noon Tuesday, August
4. Go to Zoom.us, click on "Join a meeting" and enter the code
504-358-591. You can also call 1-312-626-6799 and enter the same
code. Questions? Email Steve Kaplan at stevekaplan@jccmemphis.org.
In response to the request of the group of Muslim
physicians, the mosques of Memphis are still not reopening. This
means that the major holiday of Eid Al-Adha on July 31 will not be
celebrated with the usual mass prayer meeting. One of the online
services in Memphis will be at 8 AM July 31 at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXfMPAjkjTo8ghKT6hzDH_w/live
July 27
VV Raman ( a Hindu philosopher amd
physicist) has sent another episode of reminiscences, this one
about the history of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, built
as a church. later a mosque, later a museum, which Erdogan has
recently converted back into a mosque. Click here for the essay. A
nice historical review but he might add "not PC" - i.e., a bit
unexpurgated.
In Muslim practice, July 22 to 31
are the last ten days of the Hajj (pilgrimage) period, when
good deeds count extra (as they do for Jews in the ten days up to
Yom Kippur).
July 30, The Day of Arafah, is a fast day, followed on July 31 by
Eid Al-Adha, a major feast day. Usually the Muslims have a
mass prayer service on Eid Al-Adha, often in the Convention
Center; that will not happen this year. An interetsing but
long article with more detials about this Muslim season is at https://islamqa.info/en/answers/1699/virtues-of-the-ten-days-of-dhul-hijjah
July 23
The Indian Cukltural Center and
Temple still admits only donors, by prearrangement, to
events other than the public Saturday 10 AM -12 programs.
They do still send out notices of Hindu celebrations that are
celebrated by the priests with a limited audience. E.g., July 25:
"Naga / Garuda Panchami is a traditional worship of snakes or
serpents observed by Hindus throughout India, Nepal and other
countries. The worship is offered on the fifth day of bright half
of Lunar month of Shravana (July/August), according to the Hindu
calendar. The abode of snakes is believed to be patala loka (the
seven realms of the universe located below the earth) and lowest
of them is also called Naga-loka, the region of the Nagas. As part
of the creation force, their blessings are sought for the welfare
of the family. Performing abhishekam and puja to Naga Devatha by
qualified priests will rectify Kuja and Kala Sarpa dosha’s and is
highly beneficial for the welfare of the family."
Anyone who has visited India, and many other counjtries with Hindu
influences, will be aware of the quantity of snake (naga)
statues.
July 22
The epidemic news continues discouraging. The
Daily Memphian reports "With testing sites at full capacity
and local labs backlogged on processing those results, Shelby
County is now encouraging only those who are symptomatic or
directly exposed to a positive COVID-19 patient to be
tested. That’s a significant shift from a few weeks ago when
the Memphis and Shelby County joint COVID-19 task force was
encouraging patients with even mild symptoms to get tested because
capacity was underutilized." Testing rates are stable
but positivity rates are increasing and utilization rates of
emergency rooms and intensive care beds are increasing.
I hate to tell people not to
go to church - but it really seems like a bad idea to do so.
Continue to enjoy the many live streams and recorded services,
lectures, events, and use this as a chance to "visit" places and
ideas you'd not otherwise see. Browse the notes below for
interesting ideas and on-line resources. Do I have anyone in the
group with the skills to tell me how better to organize these
resources for longer-time use?
St Mary's Episcopal https://www.facebook.com/watch/stmarysmemphis/
is still posting daily musical offeriongs and a variety of
services and sermons.
The Memphis Islamic
Center, https://www.youtube.com/user/MemphisIslamicCenterhas a large variety of offerings =- including a
program this evening at 9 PM about the end of the Hajj season.
The Catholic Diocese of Memphis, https://cdom.org/, has interesting
statements and pointers to programs. The Vatican statement on
"What is the role of the Parish?" may be of interest to other
houses of worshiop also. https://cdom.org/vatican-issues-new-guidelines-for-parishes-5-things-you-need-to-know/
You can find Jewish online
events at e.g. Chabad (orthodox), https://www.jewishmemphis.com/
Temple Israel
(reform) https://timemphis.org/and others. ASBEE
(orthodox) http://www.asbee.org/
has a brief daily online Bible (Torah) study at 7:25
PM
Pema Karpo (Buddhist) has some rather esoteric
things on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuBAM0Vc7p3dMt3rupp7rrA
but it has some nice older talks at https://www.facebook.com/pemakarpo.meditationcenter.
The National Campaign Nonviolence online conference will be
August 6-8th with an exciting line up of speakers including Dr
Erica Chenoweth, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. and Rev. Richard Rohr.
Heres the link for more information:
https://paceebene.org/cnvconference2020
The Muslim
holiday Eid al-Adha starts at sunset July 30, until
sunset July 31. It marks the end of the Hajj (pilgrimage) season and
also commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his
son (Ishmael) on God's command. It is the custom to
offer food to the needy. One interesting way the Muslims do
this is to purchase food at the Muslim markets in town,
designate a share for the needy, and then the mosques collect
it from the stores to arrange distribution.
The regional Jewish Historical Society Lecture Series is
being a big success with over 400 listening to the last talk. The next
one is July 24 at 10 AM
You can register at https://www.thebreman.org/Events/07-24-2020-Summer-Speaker-Series
(Scroll down to where you see “Zoom registration.”)
There is no cost but registration is required.
Ann Woolner, journalist and author, traces
Georgia’s first Jews from the torture chambers of the
Portuguese Inquisition through escape to London and then onto
a forbidden voyage to Savannah. Unexpected and unwanted, 41
Jews landed in the infant colony 1733 in the midst of a deadly
epidemic there — seemingly quelled by one of their own, a
Portuguese-born doctor. His curative treatments brought
respect and equal treatment for Jewish settlers. When the
Revolution came, these families fought as patriots, ran
supplies and helped finance the war.
On
July 26 at 5:30 pm, Judge Richard Gergel and Robert Rosen will
launch Sunday Conversations. The
topic is “Reaping the Benefits of a Tolerant Society:
Jewish Public Service in South Carolina from the Colonial to the
Modern Era.” For this first program, they will be joined
by Mayor Billy Keyserling (Beaufort, SC), former Senator Joel
Louirie (Richland County), and Representative Beth Bernstein
(Richland County).
If you are interested in how schools may function this Fall,
the Germantown School District has a detailed plan online at https://www.gmsdk12.org/GMSDRoadtoReopenPlan71520.aspx
(At the bottom of that page, you can download the pdf of the
printed version.)
If you are interested in things like city hall meetings but never
time the find to go, Germantown's July 13
Board of Aldermen meeting is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXj4AX-b-8Q&feature=youtu.be
There is an important
podcast by peace activist John Dear at https://paceebene.org
You'll also find links there for the major Campaign
Non-Violence online events August 6 to 8.
The Hiroshima Day commemoration event on April 6 is free, tehre
are modest charges for the full conference,
whuich can be participated in live-streams or watch later online.
The Institute on
Religion in an Age of Science is a "science and
religion" conference group I've attended for many years. As it
could not have its usual live conference this year, it has been
holding on-line programs The video recordings are free for anyone
interested at https://www.iras.org/ .
In particular, there have been two
excellent talks on "Will Modern Civilization be the Death of Us?
Reflections on the Earth's Future"
If you happen to be an astronomy or
space-travel fan, The Smithsonian Institution is doing
on-line events since the museums are still closed; there will be a
talk about the thirty years of the Hubble Space Telescope, July
28, 8 PM (Eastern time) at https://airandspace.si.edu/events/hubble-30
(you can sign up there for a reminder e-mail)
The Unity Church of Practical
Christianity is having live services limited to 50
people. They also have Zoom Sunday School and other
activities, and a large collection of recorded prior
sermons. https://www.unitymemphis.org/
Obviously I cannot list all the online sevices and classes, I try to
give a sample sometimes here so you can see techniques of putting
things online and look in on religions or events you might not
otherwise find the time to visit. So view these as samples.
Pema Karpo Meditation Center (Tibetan Buddhist) remains
online-only, which I highly approve of. Monday,
July 20th will be the 108th session of the Padmasambhava Daily Practice at 5 PM. Please join Khenpo Gawang
Rinpoche as he practices for all who are impacted by the
Covid-19 pandemic.
My Hindu friend VV Raman provides a commentary on IBN RUSHD
(AVERROES) (1126 - 1198), a Muslim theologian who had a
significant impact on St. Thomas Acquinas as well as Jewish
thinkers. Click here for it.
(If you'd like to be on VV's mailing list, let me
know.)
With cases of Covid-19 rising again in
Shelby County, I continue to discourage attending large events. The Indian Cultural Center and Temple
still has public live services Saturday 10 AM - noon.
Attendance has over 100. Instructions are at https://icctmemphis.org/information/temple-opening-phase-2/
First Baptist Church Broad also has
very large live services https://fbcbroad.org/
One synagogue will experiment with small in-person services,
outdoors. ASBEE (Anshi-Sphard - Beth El Emeth) will ahve
services Shabbat
Afternoon July 18th Mincha 7:30pmPlease register before
3:00 pm Sunday Afternoon, July 19th Mincha/Maariv
7:55 pm, Tuesday Afternoon, July
21st Mincha/Maariv 7:55 p Limited to 15 people. Pre-registration is
required.
Safety procedures at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fO-MXmEdRRiR7OL2N1yONo3yavL9Y7AZcOJcXKC6udo/edit.
Registrations at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/904044eaaaf2eabff2-minchamaariv
Online Toragh Study Thursdays 1 PM, online services Friday 6 PM,
Saturday 9:25 PM.
One of the very strangest Jewish
sermons (lectures) I've ever heard is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzFUXKk2B4I
Rabbi Friedman on the soul and the afterlife. I would not hold it
up as "standard Jewish beliefs"; it is a very large collection of
Jewish ideas, myths, and tales, and in it I find things suggestive
of Catholicism, Hindism, Buddhism, and many other ideas. While it
is 44 minutes long and a bit heavy in Hebrew and Yiddish in
places, people may enjoy some of the unusual ideas and analogies
he comes up with from a variety of Jewish sources.
July 14
Temple Israel has a new cantorial soloist, Happie
Hoffman, coming on in August. While the position is not
quite the same as a "church music director", she'll be the one to
contact for musical exchanges and joint musical events. Please
make her welcome! http://timemphis.org
Temple Israel has online services at 6 PM Friday and 8 PM
Saturday evenings, a Zoom class on Kabbalah (a form of Jewish
mysticism) at 7 aPM on August 3, 10, and 17, and many other online
classes and meetings. All welcome.
Mayor Strickland's graphs of the
virus are at https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/TNMEMPHIS/bulletins/295156e
There is a real danger that it is again growing exponentially, at
least for a few weeks. I again urge people to be very cautious and
avoid most group events. I remind you that the Address Page
linked above has links to the home page of many houses of worship,
and you can often find on-line events at places you might not ever
find time to visit. While it is slightly less convenient now for
me to provide copies of DVDs (many are discussed on the "Book
List" page linked above' I can still provide DVDs from other
religions if you'd like to look at some.
I'm frustrated that the usual news
sources are so concentrating on the virus and
devioting so much space to diatribes pro-or-con Trump that there
is little other news being reported. How does one find out
what is going on in Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Central
Africa? The BBC is a start, but I'd love other suggestions
(write to admin@memphisirg.org)
Suggest, e.g., foreign news sources with English-language web
pages. Recently on http://www.israelnationalnews.com/
I've seen atrticles on US policy re Netanyahu's plan to annex
parts of the West Bank, and about difficulties between the Jews
iof Yemen and the Houthi rebels there.
July 12.
The Christian Science Monitor, not
too surprisingly, has a rather different take on the recent
Supreme Court decisions about religion than either the left-wing
or right-wing press. https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2020/0710/Religious-liberty-s-big-week-at-the-Supreme-Court
While I'm on that site, An older story,
but a heartwarming one. There has been a great outpouring
of donations from Ireland to assist the Navajo tribe, which
is suffering particularly badly from the coronavirus. Why
Ireland? Because the Irish remember that in the famine of
1847, a very significant donation to assist them was raised
by the Choctaw Indian Nation, which the United States had recently
exiled to what is now Oklahoma (under a treaty which the US
Supreme Cout has recently held still to be in effect, as I
understand it.) In 1847 the Choctaw felt that the Irish,
like the North American Indians, were being maltreated by the
English - in Ireland and America, respectively. So
some Irish still have an interest in the American
Indians. https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2020/0513/In-each-other-s-shadows-Behind-Irish-outpouring-of-relief-for-Navajo
I've found very interesting graphs and
statistical data (about the epidemic, in particular) at the
site https://ourworldindata.org/
July 14
Temple Israel has appointed a new
"Cantorial Soloist,", Happie Hoffman, who will start in
August. While this is not identical to the "Music director"
position in churches, I believe she will be the person to talk to
about music exchanegs or joint projects. Try to make her
welcome. Live-streamed services are Friday 6 PM and Saturday
8 PM. A three-part class om Kabbalah (loosely, a form
of Jewish mysticism) Mondays August 3, 10, 17 at 7 PM. There
are (as at many house of worship) a multiplicity of online classes
and meetings. http://timemphis.org
The Memphis Botanic Gardenhttps://www.memphisbotanicgarden.com/
remains largely but not completely open (e.g children's garden and
the red bridge are closed as "high-touch" areas). They have
take-home "summer camp" kits fior kids through baout grade 5. See
the website.
With the US newspapers and news sites
so full of Covid-19 news and pro-and-anti-Trump diatribes,
they seem to have no room for any international news. BBC
helps. But you really ahve to look in local papers all over
the world. For a recent piece giving a bit on the
US-Israel-Palestine issue, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/283424
Anyone have good sources on what is happening
in Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan? There is a bit from Yemen at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/283474
July 11
One of the very best lectures on
the history behind the"Civil War Monuments", with a great
deal of reference to Memphis,
is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPGpE-sXh0
"Jeffery Robinson, the ACLU’s top racial justice expert, discusses
the dark history of Confederate symbols across the country and
outlines what we can do to learn from our past and combat systemic
racism."
July 9
There have been some interesting graphics produced on
"what is safe and what is not" One of my favorites is this one: RisksV2.pdf
The variety of views out
there on how to cope seems to me much wider than I see in
the press, even in the range from NY Times to FoxNews. I
spoke earlier today with a physician practicing near Dartmouth
College. He was horrified at Dartmouth's decision tio have a
large number of students back: he says inevitably they will drink,
party, and bring a lot of Covid-19 to an area with lots of
elederly residents that so far has had almost none of the
disease. On the other hand, he wants to see public schools
fully reopen as soon as possible: he says the Peditric association
feels that very few children will have serious symptoms or side
effects, and the damage being done to pupils for whom school is
the "safe place" exceeds the risk of the virus. He argues that if
schools place emphasis on younger teachers in the classroom and
put the older staff in desk or rem,ote-learning jobs (I don't know
how feasible that is) the rsik to teachers should be less than the
benefit to society. He is especially concerned with children of
poorer families, where the parents have to work and are
ill-equipped to do home schooling or provide the computers and
related equipmenty available to better off families.
The decisions are difficult ones, I pass on his opinions as an
example of the way people are wrestling with the questions.
And I'm still mainly sheltering in place, except for groceries,
some carry-out meals, and a few other essentials. To quote a
song of Maurice Chevalier, in some ways "I'm glad I'm not young
anymore."
July 7
Anna Kathryn Word has returned to MIFA
as Chief Development Officer. Arnetta Stanton Macklin is now Chief
Advocacy and Engagement Officer
Online discussion by four women poets.
sponsorship by Jewish organizations and the Interfaith Youth
Core
"Poetry in Times of Peril". July 14, 8 - 9:15 PM (Eastern Daylight
Savings Time) https://hebrewcollege.edu/events/pspoetry/
More Programs from the Interfaith Youth Core:
(Organized by Eboo Patel, Muslim interfaith effort) http://www.ifyc.org/article/intro-project-time-upheaval
Campaign Nonviolence will ahve a Zoom Meeting
on July 20 at 6 PM, to check in and brainstorm for this year's CNV
Action Week September 19-27th. Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or
Android: https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/93758348770
Also, the National Campaign Nonviolence is holding an online
conference August 6-8th with an exciting line up of speakers
including Dr Erica Chenoweth, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. and Rev.
Richard Rohr. Heres the link for more information and to sign
up: https://paceebene.org/cnvconference2020
July 5
I found time this morning to
watch a couple of church services, and if you like
different styles the fact that many churches now live-stream and
save the whole service to YouTube provides good ways to see
different approaches.
Balmoral Presbyterian Church is a small church doing
online-only services. A small group (the pastor, liturgist,
musicians) gather at the church with large spacing and wearing
masks for the entire service, to demonstrate that it is possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwqVQ3PFCyg
First Baptist Church Broad is having full-attendance
services with a large, unmasked, choir, and a large mainly
unmasked congregation, in a very traditional Memphis Black
Baptist style - a style I happen to very much enjoy. I' ve enjoyed
visits to that church, near Binghampton, in the past. I frankly
would not attend that church (or any comparable large-attendance
service) at this time, so I really enjoy being able to watch it
online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_6CzSf7VGQ
In both cases, during the live stream on Youtube, there was a
"chat" sidebar so that one could swap greetings with friends or
comment on the service as it was proceeding. So if I could not hug
old friends, I could know they were there online and say hello or
even agree to get together by phone or e-mail.
With many summer camps and camp-like programs run by religious
groups not happening this summer, I'm interested in hearing of
on-line substitutes. Star Island is a
small island off the New Hampshire Coast, jointly owned the the
Congregationalists and the Unitarians, and I've frequently
attended week-long conferences in the old hotel built there in the
1800's. Since they can't have meetings in that hotel this
summer, they are having a long string of online events. Many
are listed at https://starisland.org/
Two recently past presentations
there:
Video recordings of the first two
presentations of IRAS’s 2020
Online Conference, June 29
& 30, are now available on You Tube.
Dr. William
Rees: Will Modern Civilization be the Death
of Us? Does our modern techno-industrial society destroy the
biophysical basis of our existence?
Ruben Nelson:Will Modern Civilization be the
Death of Us? Envisioning Tomorrow’s Earth.
There is as yet no credible estimate of how serious it is to
actually get infected with coronavirus. According to the New York
Times, 14 percent of diagnosed cases in Britain and Italy have
resulted in death; 1 percent in Iceland, under two percent in New
Zealand and in Israel. The best estimate presently available in
the US is that about 4.6% of those diagnosed long enough ago to
recover or die have died. Of course the number of those
diagnosed has skyrocketed since our President announced that the
worst was behind us, but there has not been time yet to see how
that will effect the death rate. Perhaps I should apologize for
the phrasing of that last sentence, but I won't.
July 3.
An animated video graph in an article in the
New York Times (as online Friday evening) dramatically
showed the upsurge in Corona virus cases in the area around
Memphis (Arkansas and north Mississippi) in the last few days of
June. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/world/coronavirus-updates.html
(This reference may not be stable)
In Shelby County so far one resident in 84 has been diagnosed with
the virus. In Crittenden County Arkansas, across the river,
one in 63. Going south from there, St. Francis County
Arkansas has one in 29 and Lee County has one in twelve as of the
time I write. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
LeMoyne-Owen College has
received a donation of $40 million. This is the
largest gist in the college's history, one of the largest
donations ever received by a Historically Black college or
university. Given the important role of LeMoyne-Owen in providing
leadership to Black community ofMemphis and to teh City of Memphis
as a whole, this is extremely iomprtant news for Memphis. https://tri-statedefender.com/largest-endowment-gift-in-lemoyne-owen-college-history-will-help-the-hbcu-keep-on-giving/07/03/
I'm impressed with the way St. Mary's (Episcopal) Cathedral puts
its recent news at the bottom of its home page on its web page. http://stmarysmemphis.org
The rate of new Coronavirus cases
diagnosed in the US as a whole rose nearly 50% last
week, with some commentators saying this was due to effort at
reopening and the resumption of indoor group activities.
The Washington Post reports that Palestinians
outside Palestine are having severe difficulties getting
home, as Palestine has no airport and no seaport (Israeli blockade
of Gaza) not only Israel but also Jordan, Syria, and Egypt have
severely restricted entry of anyone but their own citizens. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/07/01/coronavirus-pandemic-palestinians-israel-travel/
July 1
Rev Miranda Cully has been promoted
to Associate Rector at St. John's Episcopal. "in
addition to the pastoral, preaching, and sacramental duties that
she will continue to hold, will be oversight of our outreach
efforts in the city and oversight of Adult Christian Formation."
A distressing article in the New
York Times on Chinese government spying on Uighurs (the
largest group of Chinese Muslims) discusses the planting of
spyware in religious software, e.g. websites discussing the
Qur'an. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/technology/china-uighurs-hackers-malware-hackers-smartphones.html
(I don't know how many Uighurs we have in
Memphis; I've met at least one.)
June 30
Southern Poverty Law Center
has a downloadable guide on how to prevent online radicalization
of young people, which may be of interest to people working with
youth. Clicking on Building
Resilience & Confronting Risk in the COVID-19 Era will download it.
The county general election
and national primary election is August 6. Last day to
register, for anyone who has not registered or voted here
previously, is July 7. The last day to request absentee ballots is
July 30 but you are urged to do it earlier. Being uncomfortable
going to the polls on account of the epidemic is an adequate
reason to request an absentee ballot; further information at
https://www.govotetn.com/. Urge your house to worship to put this in an e-mail to
members (suggestion from Temple Israel).
Holy Communion Episcopal
reports modest attendance at its Sunday morning inside and Sunday
afternoon outdoor services; it stresses the importance of having
everyone fill out an on-line questionnaire in advance before
deciding whether to attend. It also points out that the online
streaming is still the preferred way to see its services. June 29
It us now painfully clear that
nationally, the virus is not at all under control.
Effectively, travel restrictions are increasing as many states ask
arrivals to quarantine for 14 days. The local Memphis
situation as shown in Mayor Strickland's newsletter
yesterday, at https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/TNMEMPHIS/bulletins/293040f,
are equally distressing. The issue of whether houses of
worship should reopen is now almost a political question rather
than a religious or medical one. I'm pleased to report that
Balmoral Presbyterian Church has decided to remain closed
for July and continue to decide on a month-to-month basis.
(While on the subject of Memphis, I also noticed
Strickland's e-mail onPolice Reform, at https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/TNMEMPHIS/bulletins/292d0f8)
At 6:30 PM Central Time June 30 (Tuesday), the
National Civil Rights Museum will have a Zoom program,
"Where do we go from here? To the polls" https://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/
I have a niece who is a physician in
San Diego, California. She writes a newsletter
for her patients, with interesting thoughts on coronavirus
testing. While its local information is for San Diego and this is
not an invitation to contact her with questions (please don't
click on those links!) you may find her comments of interest https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Witman-News---Coronavirus-Testing.html?soid=1133827504630&aid=JWyCE3I3SxQ
June 27
One of my friends, Paul
Carr, has posted some interesting slideshows from talks he
has given on, e.g. "Are
Near-Death Experiences Proof of Heaven?" and
"Are Scientific Worldviews Converging with Religious Ones?"
He posted these, I think, in connection with the annual meeting of
the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, which is holding
its annual conference (on-line this year) starting June 29.
https://www.iras.org/
Paul and I had a friend, now
deceased, a psychiatrist who did MRI scans of people with unusual
religious experiences. He claimed he could distinguish from
one another, from looking at fMRIs (functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging of the brain) four classes of people - (a) those who had
had near-death experiences affecting belief' (b) those who had had
religious visions, e.g. of the Virgin Mary; (c) those who had
attained satori or some eastern religious equivalent; (d) none of
the above.
Commenting further on that sort of
question: Princeton University has decided to drop the
name of Woodrow Wilson from its famous Woodrow Wilson
School of Public and International Affairs, as part of the current
round of iconoclasm (e.g. removal of confederate statues.) I'm
inclined to agree with the decision. I've had somewhat mixed
feelings about these issues, as I happened to be in Germany when
the statue of Confederate General McPherson came down in Memphis
and a right-wing German politician made a speech thanking the
people of Memphis for showing that in due course all the Holocaust
memorials could be removed in Germany. I'm rather more
pleased with some of the tactics of the Lynching Sites Project of
Memphis in adding markers and commentary - e.g. leaving the
original historical marker about General McPherson located behind
Calvary Episcopal Church, but adding a few yards away a newer
marker stressing his undesirable aspects, e.g. details about his
career as a slave dealer.
June 26
Here is one of the
mosque statements on delaying the previously announced partial
reopening : "After a second round of deliberation,
planning, several meetings and discussions with experts from our
infectious disease, religious leadership, and local masajid
leaderships, IAGM has decided to delay the Phase I of the
Reopening for Masjid Al-Noor and Masjid Ar-Rahman until further
notice. In the past week, there has been a net increase in the
number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Shelby County.
The county recorded its largest day to day increase of the
COVID-19 this past weekend. There are also discussions in the City
of Memphis to return to Phase I. These facts along with the advice
and recommendations from our infectious disease experts and
discussion with religious and masjid leaderships played a huge
part in this decision. Our priority remains first and foremost
safety for every member in our community." [from IAGM,
Islamic Association of Greater Memphis, which operates the two
mosques memtioned - plural of mosque is "masajid"]
June 25
The Church Health Center, which
offers medical care to people without health insurance, is of
course very busy as people lose jobs and lose the health insurance
that goes with it. They write: "Reminder: Existing patients and new patients without
insurance and in need of medical caremaycall
901.272.0003 for
appointments. " Individuals and
employers interested in guidance from the Church Health Center
about its offerings and insurance may start at https://churchhealth.org/navigate/
Some online reading:
There is a fascinating story of the
history of "virtual" communion in the medieval Roman Catholic
Church, at https://daily.jstor.org/the-return-of-ocular-communion/ If you've never looked at
https://daily.jstor.org/ you may well find it of
interest. JSTOR is an online scholarly archive, typically
subscribed to by college and university libraries and used for faculty and
advanced student research. But it does put on line for free
access some articles and essays relating well to
current news. Another interesting piece there, which isn't about religion,
but may be of interest to activists reading
this, is about the Bonus Army march on Washington
in July, 1932. It was of course another time of economic
and political crisis, but important historically
for being the first use of tear gas against a
demonstration in the United States. https://daily.jstor.org/how-tear-gas-became-a-staple-of-american-law-enforcement/
Healthy and Free Tennessee, /https://www.healthyandfreetn.org,which
promotes sexual health and
reproductive freedom in the state of Tennessee, (that is, among
other things, pro availability of abortion) will be
hosting a series of online training sessionos on
"Transformative Justice"; this may be outside the usual run of
Healthy and Free Tennessee's activities. I'd be happy to get
more detail about the training sessions. Signup is at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdeO60TOBcmJ7hFiPmkdOTIwvk-SfA8Pn4aA943jzLknFs0Ig/viewform
As I don't get too many
notices of live-streamed funerals (I've been very impressed by
the video memorial services placed online by Balmoral
Presbyterian Church), I note a funeral from Calvary Episcopal
coming 2 PM Sunday June 28, for Taylor "Nick" Nickles
French, April 26, 1939 - June 23, 2020. https://calvarymemphis.org/worship-2/livestream/
June 24,
Chabad is still celebrating the anniversary of the death
of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson. There is a
fascinating 80 minute video at https://www.jewishmemphis.com/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/4791043/jewish/Transform-and-Transcend.htm.
Christians may be interested to know that after his death, some
people claimed that "The Rebbe", as members of the Chabad movement
called him, was the Messiah and would soon be
resurrected; at one time this movement may have had a few hundred
thousand believers. Such movements are not uncommon in
Jewish history. While the New Testament tells people not to
believe in claims that someone is the Messiah, the Jews have
no such restriction - talking with someone who thought "the Rebbe"
was the Messiah, I might feel the sort of denominational
difference that a Methodist feels from a Presbyterian. I met
Rebbe Schneerson several times during his lifetime, heard him
speak, and admired him greatly, but I personally have no
reason to think he was the Messiah. I enjoy the videos about
him, perhaps you will also. The Indian Cultural Center and Temple has
now had public access on Saturdays, noon to 2 PM, for three weeks,
and reports excellent cooperation to distancing, hand-washing,
masking, etc., by all attendees. Their guidelines are at https://icctmemphis.org/information/temple-opening-phase-2/
Tax time is coming up July 15, instead of the
usual April 15, which inspires me to comment: Since I've
often posted notices of fund-raising suppers and such put on by
the Muslim community, I thought people might be interested in a
newsletter of the Memphis Jewish Foundation, a local
donor-advised charitable fund. https://mailchi.mp/jcpmemphis/donor-strong-6-12563622?e=82879e28a2
A similar secular-sponsored organization is the Community
Foundation of Greater Memphis, https://www.cfgm.org/
Among the uses of donor-advised funds (not a full list) (a) get
the tax donation in one year, distribute funds to charities in
another year or over time; (b) donate appreciated securities and
get the tax benefit while dividing the money between multiple
charities (c) distributing money in your will to multiple
charities while avoiding complex accounting for you executor; (d)
avoiding the substantial taxes that may be incurred if you pass
tax-sheltered accounts such as IRAs to an heir.
June 23. AT Calvary
Episcopal Church, which posts clergy writing online as blogs, Rev
Amber Carswell has written remarks about the US Supreme Court
ruling on LGBTQ rights: https://calvarymemphis.org/the-scotus-ruling/ Memphis Islamic Center has
decided to delay "Phase one" of opening - that is,
to rescind some of its opening plans, in view of the increasing
rate of infections in Shelby County.(they had announced first
steps of reopening about two days previously).
June 22:
Lifted
from The Daily Memphian newspaper: https://dailymemphian.com/section/metrothe-early-word/article/15012/the-early-word-record-day-of-covid-cases
<< It’s Monday, June 22. The Ben
Hooks Institute at the University of Memphis willhold an Online Community
Conversationat 1 p.m.
with Amanda Nell Edgar and Andre E. Johnson, university
faculty members and authors of the new book “The Struggle
Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter.” TheShelby County Commission
will meetat 3 p.m. And
a group called Fellowship of Young Adults ishosting a Civics 101 Zoom
eventat 7 tonight
with Chalkbeat reporter Laura Kebede and Kingsbury High
history teacher Dexter Britt>> June 22 events include
MICAH "Issues Night" on
Monday, June 22, 6-8 PM.https://www.micahmemphis.org/calendar
for link to register
Also Lynching Sites Project of Memphis speaker Monday at 5
PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81499809151?pwd=cjM3TEFFWGFoWlBTL3FndE43Qktvdz09 Meeting
ID: 814 9980 9151 Password: 304396 Speaker
Janay Kelley, writer and filmmaker on Black Southern themes.
News from BBC, Uighur issue.
Between Coronavirus, Black Lives Matter, and Pro-and-con
Trump, the US press seems to have almost no foreign news.
While we may not have a lot of Uighur Muslims in Memphis, I do
no at least one, of I've decided that this piece on US
relations with China re suppression of Uighurs qualifies here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53138833
(Note: in onepart of
China, there was a time when the Uighur Muslims were in slang
the "White-capped barbarians" and the Jews were the
"Blue-capped barbarians", barbarian simply having the sense of
"non-Chinese". My related essay (on this piece of Jewish
history) is at http://ordman.net/Edward/Monitor/BlueCap.html
)
American religious organizations are generally viewed as not
supposed to take "political" positions on US partisan issues
(they can support or oppose a proposed law, but not a
candidate. Of course, this rule in controversial and not
always followed. A congregational leader can enunciate
views on a list of issues and urge people to vote taking those
into account. But nothing prevents them from taking a position
onm a political issue in another country, and Jewish groups
often take positions on Israeli questions. An example is a
recent statement on the proposed Israeli annexation of parts
of the occupied West Bank (Palestine.) https://www.progressiveisrael.org/ten-american-jewish-organizations-send-letter-to-gantz-ashkenazi-opposing-annexation/ https://www.progressiveisrael.org/jewish-clergy-oppose-potential2-israeli-annexation/
June 21 - As mentioned
earlier. the mosques in Memphis will be doing a slow and limited
reopening. They stress that attendance is NOT mandatory for
anyone, and that young, elderly, and people with compromised
health should especially stay away. Normally, observant Muslim men
are required to attend the "Jummah", the mid-day prayer on Friday,
just as that Roman Catholics are required to attend Sunday
Mass. The services at Memphis Islamic Center will be
outdoors, six foot spaced; normally Muslims pray
"shoulder-to-shoulder", physically touching the adjoining
congregants. Bring your own face mask and bring your own
prayer mat, sign a risk disclaimer, etc. The first in-person
service at MIC will be at 10 PM Monday Evening. I found the whole
announcement interesting enough that I've copied and posted it here. Of course,
MIC will continue to have a full program of on-line activities,
including many talks that will be of interest to non-Muslims
interested in interfaith, at http://memphisislamiccenter.org
June 20 - the Poor People's
Campaign, which had its main webcast on Saturday, will repeat it
Sunday at 6 PM (Eastern, I think) https://www.june2020.org/
At least one Memphis Church has
reopened its gym - on a members-only, advance
sign-up, very well restricted and cleanliness rules basis.
And a couple more are now doing small live services as well as
live-streaming; in particular I note the idea of outdoor services
Sunday evenings for families who want to be able to bring children
to a church service.
I'm still very cautious about large
gatherings - recall that about half the states still have
increasing numbers of cases, and that often large numbers of cases
have been associated with meetings where people come from other
places (including family reunions, religious servcies, political
meetings). The epidemic is by no means over. I'm
delighted to see that some progress is being made in finding ways
to treat severe cases. But I still feel that if I resume
being as meeting-prone as I was last December. Im very likely to
get the disease - and I'd rather do that as late in the process as
possible, when treatment methods have improved much more than they
have now.
Since the "Black Lives Matter"
movement has attracted "Defund the Police" signs - and I know some
Memphis interfaith activists have been involved in the question of
how much power a civilian oversight board ought to have - I will
point out Mayor Strickland's weekly e-mail, which addresses the
correlation between plice staffing levels and violent crime rates
in Memphis in the last 14 years. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/TNMEMPHIS/bulletins/291b4b3
Rabbi Klein of Chabad (an orthodox Jewish group many of my readers
will never have visited) has a 12-minute sermonette at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHyzypsKJWw&feature=youtu.be
(subjects: the spies sent by Moses and Joshua into Canaan, and -
what does God want us to do?)
Somewhat more colorfully, we are coming up on
the anniversary of death of Manachem Schneerson, the "Lubavitcher
Rebbe", the long-time leader of the Chabad Jewish movement. A
collection of talks will be given online Tuesday June 23, 7:30 PM
CDT, https://us04web.zoom.us/j/8525545831?pwd=VysvOVJNMjVVWlcwdmQ5SElkWGxsQT09#success
There is a lot of other interesting (orthodox
Jewish) material at https://www.jewishmemphis.com/
event - on June 18 - talk by and Israeli and a Palestinian who
have lost family members in the fighting
CONVERSATIONS WITH
ISRAEL AND PALESTINE
SERIES
Join us for our upcoming live webinar (co-hosted
by American Friends of the Parents
Circle - Families Forum) Dialogue
Meeting: Stories of Bereavement and Hope Thursday,
June 18, 2020 @ 2:30 pm
ET (1:30 Central)
An event next week, June 25 at 7 pm CST hosted by the
Memphis Jewish Community Center and the Jewish, Islamic, and
Middle East Studies Program at Rhodes College. We will have a
conversation via Zoom (meeting id: 667 280 6665) with Pamela
Nadell, author of America’s Jewish Women: A History from
Colonial Times to Today, winner of the National Jewish Book
Award for Jewish Book of the Year. Professor Nadell is immediate
past president of the Association of Jewish Studies.
Today, 7PM Central time - Cuban
Affairs. A discussion between "Pastors for Peace" and the
Cuban Ambassador to the US. Registrants for this discussion will
receive a special invitation to join an interactive event with
medical professionals, elected officials, and activists who are
building the campaign for medical collaboration with Cuba, to
save lives.
To register, https://zoom.us/webinar/register/9415913213070/WN_yHrFUMgBQ5mFMcWJwo0aBg
The Church of the Holy Communion
(Episcopal, Walnut Grove between Perkins) will have a live
service indoors on Sunday mornings at 9 AM and an outdoor service
Sundays at 5:30 PM weather permitting. Livestream services Sunday
at 8 AM and 5:30 PM. Advance sign-up with screening for live
services. They expect to continue this sytsem until Labor
Day. They add, "it is important to me that we continue
to regard our livestream offerings as a principal, if not even
preferred, means of engaging with worship at Holy Communion."
Sign-ups close on
Fridays at 3:00 p.m. Sign-up by calling the parish
office (901-767-6987) or clicking the link below:
An increasing number of churches
nationally are resuming live services. In West Virginia,
whuich started earlier than some places, several churches have
been identified as major sources of infection - in one case,
according to The Washington Post, 28 church members have been
tested positive for Covid-19. I'll continue to urge people
to be active online rather than attending group meetings. I
will report live meetings here, but be very cautious.
The Indian Cultural Center and Temple now
has one open in-person program a week, Saturday noon to 2 PM.
Other in-person programs require advance arrangements.
I don't know who the "Democratic
Socialists of America" are, but they are urging attendance at
Tuesday's City Council meeting. 3PM, subject: Police. https://www.facebook.com/events/708412753249134/
Memphis area Mosques will begin some
live activities June 22. However, the joint announcement
says further "Our priority remains first and foremost safety for
every member in our community. Therefore, compliance with the
guidelines is a must and will be enforced strictly. Community
members are still encouraged to pray at home. In addition, we
request that all members over 65 years of age to stay at home. "
Thursday June 18, 7 PM. Memphis Muslims
on-line program about issues relating to converts to
Islam. Click for details
The National Civil Rights Museum
will reopen June 22. Limiter hours, on-line advance timed
ticketing to avoid crowds. Free for Tennessee Residents Mon 3-6
PM. civilrightsmuseum.org
Tuesday June 16, 7 PM - online meeting of
PAX CHRISTI, a talk by the national director,
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83007532090
Meeting ID: 830 0753 2090
One tap mobile
+19292056099,,83007532090# US (New York)
+13017158592,,83007532090# US (Germantown)
There is no password for the event so
everyone should be able to get on directly. We'll start the call
about 15 minutes before our start time.
If I may be permitted a more
light-hearted note. the small village in New Hampshire where we
are for the summer has had two demonstrations, marches of a couple
of hundred people. Getting into the spirit of the thing, our puppy
Molly has been wearing signs that say "Defund Dogcatchers".
https://www.facebook.com/edward.ordman/posts/10157993818486187
The Church of the Holy Coommunion
(Episcopal, between the Perkins) has finished its major
rebuilding. No live services yet, but the online tour is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83MVbxt9snA&feature=youtu.be
The movie "Just Mercy" about racial
injustice is streaming free on amazon Prime and some other
platforms. this church urges you to watch and will have a Zoom
discussion on Friday June 11 at noon. http://www.holycommunion.org/
Many in the interfaith community know Dr. Alim Khandekar.
His elder sister, Kohinur Hassan, was hospitalized with
COVID and has passed away in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Please
include her and the Khandekar family in your prayers.
Balmoral Presbyterian Church has
invited people to set a timer and sit quietly for 8 minutes and 46
seconds in memory of George Floyd,
and then listen to the classic recording of Paul Robeson singing
"Let my People Go" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtLcELU1brA&feature=youtu.be
The rather different Charley Armstrong version, which may follow
it on Youtube, is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2hZHu7rlrQ
Because I'm still very nervous about large
gatherings, I'm limited in my reporting of live religious
services - but yes, some are happening, usually with great care
about spacing, number of people in a room, and other heath
considerations.
Catholic churches are now holding
masses (wafer only).
St John's Episcopal Church will have
Morning Prayer services (no communion) on June 7. People are still
encouraged to watch online instead of coming in person, at Facebook.com/StJohnsMemphis.
Multiple rooms are available for seating. There will be an 8 AM
service for elderly/ at risk only, a 10:30 AM (also
online) for adults, and a 5:30 PM outdoors for families with
children (bring blankets and lawnchairs). Line up at doors
for seating by ushers, masks provided, individual service leaflets
instead of Bibles/prayerbooks, etc.
Unity Church of Practical Christianity
will have a service at its usual time Sunday, limited to 50
people.
So far as I know, all Muslim and Jewish
establishments are still on-line only.
Calvary Episcopal, downtown - online
only, Sunday 10 AM, 5 PM Evensong
St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral
statement on not resuming in-person services is at http://www.stmarysmemphis.org/news/covid-19-update-from-canon-patrick-williams/
The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis has a
Zoom at 5 PM Monday June 8, Speakers: Dr. Jacqueline Jordan
Irvine is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Urban Education
Emerita at Emory University and the author of numerous books and
the recipient of countless awards. Karen Branan is the author of
The Family Tree: A Lynching in Georgia, A Legacy of Secrets, and
My Search for the Truth, published by Simon & Schuster in
2016. To RSVP, email to
jessorians@gmail.com subject=6%2F8%2F20%20LSP%20Zoom%20RSVP
so they can put your name on the list and send you
the link to the Zoom.
The Memphis Muslim Community Statement on George Floyd is at
Muslim_statement.pdf
I'm afraid this next two paragraphs are just blog and not news,
but after so much denunciation and commentary about Trump
tear-gassing an entirely peaceful demonstration so he could stand
in front of a church holding a Bible (without even telling
the church in advance), and the press asking "Is that a family
Bible?", I can't resist: These eventsdefinitely remind me of
Berkeley in the late 1960's. There were demonstrations that
got out of hand. But there were also days that would have been
entirely peaceful if Gov. Reagan had not directed the National
Guard to start riots so that he could brag of having stood up
to the protestors. (I'm talking of the days when the National
Guard declared the Biology 101 large lecture an unlawful
assembly and chased them out of the lecture hall into the
street, or the several occasions when they tear-gassed the
students waiting in line to go into the cafeteria on the other
side of Sproul Hall plaza.) Another
time, another place: On one occasion when my father was
being sworn into a federal position, Justice Brennan asked,
with a big grin, "Can anyone tell me if this is really a
Bible?" My father had brought an old family Bible, which
of course was in Hebrew.
The Episcopal Bishops of New England have issued a statement
strongly condemning President Trump's misuse of St. John's
Church, Washington. I've provided a copy of the statement HERE. In part,
"What
President Trump did in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church,
Lafayette Square on the evening of June 1 was
disgraceful and morally repugnant. Displaying a Bible
from which he did not quote, using as a mere backdrop an
Episcopal church where he did not pray, and – more callously
– ordering law enforcement to clear, with force and tear
gas, a path through demonstrators who had gathered in peace,
President Trump distorted for his own purposes the cherished
symbols of our faith to condone and stoke yet more
violence." Do read the whole thing.
I'm terribly upset about the deployment of a unit of Tennessee
National Guard (from Knoxville) to Washington, DC. I
had the fortune or misfortune of being a student at the University
of California, Berkeley, in the late 1960's, when then-Governor
Reagan deployed the national guard to Berkeley. At that time, they
were neither trained or prepared for the duty involved. Ordered to
"Break up large gatherings on campus", they chased the entire
large lecture class of Biology 101 from the lecture hall out into
the street, with perhaps predictable results. A girl was bayoneted
on the front steps of the house I was living in - nothing a few
bandaids wouldn't fix, it just happened when a young guardsman
heard a noise and swung around too quickly. And of course
quite a few students were shot (always
"accidentally".) I do recommend James Michener's book "Kent
State" on the problems that may result from National Guard troops
being placed in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Southern Jewish Historical Society will have an online
speaker series in June and July.
We are
excited to announce an on-line speaker series in June and July,
in co-sponsorship with the Breman Museum in Atlanta, the
Savannah Jewish Federation and the Savannah Jewish Educational
Alliance.
The dates
are June 12, June 26, July 10 and July 24. Each event will begin
at 10 a.m. EST. They are being provided free, but registration
on the Breman Museum website is required. Here’s the link for
the first in the series: https://www.thebreman.org/Events/06-12-2020-Summer-Speaker-Series
June 12: The life of Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, the
spiritual leader of Atlanta’s oldest and largest Jewish
congregation, The Temple. Speakers: Jeremy Katz, senior
director of Archives at the Breman Museum, and Eric Lidji,
director of the Rauh Jewish Archives in Pittsburgh.
Temple Israel's weekly events list is at https://mailchi.mp/timemphis.org/this_week_at_temple-2135768?e=0b2f5806a0
Two weeks ago (May 19) I wrote below - at least two
weeks until Stage 3 of reopening - and worried that it took two
weeks to see what results any change had. Cases seem to be
increasing - slowly - now, but of cousre it will be another two
weeks before the nation as a whole sees if new cases arise from
this weeks' demonstrations. (One hopes that the virus transmits
less well outdoors, but the Florida Spring Break experience was
not too encouraging.)
Playhouse on the Square is planning to live-stream a
production, apparently for free, July 10-19. They still have
interesting free materials on their Youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoWT5YXEvVOChKhYR-XOBiA
June 1
During last night's
demonstrations in Washington, DC., a fire broke out (and
was quickly extinguished) in the basement of St. John's church
near Lafayette Square, the church traditionally attended by
presidents. Reportedly, it was intentionally set. I do not
know ifthere have been other attacks on churches during the recent
riots.
St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral staff
changes - Rev Patrick Williams will be Interim Dean
srtarting June 1 as they search for a new Dean, and Rev. Eyleen
Farmer will be on the staff part-time during this period.
The Indian Cultural
Center and Temple will be celebrating its 26th anniversary
June 3 to 7, but primarily online with very limited live
attendance https://icctmemphis.org/
Martin Luther King. Jr., ended
his 1967 speech “The Other America” as follows: “Somehow I maintain hope in spite of hope. And I've talked
about the difficulties and how hard the problems will be as we
tackle them. But I still have faith in the future. And I still
believe that these problems can be solved. … However much America
strays away from the ideals of justice, the goal of America is
freedom. And I say that if the inexpressible cruelties of slavery
couldn't stop us, the opposition that we now face … will surely
fail.”
My undergraduate school, Kenyon
College (Ohio), has been e-mailing both current students (now off
campus) and alumni with advice and guidance on how to safely
participate in demonstrations. They don't seem to have put that
guidance online, but not long ago the president of teh college
blogged on the subject of the propensity of students to
demonstrate. https://blogs.kenyon.edu/notes-from-ransom-hall-a-higher-ed-blog/post/the-power-of-dissent/
The Tennessee State Legislature
is resuming work. I don't know a good way of keeping
track of everything going on, but Healthy and Free Tennessee has a
page at https://www.healthyandfreetn.org/2020_legislative_watchlist
keeping track of issues of interest to
them. The list is of interest not least because it gives a
sense of the large number ofproposals that fail very early in the
process; I found it very surprising that so many bills were
introduced. It is possible to watch the legislative process
live online at http://capitol.tn.gov/
An announcement by Mayor Strickland
about Covid numbers in Memphis is at https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/TNMEMPHIS/bulletins/28e1fa5.
Two points of interest: First, By giving
daily numbers, it lets everyone judge trends. You might
conclude, for example, that the number of hospitalized cases is
(very roughly) stabilizing, but that the number of cases in ICU
beds continues to creep upwards. A second point of interest
is that the medical spokesman is Dr. Munoj Jain, well known to
most of us in the interfaith community as an interfaith activist,
leader of the local Jain community (I don't know if all members of
the Jain religion have the last name Jain, but it seems so), and a
founder (maybe the founder?) of the Gandhi-King conference
series.
May 30.
Baron Hirsch Congregation
(orthodox Jewish) has a nicely organized page for
information on its on-line activities, at https://www.baronhirsch.org/virtual Observant traditional Jews do still practice periodic ritual
immersion (yes, the practice that led to John the Baptist's
practices, and the baptism iof Jesus) and following the
"Mikvah" links on the Baron Hirsch page will lead to information
on how they are coping with that during the epidemic. (If
you are just learning about other religions, note also that they
also still have provisions for immersing cooking vessels etc. for
making them kosher.) These are among the more interesting
examples I've seen in Memphis of the need to keep a building open
even if there will be no group assembly. COGIC, the Church of God in Christ, a
large denomination headquartered in Memphis, had planned its
annual Convocation thisd November in St. Louis, planning to return
to Memphis next year. The November convocation has been
cancelled. http://www.cogic.org/ https://dailymemphian.com/article/14484/cogic-holy-convocation-covid-19-coronavirus
COGIC has joined the groups of churches that do not plan in-person
group worship until at least the end of June. The Lynching Sites Project of Memphishttps://lynchingsitesmem.org
has issued a statement about the death of Floyd. It begins "On behalf
of the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis, we write to share our
profound distress over the totally unwarranted, unnecessary,
and theatrical murder of George Floyd. We stand
with our brothers and sisters protesting in the streets over
this egregious, outrageous murder.
"
St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral
is presently planning NOT to resume in-person
services in June. At the moment this is not on their web
page at http://www.stmarysmemphis.org/
but an e-mail from the Rev. Canon Patrick Williams
explains in part "we approach this task from the standpoint of
trying to follow what Jesus called the greatest commandments -
love of God and love of neighbor. The way that we seek to live
into these commandments is by keeping YOUR health and safety as
our utmost priority. To state it plainly, YOUR health, safety, and
overall well-being is our highest concern in our decision making
process." They urge continued participation in on-line
events and call attention to their dasily on-line music offering.
Crosstown Arts is unable to host live events at the Crosstown
Concourse but had an on-line event Friday evening that should soon
be online at http://crosstownarts.org
The e-mail said the full concert video
premiere of Don Lifted with Blueshift Ensemble performing in The
Green Room at Crosstown Arts. The video will also be available at crosstownarts.org after
the premiere.
Idlewild Presbyterian will host
the "Presbytery-wide Pentecost service on Sunday. While
many other Presbyterian churches will still hold their usual
on-line services, the Idlewild wservice will be live-streamed at
11 AM and then available online for those wanting to watch later.
The Unity Church of Practical
Christianity will be having an on-site Sunday Service, June
7, 10:30 AM. Their announcement of procedures and the
cautions they are taking is at https://www.unitymemphis.org/uploads/2/0/0/2/20022045/reopening_webpost.pdf
Like many other houses of worship, they will continue to
live-stream services on Facebook and upload the service to YouTube
as soon as they can after the service. I continue to be
reluctant to attend public meetings in person and continue
to urge people to support their houses of worship and other local
organizations through contributions and active participation by
Zoom, e-mail, telephone, and other means.
You may recall that the "Poor
People's March on Washington" had been scheduled for June 20. Of
course, it won't happen that way. There is going to be a "mass"
online program on that date.This 2 hour program will be broadcast
on Saturday, June 20th at 10:00am EST and 6:00pm EST and again on
Sunday, June 21st at 6:00pm EST. Visit http://June2020.org to tune in.
On coronavirus, Tennessee
continues to rank very low in the list of states in "cases
per 100,000 population" and in "deaths per 100,000". It is,
unfortunately, much higher in the list ranked by "new deaths
in the last week" and "percent of new cases in the last
week". Mississippi is substantially worse off, on all these
criteria. There are nice interactive charts at https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/
May 26
The New York Times data set shows
the number of covid-19 cases in the Memphis "area" has
generally averaged 100 a day or a little more for six weeks now,
still on average rising slowly. Deaths continue to average about 2
a day, over time. By contrast, as the disease spreads to
smaller places, the Fayetteville, Arkansas area is one of the
fastest growing, with cases still doubling every 6 to 7
days. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/23/upshot/five-ways-to-monitor-coronavirus-outbreak-us.html
The Jewish
Foundation of Memphis has an online "needs list" of
requests from multiple Jewish organizations trying to adjust to
the pandemic. Are there other similar lists out there? Temple Israel has its
full summer newsletter online at https://issuu.com/timemphis/docs/the_voice_summer_2020
Lynching Sites of Memphis
Project has put one of the talks from their "Virtual
Meetings" online - the May 11 talk on how to construct landmarks
to counter Confederate iconography. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLvVeab91Yg&feature=youtu.be
(33 minutes)
A Church service in Germany
caused infections, according to the NY Times.
Some days after a service where everyone was supposed to stay five
feet apart, 40 attendees were diagnosed with the virus, six
hospitalized. The church, which had resumed live services when the
government permitted it, has gone back to on-line-only as a
result. (This was in the live feed about 10 AM Sunday and
did not seem to have a separate link as of that time.)
To quote from elsewhere in the NY Times
live feed, speaking of a federal medical official, "Asked about
President Trump’s announcement on Friday that he had deemed houses
of worship “essential” and directed governors to let them reopen
immediately, Dr. Birx said, “Although it may be safe for some to
go to churches and social distance, it may not be safe for those
with pre-existing conditions,” and urged vulnerable people to stay
at home.
Rabbi Micah Greenstein, in his
Friday evening sermon, paraphrased: Our houses of worship are
essential. Our congregants are not expendable. - in
explaining why Temple Israel was not hurrying to resume
large-gathering services. Like many houses of worship,
Temple Israel continues to have both "large-audience" streamed
services, programs and recorded sermons and talks avaiklable on
its web-site and Youtube, and small-group Zoom meetings where
people can speak up, interact with both clergy and individual
friends. Rev. Mickey Quinton,
Associate Minister at the Unity Church of Practical
Christianity, has recovered from coronavirus, now has a
clean bill of health and will be preaching again this Sunday
(10:45 AM) on Youtube. I've heard several
sermons I might describe as "forward-looking", in that they
raise the question of what changes we might make in society as a
result of the pandemic that woukld be constructive: good lessons
to be learned. One proposal: there are small ways in which
we could decide that public health outweighs productivity.
Large-scfale or univerality of sick leave would be a very good
idea. Encouraging sick people, especially contagious people,
to not be out interacting with others not only aids to the
recovery of the person who is sick, but protects the health of
many others. Have other people heard constructive ideas
worthy of repeating? If you have extra time available at home, or
any spare time, do consider listening to sermons and classes and
ideas from houses of worship you might not otherwise have time to
visit.
May 21
I skipped yesterday and not much
time today - with doctors and dentists now scheduling
appointments again, I'm catching up on several months of missed
stuff in those areas. Many of these offices are having to
reschedule lots of people (e.g. space them further apart to avoid
crowds in the waiting room) and a couple have scheduled me on very
short notice when a patient called in sick just before an
appointment. If you've put off such things, now is the time to be
in touch with your doctor(s). The Census is going distressingly slowly
- Germantown estimates that only 77% of its population has been
counted. PLEASE contact your clergy and suggest that they urge
everone in the congregation to be counted at https://census.gov Chabad - Rivky Klein is having a
class at 11:45 AM Monday May 25. "Leadership: Served Strong", with
live music.
http://JewishMemphis.com/Zoom St John's Episcopal
- Father Jay Biedenham is doing Wednesday evening 8 PM
classes on the Episcopal Prayerbook- "How to Pray the Daily
Office. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86386461721 Temple Israel still has on-line
Zoom Bible study Saturday morning 8:45 AM and a servuice
Saturday evening at 8 PM, but to get the link yiou need to e-mail
a day in advance; details at http://timemphis.org.
The Friday evening 6 PM is streamed, no advance prep needed, start
at the same website.
While the rules permit "purposeful" gatherings of up to 50 people,
and I know some churches will be experimenting with services
limiting the number of people in the room and sopacing them
adequately apart, I must admit that I'm skeptical about how safe
it really is - I'll be sticking to on-line meetings and have been
very much enjoying Youtube programs and Zoom or similar
discussions. Most houses of worship I know of are keeping their
main activities online and some are keeping their buildings
essentially closed for another week or five (to be determined, in
some cases.)
Catholic churches are, I think generally, offering masses
again. St. Louis Church, for example (203 S. White Station
Rd.), http://stlouischurchmphs.org
has masses that can be attended in person or watched
live-streamed at 4:30 PM Saturday, 9 and 11 AM Sunday, and
"Drive-thru" communion at 5:45 PM Saturday and 12:15 PM
Sunday
Rabbi Feivel Strauss, the Senior Educator at Temople
Israel, and his wife Abbie Strauss, the Cantor, will
shortly be leaving Temple Israel for posts in Florida. This
is the last week to see them live on-line or particpate in
Feivel's on-line discussion groups. There will be an online
farewell party May 28, 5-6 PM; sign-up details are at https://timemphis.org/
The Very Rev. Laura Gettys, as I mentioned previously, will
be leaving the post of Acting Dean at St. Mary's Episcopal
on May 31 for Grace-St.Lukes. There is expected to be
be a live party in her honor at a later date, since she'll still
be in Memphis, but there will be chances to give her best wishes
by Zoom on May 28(noon) and May 31 (3 PM) - her last on-line
service will be May 31. Anything to go into a book for her
(cards, message, drawings...) may be
sent by May 31 to amusick@stmarysmemphis.org
The mosques in Memphis have issued a joint statement saying
that they will not have an in-person gathering for Eid. Eid el-Fitr, the feast of the completion of Ramadan, is one of
the most important Muslim holidays. The turnout for mosque
attendance istypically so large that there would be no way to have
the service in any of the mosques and it has often been held at
the Convention Center. Tonight is the 27th night of Ramadan, "The
night of power", and there will be a major on-line program
at 9:30 PM. Anyone interested in watching a major Muslim event is
invited. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_v8VqSdQrA&feature=youtu.be
On Sunday, May 24, the Memphis Islamic Center will be having a
"drive-through" Eid celebration, 11 AM - 1 PM, with goody
bags passed in through car windows! Last I heard is $7 for
hamburgers, $10 for barbecue, reserve in advance. The call
is to dress up, decorate cars, drive through a route with
stations, stay in the car. Info / registration at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/drive-thru-eid-celebration-tickets-105671032904
The online "Historically Black
Colleges and Universities" commencement TV program is
online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=TapYJBMgn1E&feature=emb_title Barack Obama's 8 minute remarksstart at time 1:47
into the 2 hour program.
(Of course, schools had their own online commencements in addition
to this.)
The Jewish holiday of
Shavuot, also called "the feast
of weeks" or "Pentecost" ,the fiftieth day after Passover,
starts at sunset May 28 and ends at sunset May 30. (in the
Bible it is a one-day holiday, but outside of Israel
Jewish one-day holidays became two day holidays in the
centuries when no one was really sure what day the new moon
would be sighted in Jerusalem. The Muslims keep one-day
holidays as one-day holidays but sometimes you can't
find out which day it will be until the last moment...)
COming seven weeks after Passover, it celebrates the giving of
the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Absent the current
epidemic, it is celebrated with ice-cream parties (and, of
course, reading the ten commandments in synagogue services.)
Services will of course be available online. If anyone would
like some readings, I like those at https://ajws.org/who-we-are/resources/holiday-resources/shavuot/.
The "haftarah", what some Christians call "the second lesson"
or the "reading from the prophets" is the Book of Ruth.
The Christian holiday of
Pentecost will be Sunday, May 31. This is the
only holiday that retains much the same date calculation and
meaning between Judaism and Christianity; Shavuous is of
course when the apostles next gathered in Jerusalem after the
crucifixion, seven weeks after Passover, hence seven weeks
after Easter.
May 16.
I was quieter than usual
yesterday since a bad storm came through the rural area
where I'm living just now - a tornado 50 miles south or so,
numerous trees down in the enxt village over, and electricity and
internet service spotty much of the afternoon and evening, The thought that there would be
a cell phone app that would keep track of who was near who,
to facilitate infection tracing and let authorities notify people
they had been near a covid-19 case, seems to be fading in the face
of invasion-of-privacy concerns. There is even an issue now
of to what extent the police are entitled to know who has been
diagnosed. There is an interesting point of view at https://tri-statedefender.com/privacy-rights-and-protection-safety-needs-clash-over-covid-19/05/16/ The Memphis "Group of 18"
clergy have called for continued delay in large in-person
worship gatherings. Among them are Imam Anwar Arafat, Rabbi Micah
Greenstein, Bishop Pheobe Roaf, Rev Dr Scott Morris, Rev Rufus
Smith, and others most of us know. There is an article about this
at https://dailymemphian.com/section/metro/article/14035/clergy
with a delightful picture of all 18 in face masks - it is fun to
see how many you can recognize! There is a wonderful video
of the 18 of them, well worth the brief time to see it, at https://vimeo.com/417386522 I don't often get
to delve into Buddhist history here, but my friend V.V.
Raman, thinking about women in religious stories, has sent an
essay about Buddha's wife (I hadn't even known he was
married1) I've put it here.
(let me know if you want more of VV Raman's writing)
Other groups might be
interested in seeing one way the local Jewish community
involves teens in charitable work, giving a group of them a
choice in where to distribute some charitable funds. https://mailchi.mp/jcpmemphis/donor-strong-5-14-12437063 I think some churches do this on an
individual-church basis but hadn't seen a similar group effort
elsewhere.
The local Episcopal Diocese is considering
resuming live worship services in early June subject
to medical advice as that time approaches. According to the the
notice from St. John's Episcopal, they will still live-stream
services but are considering having two Morning Prayer
services June 7 (8 AM for seniors and vulnerable,
10:30 for others, individual printed programs and no prayer books
or bibles in the pews, seating spread out through the prayer hall
and social hall, no touch contact with anyone, face masks, no
communion, no nursery, no cookies or coffee hour, and other
provisions to encourage
safety. (But see
the note above, May 15)
I must admit to some personal
skepticism about this; I go to services largely for the human
contact and conversation around the service, and I have close
friends who don't care about those things but do care about
communion. But UI do assume there are those whose ned is met
by being in the same rooms and singing/praying with others.
We'll see how things develop. As
I've said too often already, two weeks ahead is too far to make a
forecast.
The largest group of Reform Jewish summer day camps
(including the one that serves Memphis) have announced they
will remain closed this summer.
Jewish communities often have "Free Burial
Associations" to bury those without family or where the family has
no funds for a burial. A report recently from New York City
said that in April and early May the Association there has done
134 burials, four times the number in the same period last year.
May 13.
The Turkish (Muslim) community will hold an
online Zoom event May 15, 7:30 PM, in lieu of the usual
"Iftar" dinner they would hold during Ramadan. They are a very
congenial group and love visitors. COnsider
participating. Meeting ID: 872 4313
1268 Password: 032501 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87243131268?
Some odd bits of "religious" news that may be of interest
to some:
In some instances, German prisoners of war
were buried in US military cemeteries. In several instances, the
"religious" symbol used on the grave was a swastika. Someone is
demanding that these be removed; the VA says it will not removve
them as they are a piece of history and it is supposed to preserve
history. https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/tombstones-with-swastikas-are-historic-resources-and-will-not-be-changed-va-says
(I agree with the VA on this one.)
In Lakewood, NJ, a
fundamentalist Jewish rabbi and a Christian minister have sued the
state saying it cannot ban large religious gatherings. I happen to
agree with them as a constitutional matter - I don't know how the
courts will rule - but I also think they are real dangers to
public health if they hold large gatherings. The rabbi held
such a gathering and was arrested. https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/new-jersey-rabbi-arrested-for-violating-social-distancing-on-the-holiday-that-celebrates-the-end-of-a-plague
(I had not mentioned the very
minor Jewish holiday of Lag B'Omer here this year since
the customary outdoor events in Memphis did not happen and
I got word of on-line events too late to post.)
An excellent and interesting
editorial by an orthodox rabbi, giving a lot of interesting
Judaica and critical of the rabbi who held the service and was
arrested, is at https://www.jta.org/2020/05/08/opinion/the-minyanim-happening-in-our-community-are-a-dangerous-violation-of-jewish-law
("minyanim" is the plural of "minyan", a meeting of
at least ten men.)
May 12,
The Muslim holiday Eid El-Fitr, the completion of Ramadan,
is sunset May 23 to sunset May 24. As with Jewish and
Christian holidays, mosques take up special collections to try to
provide funds so that everyone in eed can have extra food or
whatever else is needed for the holiday. A typical mosque in
town is requesting donations of $10 per family member; part of the
phrasing of the request for "Zakat-ul-Fitr", the "charity for the
festival" is "It is obligatory on each Muslim young
or old, male or female, rich or poor to give Zakat-ul-Fitr if
he/she has food exceeding his and his dependents' needs for one
day and one night. A Muslim must pay on his own behalf and on the
behalf of financial dependents that he is obligated to support
such as his children and wife." (Jews will notice the Arabic
"Zakat", cognate to the Hebrew "Tzdakah". Jews will perhaps also not be surprised that good deeds
in the last ten days of Ramadan count double, as do good deeds for
the Jews between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.)
"J Street" is an
American Jewish organization that works for liberal policies in
Israel; e.g. it lobbies for the "two-state" solution and rights
for Palestinians.
It has a series of online videos and streams, at https://jstreet.org/j-stream/.
In particular, upcoming streams include
Weds May 13, 2 PM (Eastern, so 1 PM Memphis) - the Bereaved
Families Forum (talks by activists on both sides who have lost
family members in the fighting - Eunice and I have met with the
two main speakers) and Thursday May 14, 2 PM Eastern = 1 PM
Memphis, Palestinian leaders talk about the threat of annexation.
May 10.
9 am I've previously mentioned Story
Corps, an organization that records video interviews -memoirs,
for NPR and for the Library of Congress. In the past these were
recorded in a studio by appointment. During the virus, they have
arranged to record video interviews online - you can interview a
spouse, a child, a parent, a friend, about the experience of this
year or about family history or the like. I've urged people
to keep diaries; this is another step in documenting this period
of time for future generations. https://storycorps.org/participate/storycorps-connect/
Incidentally, that page has a link to a "great
questions" list, that is useful for memoir or diary writing. And I
highly recommend this as an online activity for youth groups and
adult on line Sunday school classes or similar.
An outstanding article on how the virus
spreads:
(OUCH - since I listed the link below, Norton has tentatively
listed it as an infected website (computer analysis, no human
attention). So I've disabled the link.
Then again, shortly later, McAfee says they have checked
carefully and it is safe. Are we confused yet?)
https://erinbromage.wixsite.com/covid19/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them?fbclid=IwAR06m1E-y2-QcD3y4lQZVQERo8bBnYXfE3Hn5I0F5uk2tggBfYgUMcGeEqk Instead, I've provided the text of the article as a pdf,
HERE That
unfortunately deletes the diagrams which I'll get online shortly
after cleaning them.
An apparently safe article with much the same data, but less
readable, is at https://quillette.com/2020/04/23/covid-19-superspreader-events-in-28-countries-critical-patterns-and-lessons/ I try to read the Tri-State
Defender partly on the assumption that many readers of this
page do not. It currently has two interesting articles about local
colleges that I enjoyed. On U of M on-line teaching, a piece
that might interest church youth groups: https://tri-statedefender.com/pandemic-yields-from-many-one-lesson-for-u-of-m-podcast-students/05/09/
And about the situation at
LeMoyne-Owen College. I've often said that I'm not sure Memphis
works without the leadership in the Black community that comes
from graduates of leMoyne-Owen, so I worry about it during the
epidemic. https://tri-statedefender.com/lemoyne-owen-college-matching-resources-with-targeted-needs-of-students/05/09/
And a reminder of the Memphis Islamic
Center on-line program tonight at 9:30 PM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsNyC_XqN5Q (If non-Muslims are puzzled by the late hour - it is to give
people time to eat dinner after sunset and evening prayers, during
Ramadan)
Some churchesare
feeling the pinch, as no collection plates are being passed. A few
are organizing on-line events instead of more traditional
fund-raising events.
The Memphis Islamic Center will be doing a major on-line
fundraiser, in lieu of a dinner, May 9, 9:30 PM, on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsNyC_XqN5Q
May 6
The Indian Cultural Center and Temple is
opening very slightly. An individual or family (maximum 6 people)
may be appointment coem to the temple for a ceremony perormed
individually for them by one of the priests.
I've had a very interesting
discussion with one friend, with her wondering how her church
could possibly function at 25% of capacity - it is a catholic
church whose Spanish-language mass was already bursting at the
seams. Multiple services, surely - but would you need to make
reservations and have tickets?
A great many restaurants in and
near Memphis reopened as soon as it was possible, and I think a
lot of other things are opening. New Covid cases in Shelby
Couty are down. I've said before: this situation has changed
so rapidly that it is viry\tually impossible to say what the
situation will be two weeks in the future. We hope and pray
that the reopening will not cause an increase in cases, but it may
well take two to four weeks to tell. I continue to urge everyone
to be very cautious and avoid being in groups of more than a few
people for the next several weeks. And I hope I'm being more
cautious than necessary. Nationally, cases seem to be on the
rise almost everywhere excwept the big cities that had the initial
surge, so the country isn't out of this yet.
May 5.
A judge in Davidson County has ruled the the Tennessee school
voucher program due to go into effect this fall in
Davidson and Shelby counties violates the Tennessee constitution. https://dailymemphian.com/section/metro/article/13674/school-voucher-law-chancellor-strikes-down
This is a question of intense interest to many of us, and there
are sharply differing views. I believe strongly that a good,
well-funded, public school system is essential to American
democracy. It is also true that the Catholic Schools are important
to our society and are in great financial difficulties; their
collapse would severely burden the public schools. And of course
Memphis has Jewish and Muslim day schools as well as the many
other church and private schools. I don't think that we, as a
society, have at this time any consensus as to how to handle the
cost of education.
Temple Israel has a nice way of putting its full week program
online. Here is this issue: https://mailchi.mp/timemphis.org/this_week_at_temple-2135664?e=0b2f5806a0
It includes, for example, music May 6 (Wednesday) 7 PM,
services Friday 6 PM and Saturday 8 PM, classes Wednesday noon,
Thursday 10 am, Saturday 8:45 AM,
a career transition group, and links to several sermons and
talks. Several of these programs require you to check in in
advance by e-mail, so look in advance.
In my view, it continues to be almost impossibel to guess what the
situation will be two weeks in the future. If President
Trump actually thinks "it is over" and a lot of states try to
resume "normal life", including gatherings of large groups of
people, I think matter could get much worse than they are now.
A request - I find the Jewish Telegraphic Agency an interesting
source of information, Are there any coparable Muslim, Christian,
Hindu, Busshist, or other sources that I should be reading?
Recommendations requested.
admin@memphisirg.net
It is the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shooting.
James Michener wrote an excellent book on the subject. Very
briefly, the National Guard was sent in to try to control a
demonstration against the Vietnam War on a college campus
which some expected to get out of hand. The young National
Guardsmen, probably not having been adequately trained for such a
situation, got scared and opened fire, killing a bunch of
students. I recall this now because due to the coronavirus
and resulting emergency restrictions, and due to armed
demonstrators in some state capitals, demanding "reopening" with
the apparent support of President Trump, governors are
necessarily aware that the Police and National Guard forces
available to them are increasingly faced with situations far
different for the situations for which they have typically been
trained.
Chabad (orthodox Jewish) will again have a Tuesday Zoom
discussion, "Cultivating Character, 12-12:30 PM Tuesday
and a Wednesday cooking class, baking some sweet desserts,
11-11:30 Wednesday . They will be at JewishMemphis.com/zoom
The Lynching Sites of Memphis project has put two
fascinating pieces online. One is a video from their recent
virtual meeting:
A Presentation by David Johnson, Thomas Watson Fellow '19 to the
Lynching Sites Project of Memphis (LSP) on his independently
designed global exploration of how countries reconcile with their
past in Northern Ireland, Germany, Rwanda, South Africa, Chile,
and Peru. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBXrdutS3Sw&feature=youtu.be
(1 hour 21 minutes)
The other is a presentation by the Hattiloo Theatre and Ballet
Memphis, Lola's Southern Fields", about the life of Ida B. Wells.
Ida B. Wells is one of the major figures in the history of Memphis
and of the US civil rights movement. Online at https://vimeo.com/402987808?campaignID=376914&patronID=1139954119&linkNum=2&memberID=58a88124c419df0da3a8b9a5927a1520
(1 hour 12 minutes)
The city is considering what venues can reopen sooner. I;'m
obviously not an expert on many things, but it would seem to me
that outdoor exhibits at the zoo and outdoor areas at the Botanic
Garden might possibly be able to be enjoyed without the forming of
closely-packed groups. Then again, with schools not open and a
limited number of places to go, the result might be unacceptable
crowding. There are times I'm glad that I'm not the one who
has to make the decisions. https://dailymemphian.com/section/metrocity-of-memphis/article/13610/city-could-allow-some-tourist-attractions-museums
The Memphis YMCA is planning to move its headquarters
offices to a vacant office building in the Goodlett Farms Office
Park and establish a new "resource center", 71 Goodlett Farms
Parkway. No information on when.
Gov. Lee has ordered that cities not restrict houses of
worship. So while Shelby County mayors had agreed not
to significantly reopen church services (they would allow groups
of up to ten in house of worship, but not full services) Governor
Lee has taken the position that the government should not restrict
religion, and that while the government may ADVISE small groups
and social distancing, it cannot REQUIRE houses of worship to do
that. They may have usual services if they wish. I'm going
to editorialize. This is a very bad idea.
I'll comment below on my agreement with Gov. Lee in
principle. But it would be a terribly bad idea right now to
hold services that put groups of people close together and
endanger both those attending and the general public health, for
the reasons I've given in the last couple of days. Please,
Please, do not hold or go to large gatherings. We've seen a
remarkable range of on-line and virtual programs spring up
in the last month - from online religious services, classes,
lectures, to beautiful and memorable online memorial services for
the deceased and online movies with lively sidebar and post-movie
discussions. Let's continue this for at least a few more weeks,
and taper off slowly as cases of virus decline significantly.
I highly value the freedom of religion in
the US. I recall a time around 1990 when students from
Eastern Europe (communist bloc countries) began to arrive at the
University of Memphis and someone sent a delegation of them to me
with a question - "Why is there a church on every street
corner?" That's almost true just west of the
University of Memphis campus, and of course in communist countries
churches were few and far between. Abbreviating my longer
answer: in the 1500's and 1600's, Europe had religious wars.
Sometimes the king chose a church and persecuted people who did
not go to the church the king chose. So sometimes people who did
not want to go to the king's church packed up and moved to North
America. North America was selectively settled by people who did
not want to be required to attend a church someone else
chose. From the earliest times, our laws have been written
to make it as easy as possible to go across the street from a
church you don't like and build one that you do like. The
government never says "there are too many churches in this
neighborhood." Early state constitutions are fun to
read: one said approximately "we will allow the freedom to
assemble and worship peacefully to any group that does not
interfere with the right of other groups to assemble and worship
peacefully."
So there is something to be said
for Gov. Lee's position that the government should not say "you
cannot assemble to worship." But let us not be foolish and
endanger people.
The Memphis College of Art is having its last commencement
(online) this week. It has produced a remarkable legacy website, including a
"catalog", a memorial book about the college which is viewable and
downloadable for free.
As sorry as I am to see the Memphis College of Art pass away, I am
extremely impressed and proud of the way they have carried the
process out. https://memphiscollegeofart.com/
On the closing process: https://dailymemphian.com/article/7309/The-art-of-closing-MCA-takes-high-road-to-the-end
May 1 8 AM
The detailed rules for "phase 1" reopening are at https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2020/04/30/memphis-shelby-county-back-business-phase-1-reopening/3056838001/
I'm afraid I stand by my advice of yesterday - on the whole, stay
at home. When testing increases and number ofd new cases
reported locally shows a distinct downward trend, we can be much
more confident that a spike in cases will not overcrowd local
hospitals; the mayors seem to have decided that the risk iof
overcrowding local hospitals is now small. But as happ yas I am
that we may not overcrowd local hospitals, I'd still rather not be
one of the patients. Apologies for editorializing that way, but I
couldn't help myself.
I will clarify my statistics of yesterday somewhat - it was
late at night and I botched the calculation, As of April 27,
about 2.7 people per 1000 in Shelby County had been
confirmed as having the virus. That number had doubled since April
12. Since many people are considered to have recovered after about
14 days - and are then believed to be no longer contagious, the
number of diagnosed cases not yet considered recovered is
somewhere around 1.3 per 1000. The number of
undiagnosed cases is, of course, unknown, but most estimates put
it much higher than the number of diagnosed cases. Luckily, many
cases seem to be so mild that they don't get diagnosed.
the film "Viral" about Antisemitism which was shown on-line on
April 30 will appear on WKNO-TV May 26 at 8 PM. A very interesting film with sections about England, France,
and Hungary among other things.
There was an excellent Zoom discussion after the 90 minute
movie, with a very large particularization.
Special thanks to Johnathan Judaken, Dimitry Anselme, and March
Stagner, the panel.
THE NUMBERS I PUT UP YESTERDAY HERE WERE WRONG. I'M TRYING AGAIN
(I amended this paragraph this morning.)
I'm trying to understand statistics about the coronavirus,
in attempting to understand the issues about reopening. Very
roughly (my calculations) in Queens, New York, about 23 people per
thousand have been diagnosed with the virus. In Shelby
County, about 2.7 in 1000. In many rural areas, an average
of about 1 or less per 1000. (In Tennessee as a whole, about
1.5 per 1000.)
Now, suppose your house of worship has a service attended by 100
people. It is entirely possible that none of them have the virus.
But if one does and is actively contagious (not necessarily
showing symptoms yet) it would be very easy for 5 or 10 to be
exposed to it, and if those 5 or 10 come the next week, it would
be very easy for 25 to be exposed - and if a bunch of
churches (etc.) do that, it would be easy for local hospitals to
be overwhelmed with cases, as they were in Queens. Now those
"1 in 1000" numbers may just mean that people in rural areas have
not been tested yet, we don't know. My own thinking is - I
think if I go to enough meetings, I'll get it. I will not give up
going to meetings (churches, theaters, etc.) indefinitely - but in
September they will know how to treat the disease much better than
they did in March, and we are already seeing signs of that.
So if I'm going to get it, the later I get it the better. I want
to resume going to meetings, but I'm in no hurry. When
Germany loosened restrictions, the number of new cases started to
grow again; the trick is to do reopening slowly enough that cases
don't increase to the point where hospitals have trouble
coping. The two-week delay in being able to see responses to
changes in social activities makes it hard to do this. Do keep in
touch with friends, watch on-line events and participate in Zoom
meetings and the like, and do find ways to support the local
economy - on-line purchases, carry-out meals, donations to local
charities - but, on the whole, stay at home.
April 29
On April 30th, 2020, at 6:00pm CDT, six community
organizations are joining forces to make the new PBS
documentary “Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations”
accessible for an advanced public online screening,
followed by a discussion with Professor Jonathan Judaken of
Rhodes College and Dimitry Anselme of Facing History and
Ourselves. The discussion will be moderated by Marcy Stagner,
M.A. Ed. and Program Director of Cultural Arts and Adult
Services at the Memphis Jewish Community Center.
the Press
Release is here, and the Poster
is here. You have to go in advance
to the link
https://ovee.itvs.org/screenings/6jjrt to RSVP
and open an account to sign up. Given the sponsorship (Rhodes
College, Facing History, WKNO) I believe that the sign-up site
has been properly vetted.
Temple Israel has put together a large collection of its
recent videos at https://timemphis.org/media/
The Friday evening 6 PM service is online each week, http://timemphis.org
While many houses of worship have their services online, the
interesting item here is that the full prayerbook is now
online, for free, at https://www.ccarnet.org/publications/mishkan-tfilah-for-shabbat/?utm_source=Temple+Israel
(If you are a first time user, you may think turning the pages
does not work. Be aware that in a Hebrew book, pages turn in the
other direction. Use the < arrow to go forward and the >
arrow to go backwards!) The table of contents is on page 7;
you can just type a 7 between < and >.
The Memphis Jewish Community Center has a speaker on "Unity
without Uniformity", 10 AM April 30. To register, pleaseCLICK HERE.
Massachusetts has joined the
list of states that tells new arrivals in the state to quarantine
for 14 days. I must admit to bewilderment at the notion in so many
places that the infection comes from "elsewhere". Apparently the
more serious the problem already is in a given place, the stronger
the desire to prevent it entering from "elsewhere." Perhaps
more productively, several cities in Massachusetts have now
enacted local ordinances requiring wearing face masks in public,
with substantial fines for violation. Massachusetts says
they will continue the full stay-at-home system until at least May
18.
At least one airline now requires passengers to
wear face masks, which I'd have thought would have been one of the
first places to require them.
An example of future planning: Good
News from Luna Nova Music!
This summer Luna Nova Music will present our 14th Annual Belvedere
Chamber Music June 17-20. Because of Covid-19 we will be offering
these concerts only online by means of Facebook, YouTube, and
other digital services. Each evening a new concert will be
presented and the content will remain online subsequently. Some of
the composers represented will be Bach, Bartok, Debussy, Poulenc,
Boulanger, Prokofiev and others. We are so grateful to be able to
carry this tradition into its 14th year despite these completely
unexpected circumstances.
On the other hand the Botanic Garden has had to cancel its :"Live
at the Garden" summer concert series.
The University of Memphis says it hopes to reopen in the fall
but is "studying all scenarios."
April 27 9 pm
Chabad (orthodox Jewish) has two
zoom classes in the next couple of days - if it is not a
group you usually go to, it is a nice chance to look in -
Tuesday Noon, 1/2 hour
- Rabbi Klein, Cultivating Character: Life Wisdom from the Ethics
of Our Fathers (The "Ethics of the Fathers"
is a
traditional Jewish text often studied between Passover and
Shavuot, and fun to read for anyone.) Wednesday 11
AM, half hour , Baking with Mrs. Rivka Klein, Yummy Bars, find the
ingredients list here.
Both classes are
live-streamed at JewishMemphis.com/zoom
April 27 9 AM
The Daily Memphian reports that
Memphis now has enough tests available that people can be
tested even if not showing symptoms.
The Commercial Appeal has an article suggesting
that pastors (etc.) be tested as a way of urging members of their
congregations to be tested. https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/breaking/2020/04/24/memphis-pastors-want-their-congregations-get-tested-covid-19/3023006001/
In my judgement, those who have a need to deal with multiple
people in a typical day, even indirectly (e.g. grocery store and
restaurant employees) should probably want to be tested as soon as
they can make an appointment. While Tennessee yesterday had
its largest increase in number of cases to date, this may be a
reporting result due to increased testing rather than increased
spread. Maybe we will know better in another two weeks.
I've commented earlier on the differences between Kentucky and
Tennessee in covid statistics. There is finally a serious
article on this, at https://dailymemphian.com/section/metro/article/13353/road-to-recovery-how-does-memphis-fare-with comparing Memphis with Nashville as well as Tennessee with
Kentucky. It does not answer many of my questions, but does
better than I could do alone.
And it is important data for those trying to understand race and
poverty in Memphis.
The next ELECTIONS in Shelby County
will be August 6 and November 3. Deadline to
register for the August 6 election
(if you have not registered in the past, or haven't voted for a
few years) is July 7,
Helpful links are at https://www.commercialappeal.com/storytelling/election-2020-voter-guide/register-to-vote//
There may be additional reasons this year to vote early (smaller
group of people at the polls) or vote absentee.
Absentee voting information is at https://www.shelbyvote.com/absentee-voting-faqs
If you are new in town, be aware that you can register by mail,
or vote by mail, but that for your first vote here either the
registration or the vote must be done in person.
While there has not been the big
wave that my partner Heidi feared of bans on interstate travel,
one coastal town in Massachusetts (Salisbury) is presently
refusing to turn on town water for residents who had their water
turned off when they went away for the cold season. Some
other towns with large seasonal populations are imposing
two-week quarantines on arrivals, in addition to the several
states that request two-week isolation of arrivals (without
legally compelling it.) The US Department of Defense still
has mandatory isolation orders in place on most of its military
and overseas employees.
The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis will have its regular
(virtual) meeting Monday April 27 at 6 PM.
Speaker is ,David Alan Johnson. David is a native of
Brownsville, TN, and is a graduate of the University of the South
in Sewanee, TN, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Politics with a
minor in Economics. In March of 2019, he was selected as 1 of 41
Thomas J. Watson Fellows throughout the United States, for a
project he independently designed exploring how countries
reconcile with their past in Northern Ireland, Germany, Rwanda,
South Africa, Chile, and Peru.
By Zoom;
Ramadan Mubarak! (Have a blessed Ramadan). Today,
Friday, is the first day of the month of Ramadan, when observing
Muslims fast (no food or drink) from sunrise to sunset, if they
are able (there is a lot of flexibility for those who are
pregnant, ill, and so on.) Ordinarily, there are many
extra prayers at the mosques during this time. Also, the mosques
typically have "Iftar", a break-the-fast just after the sunset
service, which can vary from something equivalent to a church
coffee-and-doughnuts to a full meal. This year, of course,
all these things will have to be done online via Zoom, Facebook,
or similar media.
The mosques do want to do food
distribution for those in need, both Muslim and non-Muslim. Masjid
As-Salaam, at the top of Stratford Road, to give one example, is
distributing boxed meals on a drive-up basis between 6 and 7 PM
for people to take home and eat after sunset. Memphis Islamic
Center will do this 6-7 PM Fridays through Sundays and is hoping
for donations so they can do it more evenings. Present
estimated cost is $1000/day.
Of course, for many years the
Islamic community in Memphis has has a large celebratory
Interfaith Iftar dinner with speakers one evening; that is also
impossible this year. I expect there will be talks and sermons
that readers of this page will want to look at on-line in lieu of
that wonderful evening, and I'll post links here from time to
time.
If you'd like to see a local Muslim
Imam explaining the rules of fasting, a talk at the Memphis
Islamic Center is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-4UZdbBuCQ
St. John's Episcopal has services available online at https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsMemphis Beth Sholom synagogue has some classes and groups on line
at https://www.bsholom.org/lljlonline
(If you are puzzled by a word on that page,
"Meditations on the Parshah", the Parshah is what Christians would
call "The first lesson", the first Bible reading in the Saturday
morning service. It is the same text in traditional synagogues
throughout the world, roughly six chapters; in the course of the
year synagogues read the entire first five books of the Hebrew
Bible. Since the lesson is a long reading, the discussion
usually is based on a smaller selection from it. ) The Jewish Community Center has an every-Thursday 8
PM program, https://www.facebook.com/events/596127580979155/ The Indian Cultural Center and Temple has a calendar page
which has links to descriptions of many of their ceremonies. https://icctmemphis.org/events/
Crosstown Arts has a website where local musicians
can (for free) post performances, and viewers can (for free or a
donation) watch them. https://crosstownarts.org/againstthegrain/
An increasing number of churches are having Zoom meetings or
the equivalent of small groups so that one can have
discussions, keep up with friends, etc. If they are
advertised too widely there have beem occasional problems with
"Zoom bombing", e.g. a Jewish meeting that suddenly had a large
number of trolls displaying Hitler faces sign in. So often they
are publicized only on a church's own mailing list, or there is a
"register in advance" provision so that only known real people can
get in. St. Mary's Episcopal, for example, is doing Sunday
School with a passworded sign-in, and a "Meet with Clergy and
Friends" on a basis of "sign in in advance a way that we can
see your name and recognize it." So if you are interested in
those and are not on their regular e-mail list , call the church
(or e-mail me of the church for help). If other houses
of worship are having any troubles in this regard, I suspect that
St. Mary's has a tech person who could help.
An interesting feature of modern times is the availability
of many whole books for free on the internet. I've recently found
myself browsing in Academia.com (which keeps trying to sell me a
full membership so I can see who is reading my papers, but the
free membership is quite adequate since I'm not doing much
mathematics research these days.) I recently found the book
Paradise & Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity
and the Baha’i Faith (SUNY Press, 1999) available for free
download, which interested me since I don't much about Baha'i in
many places, and comparisons between otherwise quite different
religions intrigue me.
You can just go to https://www.academia.edu/ , do a search
on a few words of interest, and browse.
Some US government organizations are taking quarantine orders much
more seriously than others. On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/myusfk/photos/pcb.10163397226425223/10163397221005223/?type=3&theater
is notice of a disciplinary action by US Armed Forces Korea
(USFK) against a civilian employee.
(In explanation, being excluded from the US military base for two
years, for a civilian, means "you are fired"; that is the typical
term of civilian contracts on such bases.)
Calvary Episcopal Church has a weekly podcast series,
perhaps an attempt to make up for the cancelled part of the Lenten
Lecture Series.
The current one is at https://soundcloud.com/user-553399813/a-conversation-with-jemar-tisby
Topics this week include the effect of Covid-19 on communities of
color. This link also provides further linkls to other talks
from Calvary. Calvary still needs clothes for its clothes closet for the
homeless, https://calvarymemphis.org/helping-others/
The Memphis Theological Seminary will award degrees in May
but the commencement ceremony will be postponed, probably until
October 3.
President jody Hill says: I will be offering the sermon at our
virtual chapel service at 11:10am on Thursday, April 30th. We will
use this worship opportunity to give thanks to God in celebration
of our graduates. Please join us on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/95128178190?pwd=MmVBL1NINmo4N1o2S2xoUG01bFY4QT09
Meeting ID: 951 2817 8190 Password: MTS2020
The Church Health Center is being very successful in adding telemedicine meetings.
They have been able to connect with patients who rarely manage to
come in in person, improving care in such cases. They have
partnered with the Food Bank and are able to passout food boxes to
qualified people who come to their drive-through corona-testing. The Memphis Botanic Garden is still selling nursery
plants, order on-line and pick up in your car. https://mbgnursery.ecwid.com/
By extending the stay-at-home program for two weeks at this
time, Mayor Strickland seems to be agreeing with what I said
yesterday (in agreement with so many others) - life is changing so
rapidly that it is unreasonable to make guesses more than two
weeks in advance.
April 21, 8 AM
It remains impossible to predict what life will be like, even
two weeks in advance. Gov. Lee wants to reopen as
much as possible in a week or two, saying there are enough virus
tests available. Urban counties will probably come later, but no
idea how long. Shelby County still can only test health workers
and people with symptoms or known exposure, and is unlikely to
open many places as soon. (I'd rather not go into a store
unnecessarily if the employees have not been tested, at least at
present. )
Houses of worship, because people tend to be
close together, may come later rather than sooner. At least one
church has announced they are planning on keeping the building
closed at least through May, although of course that too may
change. Mosques, incidentally, tend to closer contact than
even churches and synagogues; for prayer the men stand in
rows with feet touching the feet of the man on either
side (feet slightly spread, to give adequate space to prostrate at
the appropriate times.)
Online music group at Temple Israel April 22
at 7 PM. Annual meeting online and services online Feb
24. Details and more at https://mailchi.mp/timemphis.org/this_week_at_temple-2135584?e=0b2f5806a0
I encourage more houses of worship to put
newsletters online; it is easier for me to link. Note that I list
the home pages of many houses of worship on my address page.
It is interesting to watch the different approaches
to emergency needs taken by various religious groups in the
city to help those hurt by the unemployment surge and
coronavirus-related problems. Many charities are issuing the
expected pleas for added donations, and the needs are very
obvious, from churches handing out packaged meals to the homeless
(e.g. St. Marys), a meal program for unemployed restaurant workers
(Caritas), added need for meals-on-wheels and other packaged meals
(https://www.mifa.org/ourprograms)
and far too many others to name.
Church Health Center https://churchhealth.org/ now has Covid-19 testing
among its services.
The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis (https://www.cfgm.org/)
and Jewish Foundation of Memphis (https://jcpmemphis.org/foundation)
are two examples of places maintaining lists of
special needs and helping to raise money for them or route money
to them.
Two organizations that have "political" complications need
mentioning too:
The state has been trying very hard to
starve Planned Parenthoodhttps://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-tennessee-and-north-mississippi
of funds and state cooperation,
As an alternative the state has been
routing funds to Christ Community Health, but as a result it is
Christ Community Health https://www.christcommunityhealth.org/
that gets to do the Covid-19 testing, and really does have special
needs as a result.
While Jews and Christians have at least an inherited tradition of
"tithing", that is, donating ten percent of income to charity, the
Muslim tradition is different. Called "Zakat" (an obvious relative
of the Hebrew word "Tzedaka" for charity) the traditional
amount is two and a half percent of capital, or more
technically, of "capital less what you need for present
living expenses". One of the major fund-raising times for Muslims
is the run-up to the fasting month of Ramadan, which begins the
evening of April 23. One appeal presently being made by
local mosques is for anyone who has the cash on hand to donate
$300, which they figure will provide food for a typical family for
the month of Ramadan.
April 20, 10 PM
The evening of April 21 is celebrated buy many Jewish Groups as
"Yom HaShoah", a day of remebrance of the Holocaust. There are a number of forms of online celebration this year.
Information of the Memphis Jewish Federation's program is at https://jcpmemphis.org/yomhashoah
The program starts at 6:30 PM Tuesday evening, but check out the
site before that for any necessary preparations (e.g. downloading
the program),
and plan to sign in about 6:15 PM to go through the check-in
process.
You have to sign up in advance for the April 30 movie
-details fixed in the April 18 entry below.
I remain bewildered about virus testing. Reportedly, President Trump feels there are enough tests out there.Governor Lee appears to agree, having announced that anyone
can be tested, for free, without regard to symptoms. https://www.tn.gov/governor/news/2020/4/15/gov--lee-announces-aggressive-statewide-covid-19-testing-effort.html However, that website talks in terms of pop-up National Guard
testing centers weekends in rural counties. So far as I
know, the test centers in Shelby County still require appointments
and prioritize those with appropriate symptoms or insist upon
appropriate symptoms. A recent example is https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2020/04/18/cornavirus-memphis-latest-news-and-updates/5157590002/
about a test center in Frayser. It is obvious (at
least to me) that we can't get back to anywhere near normal unless
a large numbert of symptom-free people have been tested (as a
simple example, medical establishment employees, grocery store
employees, then almost everyone who has to have contact with
considerable numbers of the public.)
I assume that the testing information at https://covid19.memphistn.gov/resources/covid-19-testing-sites-in-shelby-county/
remains correct.
On April 30th, 2020, at 6:00pm CDT, six community
organizations are joining forces to make the new PBS documentary
“Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations” accessible for an
advanced public online screening, followed by a discussion with
Professor Jonathan Judaken of Rhodes College and Dimitry Anselme
of Facing History and Ourselves. The discussion will be moderated
by Marcy Stagner, M.A. Ed. and Program Director of Cultural Arts
and Adult Services at the Memphis Jewish Community Center.
the Press
Release is here, and the Poster
is here. You have to go in advance to
the link
https://ovee.itvs.org/screenings/6jjrt to RSVP and
open an account to sign up. Given the sponsorship (Rhodes College,
Facing History, WKNO) I believe that the sign-up site has been
properly vetted.
One religious group that covers the news in interesting ways is
the American Friends Service Committee. You might enjoy looking at
their website at https://www.afsc.org/
Chattanooga has decided to allow drive-in church services,
everyone to stay in their own car, no passing of collection plates
or camparable contacts. Last week some people were charged with
improper assembly after a similar service.
With the press so polarized, it is easy to see how badly each side
misunderstands the other's beliefs. It is so very easy to
assume the best of one's own side and the worst of the other. I am
unable to resist quoting a story from an on-line Orthodox Jewish
class I listened to a few days ago, on the subject of how our
preconceived ideas cloud our vision: Two older Jewish women are
sitting on their porch, from which they can see the door of a
whorehouse down the street. One day they observe the local
priest go in. “It’s a shame to see a man of the cloth
backsliding”. The next day they see the local minister go it.
“That’s terrible, He’s married. How awful. His poor
wife.” The third day they see their rabbi go it. “Wow,
one of those poor girls must be really sick, if they’ve had to
call the rabbi.”
The latest word on getting tested (from the Commercial Appeal
article)
" "As it stands right now, we are testing only
those individuals who are presenting symptoms of the virus (i.e.
running a fever, cough, body aches, etc.). In the future and as
our supply of tests increase, it is our goal to be able to test
asymptomatic patients; however, we are not there yet," Strickland
wrote in his update.
" While COVID-19 tests may not yet
be plentiful enough to start testing asymptomatic individuals, the
testing availability for symptomatic individuals is underutilized,
officials said on Wednesday and reiterated on Thursday. "
St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral is not having the 8 AM prayers and
breakfast with the homeless, but they still need food. They
are passing out food packages at 8 AM Wednesday mornings,
you can bring or send prepackaged food to Constance
Abbey - 215 Hamlin Place, 38105. Further info on how to
help, call 901.336.1103
St. Mary's daily musical offerings are at https://www.facebook.com/pg/stmarysmemphis/videos/?ref=page_internal
As long as you have a car, it is now increasingly easy to be
tested for coronavirus. If you've been out of the
house at all in recent weeks, it is a good idea to get tested. A
good article on this is at https://dailymemphian.com/section/metro/article/13018/declining-demand-for-covid-19-testing-doesnt-match
(But the authorities now say - IF you have symptoms, get
tested.)
As of 9 PM Thursday evening, the number of reported cases in the
US was 675,640 , per the unofficial site
https://ncov2019.live/data. Looking back [in my comments
below] to March 23, at that point there were about 30,000
cases, and the growth rate was such that if unchecked we'd have
reached a million cases by about April 7. The growth
rate has slowed, considerably (although the actual number of new
cases stil increase daily). The numbers of cases and deaths was up
about 4.5 % yesterday, compared to about 20 to 26% a day in late
March. Tennessee's growth rate is also in the 4% range,
evidence that social distancing is helping considerably. If the
daily increase remains about 4.5% the United States will be at a
million cases in two weeks; we all hope that the rate will
continue to slow.
I've commented earlier on the discrepancies between Tennessee's
statistics and Kentucky's. They have a comparable number of deaths
(141 and 129, respectively) but a huge difference in diagnosed
cases - Tennessee reports 6,262 and Kentucky 2,429. But in
the site just mentioned there is a column for number of
tests done: Tennessee 85.049 and Kentucky 29,747. I don't know why
Kentucky has tested so many fewer, but one may now reasonably
guess that the number of cases in the two states is comparable
(since the death totals are so close) but that Kentucky is testing
only the gravely ill, and Tennessee is testing more people who are
not quite as sick, and getting a smaller percentage of positive
results. Of course, the local press also conjectures that many of
the Tennessee results are false negatives, that the tests are not
accurate enough. But the approximate 2% death rate in the
early stage (2% of 6,262 would be 124) is very comparable to what
was experienced in the early stage in other places. That rate
seems to lower as experience is gained, as testing and treatment
become better.
April 16
There are interesting animated charts (of the virus)
at https://www.statmap.org/data/movies/
They are downloadable if you want to save one for a computerized
diary. There have been security problems reported with Zoom. If
you have a zoom account, be sure the password is completely unlike
any of your other passwords. I've heard from at least one
church that says that because of these security concerns, it is
not listing Zoom meetings on its website, just sending notices by
e-mail to those on its mailing list. So I may start to have
trouble linking to information about Zoom meetings. If that
happens I'll try to find some other way to help (e.g. saying "xxx
has a Zoom meeting, call yyy for details".)
With the Memphis Botanic Garden closed, it cannot have its
usual Spring Plant Sale. But you can order plants from its nursery
online, and they'll bring them out to your car. It's a way to
support a local organization and get yourself some exercise
planting things. (But do remember MIFA,, Bridges, Church Health
Center, Union Mission, and so many other local charities bearing
an extra burden now. And if you haven't donated blood in six weeks
or so, check if you are eligible to give now.) Plant sale: https://mbgnursery.ecwid.com/
I'm a bit frustrated that MIFA does not put is excellent monthly
newletter, the MIFA MINUTE, online. They want people to
subscribe, and I urge people to do so, at https://www.mifa.org/
(the signup is at the bottom right of that page). But I'll
quote a bit here to give the flavor:
" One of the first changes we made in
March in response to the growing coronavirus threat was moving our
emergency assistance and housing applications online to decrease
traffic in our building. Since then, we have received more than
1,200 applications for assistance, more than twice the requests in
the same period last year. Of those applicants, 86% cite
coronavirus as their reason for applying; 65% of them report job
losses, and another 15% have had their hours cut. The volume of
requests has created a backlog, but our staff have approved 230
households for assistance since they started working remotely.
" The meals team rewrote their entire program model
to ensure continued service to our senior clients. They scaled
back deliveries to three days a week but have managed to deliver
even more meals, adding shelf-stable and frozen boxes to their hot
meal deliveries. As a result, staff and volunteers, with the help
of City of Memphis employees, have delivered more than 50,000
meals in the past four weeks. Each home-delivered recipient has
received a supply of 15 extra shelf-stable and frozen meals, which
they can store until they need them."
And their newsletter has lots else worth knowing, including
e.g. lists of cooperating restaurants.
Where I am now, in central New
Hampshire, it is below freezing at night, we had fresh snow this
morning, but hopes of getting above 50 degrees one day in
the next ten. The state of New Hampshire has less cases of
coronavirus reported than Shelby County. But our small village has
just had its first case reported, so it is arriving. Obviously,
below-freezing weather does not stop the virus completely.
Several meat-packing plants have closed due
to virus among the employees. The FDA so far reports that the
virus is not spread through packaged meat. Fresh fish is
unavailable where I am, the delivery system having broken down.
Heidi (who was right when she said some travel between states
might become limited) suggests that some meat products might get
into short supply; you might want to lay in a few canned goods in
case there are short days. Most states, including
Tennessee, have said schools will not reopen before Fall, if
then. While social distancing is slowing the spread quite a bit,
it is not stopping it, at least yet. All the evidence available
from my reading suggests that we are in this for quite a few
more months. A friend on Facebook posted "Our parents or
grandparents were called to go to war. We are called to stay home
and sit on the couch. We can do this." If we view this as a
wartime situation, with milder shortages and without the blackouts
of a major war, it may seem less distressing.
April 15
One of my favorite preachers in Memphis is Imam Anwar Arafat,
who teaches at the Memphis Islamic Center. He gave a class a couple of days ago in his series on "Dawah",
which Christians would translate as "Mission": How you convey or
explain your faith to others?
It is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ9jTVlSjdk.
I hope he won't be offended if I recommend this talk to
anyone who wants to convey a message of belief to others, or
explain a belief, whether the belief is Islam or Christian or
Jewish or other. His talk is of course also educational about
Islam, but I think members of other faiths will enjoy it..
Going there on Youtube also led me to a series of discussions on
the Memphis Islamic Center website a few years ago, between Yasir
Qadhi, the major Muslim scholar then in Memphis, and Rev. Dr.
James White. These rather long discussions on the
similarities and differences between Christianity and Islam
start at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=updtj99Fp80
VV Raman's reflections on the Lotus are here.
(my Hindu theologian friend)
April 14
I can't resist a few other notes on the odd intended or unintended
consequences. A few governments in areas that have nude
beaches have announced that in addition to staying six feet apart,
the bathers must wear face masks. In Georgia, there is a law
forbidding wearing face masks in public, enacted years ago to
control the Ku Klux Klan. The Governor has announced that while it
is unfeasible to have a legislative session to amend that law, the
police will not arrest anyone wearing a face mask for health
reasons.
April 13.
UNITY FILM PRODUCTIONS, A major producer of educational
films with Muslim sponsorship, is making uits films available
online FREE at this time, primarily in the hope that they will be
used in home schooling programs. But we all are allowed to watch
them, send the link to children or garndchildren, or to use them,
for example, in online Sunday School classes and the like. I
strongly encourage people to make use of this opportunity.
If you have not seen, for example, "The Sultan and the Saint", now
is your chance. Go to https://www.upf.tv/vip/
If it wants a password,
use BY3$2T6
Music:
A reader recommends https://www.facebook.com/andrerieu/,
in particular his post of April 11, 11:51 AM, of a musical excerpt
"O Fortuna"
lower down on that page, at least at present, are an "Ave Maria"
and an "Ode to Joy".
Note on the below - I'm finding some of the advertising on Youtube
rather offensive (political. ethnic)
Muslims do not customarily use music in their religious services
(there are a few hymn-like chants in some of the Eid services).
But there is a Muslim musical tradition close to Christian
hymn-singing. An example is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjGE6ZI5xVg
Have you been to any of the Muslim comedy shows in Memphis? You
can also find "Muslim Comedians" on Youtube, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjGE6ZI5xVg
(but I'd love to have someone point out one or ones they
recommend! Are any of the ones who have been in Memphis on Youtube
or another web place?)
Cecil Rousseau has died. Many
in the interfaith community will know his (surviving) wife Jane
Rousseau, who was a very early interfaith activist, especially
when visits between houses of worship were organized shortly after
the 9/11 attacks. There will be a virtual memorial
online presented this morning and then available to watch, link at
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1102752268720&ca=5b3256a1-3d32-441b-b993-c989ab4a5b8b
While the map in the Washington Post
yesterday is striking in showing the concentration of the virus in
the US - several are around airport hubs which
are international entry points - the virus is spreading
"everywhere". https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/ We've
just had the first report of cases in the little village of New
London, New Hampshire where Heidi and I hope to stay for "the
duration".
April 12. Have a Happy and Blessed and Healthy Easter!
Have you watched a Black church service? It's a long
video, but First Baptist Church Broad put online a rather
spectacular Easter Service, including a small but remarkably
talented live musical performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4i94Ay4jBs
The last day of the Jewish holiday of Passover is
April 15, and there is a solemn "memorial"
service called "Yizkor". 10 AM
Temple Israel will stream its Yizkor service at https://timemphis.org/event/streaming-yizkor-service/
The vocabulary of very orthodox Judaism may have a few words that
are a bit hard to follow at first, but the website of the
Lubavitcher Chassidim (the very orthodox group represented by
Chabad in Memphis) put up an hour-long lesson today on the issue
of "Tolerating Tolerance", at https://www.facebook.com/myJLI/videos/1305226833200930/
that is worthwhile. This may involve a style of
Jewish story-telling that will be new to some.
Close to twenty years ago I wrote an essay
about economics in the time of Jesus. I was reminded it of when
thinking about the eventual economic consequences of the present
pandemic. I have grave fear that our government is thinking about
preserving capital and may arrive at a system which leaves many of
our poorer people in great debt and workers in a far weaker
position relative to employers. My essay, which may actually
be timely in thinking about Easter and the time following, is at http://ordman.net/Edward/Economics.html
I continue to find many of the published statistics bewildering.
According to the tables in the Washington Post today, Kentucky has
about one-third as many coronavirus cases diagnosed as Tennessee,
but almost an equal number of deaths. Since I cannot believe that
the difference in care of coronavirus cases is that dramatic, it
seems more likely to me that Tennessee is much better at
diagnosing (testing for) less serious cases, or (less probably)
that Tennessee is being much less active in assessing coronavirus
as the cause of death. But I do have friends (in other
states) whose doctor has said "yes, you seem to have coronavirus.
But testing you would not affect how we treat you, so we won't get
you tested unless your symptoms get much worse." I don't
know how much that affects the statistics.
North Carolina has prohibited people from going to second homes on
the outer banks.
April 10
"Combating Extremism Using People
Power" - as a somewhat similar talk in Memphis was cancelled
this Spring, you might be interested in this talk put online by
the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire. The talk was given
yesterday, April 9. https://wacnh.org/WACNHLive
Turkey has stopped using ethanol to add to gasoline,
and is instead using it to make hand sanitizer.
If you are interested in current theory about Free Will
there is an interesting series of videos Here
on BBC,
I am thrilled to see many places showing rates of increase
(in infections and deaths) only 6% to 12% day-over-day.
While those are still major increases compared to most epidemics,
they are much less than the 20% to 26% a day reported from around
March 25 to April 3 or so. So social distancing (which is believed
to take 14 days to show its most major effects) is seeming to show
progress. Data from https://ncov2019.live/data.
The number of US deaths in a day has less than doubled in a week,
compared to doubling in 4 days a week or so ago.
Michigan has prohibited people from traveling to second homes. So
Heidi's decision to move us to New Hampshire in a hurry, 3
days ago, seems a justifiable use of "hurry". I've been lucky to
have some extremely wise women in my life.
I have not been able to find a link for the Good Friday service
being streamed from Notre Dame in Paris (ceremony done in the
rubble inside) https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/09/830655985/nearing-anniversary-of-devastating-fire-notre-dame-to-host-a-good-friday-service
In New Zealand, where the lockdown is so tight that
the Prime Minister is working from home, the Easter
Bunny has been declared an essential worker and can visit
homes without reference to social distancing.
(at time of writing) There is still time to
sign up for Temple Israel's Passover Seder this evening
(Thursday). See under April 8 immediately below. Rabbi Micah Greenstein
has a very brief (3 and a half minutes) Passover
talk, of interest to anyone , at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2NOYRqIbFM
Many local churches will have their Easter Services streamed
online and/or placed on Youtube. Just as one example, there
is a full menu (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday. Words From the
Cross, Saturday, eve of Easter Vigil, Sunrise Service, other
Easter Services, at http://www.holycommunion.org/
Going beyond the local area, there are many things online
for a special weekend:
Jesus Play: The "Sight and Sound Theater",
a religious showplace from Lancaster, PA and Branson, Missouri,
has a stage show about Jesus that is supposed to be outstanding.
They are streaming their on-stage production free on-demand
from April 10 to April 12. https://watch.tbn.org/sight-sound-theatres-presents-jesus
An architectural/historical tour of the Santa Sophia Mosque in
Istanbul is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfpusWEd2jE
(much of this is of its history as a church; it is now a museum).
A travel-oriented piece about The Blue Mosque in Istanbul
is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXNDCZOw4RY
(Can someone find me some more
religion-oriented videos about major mosques?)
April 8
The Jewish holiday of PASSOVER begins
this evening Wednesady April 8 and continues for 8 days;
observant traditional Jews refrain from work teh first and last
two days. (In Israel in ancienmt times, the refraining from
work was one day at each end; as Jews scattered over the world,
they were not always sure when the new moon was being
declared in Jerusalem and took to ibserving two days as a
precaution. The same problem is reflected in the modern
Muslim practice of sometimes not being sure in advance exactly
which day will be, for example, Eid-el-Adha, as this depends on
when the moon is sighted in Arabia - if I understand the custom
correctly. But the Muslims know that they can spread the word
quickly!
Passover commemorates the Jews escaping
from slavery in Egypt, as reported in the Bible book, Exodus. It
is traditionally celebrated at home, with an elaborate dinner
ceremony called the "Seder" (pronounced"say-der") on the first two
evenings. Temple ISrael for many years has had a large group
Seder on the second night (April 9 this year). As they cannot do
that this year, the Temple Israel Sisterhood is organizing a
"virtual, progressive" Seder, with many homes participating in
contributing a small paert of the ceremony. Anyone interested is
invited to watch and listen on-line; there is a link to further
information and the registration page (and a way to download the
printed program for the service, called the "Haggadah", which
means "the story", at Temple Israel's page, http://timemphis.org. (a
more direct link is now at ) https://tisisterhood.org/
New Tax rule: I don't know that it will affect the
behavior of readers of this page, but the new emergency economics
bill will allow anyone who takes the standard deduction to deduct
an additional amount up to $300 if they make cash (or check, but
apparently not in-kind) deductions to most charities (direct
charities, not donor-directed funds.) I do hope my readers
are donating more than that, whether or not the take the standard
deduction.
Heidi and I have retreated to our summer place in central
New Hampshire, a small village with no crowding problems and where
we have a large yard instead of our tiny condo patio in
Memphis. Last week we saw real growing threats
to the ability to travel. The Governor of Kentucky advised people
not to visit Tennessee; Ohio erected signs at the state line with
Kentucky asking people entering Ohio to isolate for 14 days;
Vermont erected signs on the state line from New York requiring
people entering the state "in order to to stay" to isolate for 14
days; and New Hampshire has closed all hotels and BnB's
(they say they may use them for health workers and domestic
violence victims). So we came earlier
than planned, driving 1340 miles in 22 hours. The
highways were almost empty of cars (between cities), and had many
fewer trucks than usual. Toll booths were not manned.I'm back working on this website now,
still reachable by e-mail and phone. "working from home" like so
many others.
Since traveling is not easy right now, I think those of us who
like visiting houses of worship might like to do so
"virtually", as that word now seems to be used. Heidi Tobin
points out that there are some remarkable Youtube videos. A
good starter might be the Architectural Digest video, "21
Beautiful Houses of Worship", at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qwU67Svl68.
But I'm hoping we can find interesting interior tours of selected
mosques, churches, synagogues, Hindu and Sikh temples, etc.
Suggestions (and especially pointers!) are welcome/. e-mail to
admin@memphisirg.org
April 5
My friend V.V. Raman, a retired physics
professor and Hindu theologian, occasionally sends me
drafts of chapters of books he is working on. (If anyone is
excited by this example, I can get you on his mailing list).
He has just sent out an essay on "Dance:", the history of dance.
Since dance plays such an important role in the life of the Indian
Cultural Center and Temple, I thought people might enjoy an essay
on the subject by a Hindu. I've put it here, at Dance.pdf.
For news I usually read (online) from the NY Times,
Washington Post, Commercial Appeal, Tri-State Defender, Daily
Memphian, sometimes the Atlantic or New Yorker. Heidi checks
Yahoo, CNN, NBC, etc. But in the present crisis I also
check in at Fox News now and then to see what "that side" is
saying. Typically, the whole mess is the fault of (a) The Chinese,
(b) the Governor of New York, (c) The Communists, or (d) the
Democrats, not always in that order. But I just did discover there
a piece by James Otteson, a few days ago, on the importance of
friendship. Despite its location and context, some might like it:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/coronavirus-crisis-opportunity-happiness-james-otteson
One of the perhaps lesser-known religion-sponsored
organizations around is Brigham Young University TV, an internet
TV channel. I mention them at this time since with local
concerts canceled, you might like to know that they will broadcast
the Mormon Tabernacle choir performing Handel's Messiah on
April 11 at 8 PM and April 12 at 3 PM. Links are at https://www.byutv.org/post/0fec2883-cc3e-4a37-900e-3b6b6ce180b6/handels-messiah-2020.
The general program guide is at https://www.byutv.org/programaz
Nancy Berry has died. She was very active in Balmoral
Presbyterian Church. I'm giving the link to the virtual
funeral service video here not only for those of you who knew this
wonderful woman, but as an example for anyone else trying to
design on-line ceremonies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdRCrLupcPA&feature=youtu.be
(Anniversary of the death:)What
I think was the last Sunday sermon of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.,
(in Washington, DC) is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFmP3YA3i9g
I find it very stirring at present.
American politicians sometimes
quote the phrase "A city upon a hill", dating to 1630, in
describing the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_upon_a_Hill
The closing of our borders makes me wonder if some people want us
to be "an impregnable fortress on a hill." On the other
hand, the possibility that China will ship us significant quantity
of medical supplies, may make some of us realize that thinking
broadly of "who is my neighbor?" cuts several ways.
A fairly complete article on
the rules in effect in Memphis is at https://dailymemphian.com/article/12597/in-crackdown-nonessential-businesses-have-til
In particular, it points out that single day-to-day totals in
Memphis display some inaccurate variation depending on at what
hour hospitals etc. submit reports later than expected. If a large
numb er of reports come in late in a day, they are added in to the
next day's report.
April 3.
I've been busy today, getting ready to
get out of town (e.g. took the car in to be serviced.
Instead of sending me to a waiting room, they had me sit in the
car the whole time to push any buttons that needed pushing, turn
engine on and off as needed, etc., so that they did not have to
get in the car, It seemed an intelligent solution,)
My land-line telephone is out of order
and AT&T seems to have given up trying to find the loose
connection (they think it is in a flooded manhole); my cell phone
is 913-755-8453 if you need it.
Many notices I get of on-line events come
only an hour or two before the event. So I'm not able to
post as many as I like. This evening the local Muslim
evening on-line program got a bunch of doctors online to answer
questions. They are now doing a daily 8:pm session (new
time). I think you can get it via https://www.youtube.com/user/MemphisIslamicCenter
Do spend some time telephoning friends (local or
distant) you know you have not been in touch with for awhile, or
friends with health problems, for telephone visits.
A resident of The Villages in Germantown
tells me her physical therapy center told her not to come there as
residents of complexes for the elderly are presumed to be high
risk. She is not convinced she is - she is basically alone with
her husband in her apartment, all group activities have been
cancelled, if there are any cases at The Villages she has not
heard of them.
My first cousin in Massachusetts, age 71,
was diagnosed with coronavirus about March 23 - fever of about
101.4 for three days, "a very bad flu" he called it. Not
hospitalized, now pronounced cured. His wife said she felt she had
a milder flku and presumed she had it, but the authorities refused
to test her since her fever was not high enough and they were
short of testing ability. this is one anecdote suggesting that the
number of cases is much higher than actually reported - but also
that the mortality rate is much lower than reported, since mild
cases don't get into the statistics.
As I rather suspected might happen, the
press is starting to downplay the statistics, presumably so as not
to scare people. I did not see a yesterday's death total for the
US on the front web pages of the NY Times, the Washington Post, or
the Commercial Appeal. Do note my links given at March 29, below -
the page at https://ncov2019.live/data
which aggregates data from health departments etc. is reporting
1263 deaths in the US in the past 24 hours, when I just looked (10
PM). That was up 20.6 percent, which coincidentally is
exactly the percentage my model I mentioned a few days ago was
predicting. This is one time that I really regret being
correct (for several reasons). I really am interested in these
numbers, as well as the local numbers at http://weather.com, in trying to
get an idea of where social distancing and shutdowns seem to be
working.
April 2.
Well, today may well be the first
day with 1000 US deaths in a day. I'm afraid the
earlier predictions - an increase of 20% to 26% a day, for at
least a week or two, is being accurate. One hopes that social
distancing will start to show a reduction in that rate within two
weeks from now. The rather depressing Washingto Post article is at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/02/grim-death-toll-projections-white-house-offered-monday-have-already-been-revised-upward/
I'm seeing a lot of interesting
on-line efforts at "virtual events". Temple Israel
Sisterhood is doing an on-line discussion group and an on-line
"progressive" Passover Seder - a few minutes each at a lot of
consecutive dinner tables. But many of these events are
still primarily intended for the group's own members. One to
which clearly anyone is invited is a "virtual havdalah", an
end-of-the-sabbath ceremony at Temple Israel on Saturday evening
April 4 at 8 PM, https://www.facebook.com/events/173357676996151/?event_time_id=173357686996150
One local Muslim group has a daily 2PM Zoom session which may be
of interest. CLICK HERE for the
notice. I think the log-on is via https://zoom.us/j/543532813
and the question link is https://onlinequestions.org/
but I haven't found the session number for the question link. (I'm
still not very good at Zoom.)
One event that is specifically interfaith,
nationally, is by The Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality
and Equality ("WISE"). The information for the April 6 event is here (click here) . M
impression is that one gets info via twitter -but I do see the
event on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WISEMuslimWomen/
I understand that many Muslim authorities are urging people not to
go on the Hajj to Mecca this year. An interesting source of explanation of fine points of Islamic
practice, in language that makes sense to those who have an
interest in (for example) Jewish or Roman Catholic religious law,
is a site of the Kingdom of Jordan - the English language version
is at https://www.aliftaa.jo/DefaultEn.aspx.
By way of illustration, one of its statements on
group activities during the epidemic is at https://www.aliftaa.jo/Question2En.aspx?QuestionId=3563#.XoT90ohKiUl
A nice musical hymn from St Mary's Episcopal. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1222297344640735
I think they put one up every day, but have not yet figured how to
access them (or presentations from other Memphis churches) as a
group. Help?
Many in the Memphis Interfaith community
are fans of CARITAS, the restaurant/community center in
Binghampton. Like other places, it is now carry-out only -
but providing free meals to out-of-work restaurant employees,
among others. Nice article at https://dailymemphian.com/article/12094/caritas-once-again-answers-the-need-and-this-time
The fact that so many restauranteurs are contributing food is one
of the nice things about Memphis.
Monday evening the Memphis Islamic Center held a "virtual"
community meeting. It is online at https://bit.ly/2wFpfCj The slides are also online at
shorturl.at/uxAJ2
I find them of interest in
themselves, but also as a model of what other groups who can't
hold congregational meetings might do.
The local Tibetan Buddhist community
(Pema Karpo Meditation Center) has sent a very interesting email,
which they have allowed me to reproduce here.
I don't think I could make the attachment link there
work, so the attachment is here.
If you've never been to the Pema Karpo Meditation Center, here is
your chance for a virtual visit!
I rather enjoyed this little "devotional"
and "visit from the country" from the President of Berea
College, who admittedly is in a lucky situation. If you
don't know of Berea, it is an excellent small college in Southeast
Kentucky which accepts ONLY students from families too poor to
send them to college. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7I986Qp6GQ
Reminder: Many local houses of worship, and other
charities, are signed up to get donations from
Kroger and from Superlo foods. If you have a loyalty
card at either, you must RE REGISTER EVERY YEAR to
make a percentage of your purchases go to your
selected charity. Sign up using your loyalty number
at either or both of kroger.com and
superlo.com. Re register now and very
year on your birthday, or some other day you choose
to remember.
(So far as I know, your registration at
smile.amazon.com is permanent, no re registration
required.)
March 30
The one-week increase in diagnosed cases in Tennessee, 615
to about 1500, is significantly less than doubling every three
days, which was the experience in New York and California in their
early weeks. I'm taking it as encouraging that social distancing
may be giving us a less steep curve, one that our medical
facilities may be able to cope with.
The need to close Tom Lee Park one
evening due to people being too close together (I hope this as a
one-time problem) and to close things like dog parks can be taken
as encouragement that people are trying to get fresh air and
exercise. (Note: given my writing for The Christian Science
Monitor, which you can find at http://ordman.net,
I've sometimes been described as a paid professional
optimist. I try to see the good side of things.) The
few tinmes I've driven around, I have not seen the smaller local
parks being crowded; you can get fresh air and walks while
maintaining social distancing. Heidi and I had a picnic a few days
ago, in Marquette Park, with carryout meals from Taziki's on
Mendenhall. Like many other restaurants now, you can order online,
pay online, they hand in the food through your car window.
Memphis in May is hoping it can
take place in October. I assume most of our other Spring outdoor
festivals will try for similar arrangements. Obviously, the
October plan is "if conditions then allow." The Brooks
Museum is still having its sidewalk art festival, but now people
do it at their own place and send in pictures.
March 29.
Well. President Trump has
displayed a bit more realism; it won't all be over by Easter. I
was quiet yesterday in part since this is, after all, still the
"regular" flu season, which is scarier than usual. Within the last
few days, my brother, my daughter, and I have all been sick. His
apparently was a mild food poisoning, over in 24 hours; my
daughter's a mild "normal" cold or flu, recovering
nicely after three days. Mine seems to be an absolutely normal ear
infection, responding well to antibiotics. The rate of
growth of coronavirus infections seems to be slowing in Italy and
Seattle as well as (substantially) in China, providing hope that
the worst of the epidemic may be time-limited. Of course, here in
Tennessee it is just getting started but we hope that social
distancing will slow it. Mayor Strickland's talk on May 27
is at https://www.facebook.com/mayormemphis/videos/580505829217335/?v=580505829217335
The Pema Karpo Meditation Center in Memphis has
put some material online: They wrote
"Not everyone is on FB. Here is the YouTube link, https://youtu.be/zM6Qdcn4Bfg,
if you would like to listen to or share today's talk by Khenpo
Gawang Rinpoche on the Prayer to Guru Rinpoche to Clear Obstacles
on the Path, also known as The Prayer in Six Vajra Lines to Guru
Rinpoche, revealed by Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa
A PDF of the practice can be found at our website: http://www.pemakarpo.org
Please continue to take care of yourselves during this time of the
corona virus. It is, as Rinpoche said in the talk, a great
obstacle for the people of this world right now. "
Essentially all religions have now agreed
that large meetings have to be avoided; Jews who need a minyan of
ten for ceratin prayers may use a "virtual minyan" online,
Catholics do not have to go to Mass, Muslims may listen to sermons
online. Local Imam Anwar Arafat, a excellent speaker,
addresses this in his sermon last Friday; if you've never
listened to a Muslim sermon, this is a good chance to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LDvdIww8NE
The Civil Rights Museum is retooling its
Martin Luther King Commemoration on April 4 to be
online: See also https://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/april-4th-commemoration a virtual broadcast entitled, “Remembering MLK: The
Man. The Movement. The Moment.” The program airs at
5:00pm-6:30pm Central Saturday, April 4, on the museum’swebsite,YouTube,Facebook,Livestreamplatforms.
Of course some of the usual accusations are beginning to
appear: it is a judgement for sin, it is caused by the Jews, it is
God punishing the Jews, etc. If anyone is amusede by such
things, an example of the reports is at https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/conservative-pastor-says-spread-of-coronavirus-in-synagogues-is-punishment-from-god
(In several places, including Lakewood, NJ and
Antwerp, Belgium, the Jewish community seems to be exceptionally
hard hit, perhaps due to a large number of communal activiteis not
stopping early enough.)
March 27 I've been thinking of some
of the stories of the Yellow Fever epidemics in Memphis of the
late 1800's. One of the less noticed items on the University of
Memphis Campus is the monument to eight "Muted Belles", women in
Memphis History. One of them is Annie Cook, who was the madam of a
house of ill repute on Gayoso Street. In the 1873 and 1878
epidemics, she converted the large house into a hospital and
apparently asked some of the girls working there to stay on as
nurses. Her services were widely appreciated and she received
messages of thanks from groups of Christian women in both Memphis
and Louisville. Annie Cook eventually succumbed to Yellow Fever
herself, in September of 1878. The Memphis newspaper (then "The
Appeal") wrote of her "she ventured all she had of life and
property for the sick...Surely the sins of the woman must have
been forgiven..."
March 26 late.
The State of New Hampshire issued
a particularly complete and interesting list of what functions it
considers essential. In case you've wondered, here it is: https://www.wmur.com/article/essential-businesses-new-hampshire-list-coronavirus-response/31947963 Putting on my math professor hat:
There may be a slowdown in Italy, based on the numbers I'm seeing:
a Thursday evening report has "..., with Italy reporting
6,153 new infections. Italy now has 80,539 cases, almost as
many as China. Italy’s Civil Protection Agency reported 662 deaths
on Thursday, bringing the country’s death toll to 8,165, which is
the highest in the world." The striking fact is that
each of these daily numbers (cases and deaths) is well under 20
percent of the total-to-date, so shows a rate of doubling much
slower than the "doubling every three days" that New York is still
experiencing.
In contrast, New Orleans reported a 28%
increase in cases, suggesting that it is very early in the
outbreak (or just starting to test in earnest.)
March 26.
Cancellations continue to come
in. The rate of infection continues to grow ab 26% per day
in most places. The annual large Ramadan (interfaith)
dinner has been postponed, no replacement date set. Ramadan begins
this year April 23; observant Muslims fast sunup to sundown, and
frequently have large meals, often with friends or in groups,
after sunset. Absent changes in the epidemic, they will
largely be confined to their own families this year, just as the
Jews are for the traditional large meals and group meals on
Passover (which begins April 8 this year.)
I can't resist quoting a bit of
orthodox Jewish response. As you may know, many strictly
orthodox Jews interpret the biblical prohibition against kindling
a fire on the Sabbath (or certain Jewish holidays) as prohibiting
throwing an electric switch. Passover (which has a
historical connection with the Christian Good Friday) begins the
evening of April 8. From the Jewish press on-line:
"A group of Orthodox rabbis in Israel has
declared that it will be permissible for separated members of the
Jewish community to join each other at Passover seders via video.
According to the scholars — including Rabbis Eliyahu Abergel, head
of Jerusalem’s rabbinical court; Shlomo Ben Hamo, chief rabbi of
Kiryat Gat; and Aharon Cohen of Yakir — people who will be alone
on the first nights of the holiday because of coronavirus
isolation can use the popular Zoom webinar technology if it is
opened before the start of the holiday. The rabbis
state in their ruling that there is no need to worry about
violating the sanctity of the holy day by operating the program,
since it is launched before the start of the holiday. The use of
electronic devices is normally forbidden on Passover, Shabbat and
other holidays. "
Bizarre advertisements received: (1)
Lawyer: "Men, now is the perfect time to file for divorce, your
wife will get less..." (2) Tree pruning service: "We can
still do your landscape work, just remember to ask us to plant a
few vegetables or herbs so it classified as an essential food
delivery, then we can do anything else you want." I'm
not sure whether to laugh or cry.
To understand if there is a change in
trend in the coronavirus numbers - if the infection rate doubles
every three days, then each day the number of new infections
or new deaths will be about 26% higher than the number the day
before. If those aren't stated together, and what they say is for
example "3400 new cases for a total of 30,000", then the new
cases will on average be 20.6 % of the new total, or 26% of the
previous day's total-to-date. (So if the number reported on today
is 60,000, expect 15600 = 60000 x 0.26 cases tomorrow, total will
then be 75600, 15600 = 20.6% of 75600. Obviously these
are very approximate numbers, and some variation up or down each
day doesn't mean too much. But it may help to understand if
someone says the rate of increase is decreasing, or some such
statement. At this rate, going from 60000 to a million takes 13
days. One hopes, of course, that it will taper off. And it
can't continue at this rate in any small region; after all,
Memphis has under a million people, so we can't have a
million cases locally.
March 24
Well, it seems a lot of places
will remain open; I still hope most of us will stay home
most of the time.
The City of Memphis notice site for
the epidemic is at https://covid19.memphistn.gov/
Many churches seem to be
deciding not to stream services from their sanctuary this coming
Sunday. We'll see during the week how that develops. E.g. Balmoral
Presbyterian and Unity Church may not be live or online this
Sunday. Pastors of course remain available, usually from home.
Various churches are trying interesting ways to cope. For
example,
- you might be interested in
seeing this on-line effort by Unity Church: https://www.unitymemphis.org/prayer-request.html
- or this blog and discussion
from Calvary Episcopal: https://wisdomofthedesert.blogspot.com/2020/03/bootstraps-hermits.html
-Chabad (orthodox Jewish) is posting
videos at https://files.myjli.com/emails/tc_16-20/Crisis_2.html
The Indian Cultural Center and Temple is still performing
ceremonies there (the priests live there, I think), but
live-streaming them.
I've received a letter that tells much more about how the
virus gets around than I'd seen before - e.g. why to use soap
instead of other cleansers and temperatures for washing clothing.
Ifound it very helpful; I've put it at 2020-03-24virus.html
Pope Francis has called for
worldwide prayer at noon Wednesday Rome Time (6 am Memphis, March
25)
Despite President Trump's idea
that life can return to normal after Easter, things continue to
cancel - the annual "JuneTeenth" festival was cancelled today.
MICAH has issued
this message: While our April 20th Spring Soirée will be
postponed to a later time, our monthly meetings (Issues Nights-
4th Mondays; Monthly Meetings- 2nd Tuesdays) will be moved to Zoom
so that our leaders can still connect with each other in
fellowship as well as to plan for the needs
ahead. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us
at info@micahmemphis.org with any information or needs that you
would like to share with us so that we can best support the many
needs of our partners, friends, and the greater community.
Comments, please, on what I might
do helpfully with online resources at this time?
March 23
Mayor Strickland has ordered "shelter in
placeclosing many more businesses as of Tuesday evening,
tomorrow. The full order is at https://covid19.memphistn.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Executive-Order-No-03-2020.pdf and is much more complex in what it allows than most news
summaries suggest. But the general principle is clear - stay
home whenever possible. Those young and healthy enough should
continue to volunteer to help those who cannot go out - help with
food shopping, meals-on-wheels, blood donations , etc.
The rate of change is phenomenal, and so
fast that it is hard to realize how fast it is, and hard to
predict even a week or two ahead. Two weeks ago, on March 9 I read
a newspaper article raising the question of whether the US could
ship enough face masks fast enough to China to be a help with the
epidemic in Wuhan. Today Wuhan is still locked down but there are
few new cases there (but they don't dare stop the lockdown for
fear it will start another epidemic.) By now the US has
something like 30,000 cases., By two weeks from now we will
probably have (if we continue testing and reporting) over a
million; one hopes that the present shutdowns will begin to slow
the rate of increase a week or two from now, but since the disease
is often not detected until two weeks after exposure, he growth
rate is unlikely to slow much in the next week or two. To see
where I got the million estimate, look at the graph in https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/health/coronavirus-data-logarithm-chart.html
March 22
Some reports have come in that the
internet is being slow Sunday morning due to all the
streaming church services. Any local reports of that?
(As a result, some churches are recording their
services for later viewing.) Many stores are closing or adjusting
hours. Get current information before you go, if possible.
(Office Depot, open but closes each day at 6PM. Best Buy, open for
phone or mail orders, doorstep but no indoor delivery, you can go
to the parking lot and they;ll carry items out to the parking lot
for you.
The Beethoven Club is naturally
cancelling or postponing concerts for the next month or so (and
will decide later about later). But if you need a classical-music
fix, they have arranged to put several of their past concerts
on-line as videos. Many of these were done in local
churches. http://www.beethovenclubmemphis.org/video.html FOOD BANKS will be
increasingly important in the next few weeks (and probably
longer). Two interesting articles on two different sorts of food
banks are at https://tri-statedefender.com/meeting-the-need-to-feed-in-frayser-and-beyond/03/22 https://tri-statedefender.com/tiger-pantry-program-adjusts-its-operation-to-help-students/03/22/ MIFA news is at https://www.mifa.org/coronavirus.
I rather suspect that they will need extra volunteers in the near
future. They no longer can accept walk-in requests for help;
Homeless families with children whose need for shelter is
immediate should call the homeless hotline, which is available
24/7, at (901) 529-4545. TEMPLE ISRAEL has a list of
volunteer and donation requests, at
https://mailchi.mp/425af583cc30/temple-serves-volunteer-and-giving-opportunities?e=0b2f5806a0
March 19
Notes rather by way of diary, to
show how fast things are changing today. Cases in most parts of the
US are rising 40% to 60% per day. Some parts of the country are
issuing "shelter in place" orders, that is,
leave home only
to go to the doctor or to get groceries. Several European
countries did this in the last few days.
There is a bit of
a scandal over the fact that some Florida beaches have no tyet
closed, allowing Spring Break croiwds of young people for a few
more days.
Colleges and
schools will not return from thgeir previously extended spring
breaks and are trying to arrange on-line classes. Here in Memphis, The zoo is closing (I had
been hoping it would close buildings but keep outdoor exhibits
open, but no.)
Pink Palace has closed (including
historic homes and Lichterman nature center - again, I'd hoped to
keep the outdoors at Lichterman.)
YMCAs closing, Wolfchase Galeria (the
large shopping center) is closing.
Memphis Restaurants closed effective this
evening (take-out allowed), unsure yet about the rest of Shelby
County.
State parks are open but no group
activities (e.g. no guided walks.)
Most City buildings in Memphis and
Germantown closed.
Greek Festival, Memphis in May,
Beale St Music Festival, many fundraising events canceled or
postponed for an unknown period.
Match 17
More churches are closing.
I don't think it is practical for me to list them
individually, and I've decided not to list the few that have said
they will continue to hold regular Sunday services since I'm not
convinced that increasing attendance ther would be a good thing.
The National Civil Rights Museum
has closed. The Southern College of Optometry has closed, making
its routine eye services unavailable to patients.
Many churches (and other places) have online services and prior
sermons available online. Previous years lectures from the
Calvary Lenten Lecture series are online.
The Memphis Islamic Center is continuing programs essentially
every evening, but they are now online, I think at 8:15 PM. Look
at http://www.memphisislamiccenter.org/
Previous programs are on youtube.
For those looking to fill time at home, or for
religious school equivalents: I recommend the college-level
courses from the "Great Courses" ( thegreatcourses.com). I
have a very large collection of these myself, mainly religion and
history oriented but some math and others, left over from days
when Eunice was laid up. I'm happy to lend them, give me a call if
interested. (If I get more than one or two calls, I'll make a list
of what I have.)
Keep a diary. Your
grandchildren's grandchildren will be fascinated. While we
all expect that in a few months society will return to normal,
there are at least two alternatives. (a) if things get back to
normal, people will want recollections of the crisis - like the
dramatizations by St. Marys school of the Memphis Yellow Fever
epidemic. (b) If the new normal is different from the old, people
will want to know about the "old days". My librarian
contacts tell me that it is worth preserving both hard copy and
computer files for family; a pdf file is more likely to be
readable years from now than a .doc or .docx
One of the more bizarre stories of
these days is told by Dr. Scott Morris of the Church Health
Center. A patient came in with breathing problems, saying he
wouldn't come in if he thought it was a cold, but came in for fear
it might be the new virus. The diagnosis: lung cancer.
A very serious problem, but actually caught earlier than it might
have been due to fear of coronavirus.
To motivate diary-keeping, a
yellow fever recollection story: I was visited a few years
ago by a lady from South Africa seeking information on her
grandfather, who had moved from Memphis to Port Elizabeth. He was
orphaned about 1890 in the Memphis Yellow Fever epidemic, turned
up on a church doorstep, and was taken in. We found a record in
the record book at St. Bridget's Catholic Church, the original
handwritten note (in Latin) by the priest. It said the priest had
given a conditional baptism, having no knowledge of whether the
child had been baptized previously; he believe he was about nine
years old. In about 1903-04, the British were losing
hundreds of thousands of horses in the Boer War in South Africa;
they were buying large numbers of horses in Tennessee and
gathering them in the seasonally-empty tobacco and cotton
warehouses in Memphis. The young man was hired to care for the
horses on a boat sailing from Memphis to Port Elizabeth, and
stayed there enlisting in the British army (which promised to give
the soldiers land after the war, but never did so, my informant
says.)
March 15.
With so many churches not meeting, many of the usual bloodmobile
visits and blood drives are being cancelled. Consider going
to Lifeblood to donate blood.
In the last two days, deaths in Italy have more than tripled, the
Washington Post reports 368 in a day. The virus got started later
in the US, so those numbers are ahead for us - and we hope that
big group meetings were shut down fast enough that the growth rate
will be slower here. In Memphis, the Symphony, Playhouse on the
Square, etc., have cancelled. The reaction in stores has been
spotty - my local Aldi had practically bare shelves (e.g. no
produce), Kroger was well stocked except in a few departments
(shortage of paper towels, toilet paper, orange juice, eggs, for
example) and all of the things missing at Kroger were in full
supply at the nearby SaveALot (Stephersons) at least when I
looked.
The Memphis Jewish Community Center is closing; kosher food will
still be available from the "Holy Cow" restaurant there, on a
basis of phone in your order and they will carry it out to your
car, between noon and 1:30 PM. (For the daily special, phone in by
9:30 AM). The kosher restaurant at the Jewish Home remains
closed except to residents.
The Civil Rights Museum is open as of March 15. (then
changed and closed)
The Brooks Museum has closed, as of Sunday 5 PM, for two weeks.
They have much more material on their website than they used to,
by all means enjoy that! http://www.brooksmuseum.org/
PLEASE keep in touch with your neighbors, especially the elderly
and those with health conditions, and see if they are OK and (if
you are going shopping) can you help them avoid a trip out among
people. I've been getting an "all circuits are busy" signal
on my phone at times, so I hope people are maintaining social
contacts by phone, e-mail, and so on. Many houses of worship have
the services on-line and have sermons available on-line and
on-demand; discuss them or give feedback.
I was impressed with the letter Temple Israel sent out a few days
ago, on-line at https://timemphis.org/our-response-to-covid-19/
The letter from Calvary Episcopal is not online on their site but
they gave me permission to reproduce it here.
Balmoral Presbyteriuan has an excellent reflection on Lent (Our
Lenten Jounau as Sabbath) which is online here.
(Mar 13) An excellent article (the mathematics is interesting)
on the need to avoid large groups, and to cancel events with
large groups, is at https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca (Mar 13) Deaths in Italy now exceed 100/day.
Rabbis in Israel and Italy have urged people over 60 to not
attend synagogue services even if they are held.
Most on-campus events at Memphis colleges and schools have been
cancelled or postponed as classes move to on-line only.
Some but not all Episcopal churches are substituting Morning
Prayer service (without communion) for the Eucharist, to avoid
the passing of bread and wine.
Some (Black Baptist?) churches are using individually
(pre-packaged in plastic) communion elements.
The Calvary Lenten Lecture series has been cancelled.
Most Saturday programs at the Indian Cultural Center and Temple
have been cancelled.
Most events at the Pema Karpo Meditation Center will be
online-only.
So far, Chabad is still holding (orthodox) Jewish religious
services. They plan a Passover Seder (charge, limited to 100
people) on April 8. http://jewishmemphis.org
Masjid As-Salaam is holding prayer services but suspending
classes and other activities.
I know that Whole Foods does food deliveries, usually within two
hours.
Many groceries allow you to order on-line or by phone and will
carry the food out to your car (e.g. Krogers.)
What other groceries deliver?
Many restuarants now have homne-delivery options.
Kosher food can be ordered and picked up, or sometimes
delivered, from Holy Cow at the Jewish Community Center.
See https://holycownow.com/grub-hub.
March 12
Many events are being cancelled due to
the coronavirus epidemic. Temple Israel is doing most
events on-line only. They will not have their large communal
Passover Seder this year. Note that catered Passover meals may be
ordered from, e.g. the "Holy Cow" restaurant at the Jewish
Community Center.
I've moved earlier "news" postings
here to the Home Page As of March 13, the Lenten Lectuire Series is cancelled
due to Coronavirus
The Calvary Lenten Lecture Series starts February 27.
Initial speakers are 2/27 Rev Debbie Blue; 2/28 Marti Tippens Murphy (Facing History);
March 3, 4, and evening of 4 Micah Greenstein,
March 5 and evening of March 4, Rabbi Judy Schindler The whole list, with biographical sketches, is at https://calvarymemphis.org/learn/lenten-preaching-series/
MICAH, the Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope, simply
has too many subgroup meetings for me to list them here.
See https://www.micahmemphis.org/ The Memphis Islamic Center now has a full set of
lecture series, Monday through Thursday evenings at 8 PM and
during the day Friday. http://www.memphisislamiccenter.org/
(available online)
Election Dates
for 2020: March 3,
Presidential Primary, County Primary. Register by Feb 3,
Early voting Feb 12-25, Absentee Deadline Feb 25.
August 6, State and
Federal, Primaries, County election. Register by
July 7, Early voting July 17 _ Aug 1, , Absentee Deadline July
30.
.
Nov 3, Federal and State General Election.
Register by Oct 5, Early voting Oct 14-29, Absentee Deadline Oct
27.
Upcoming events:
(Some of the ongoing, Weekly or monthly events -
have been moved below the listings by date-) Current and forthcoming: Weekly
(Most
suspended due
to
coronavirus.)
Wednesday
dinners at
Second
Presbyterian,
Calvary
Episcopal,
Holy Communion
Episcopal
(where
else?) check
theior
calendars
(links on the
address page)
for hours,
hioliday
cancellations.
Wednesday
breakfast at
St Mary's
Episcopal. A
good chance to
visit with the
homeless,
or volunteer
to help, or
see the
excellent
Yellow Fever
historical
exhibit in the
social hall.
(During the
epidemic, the
breakfasts are
available
outside on a
take-out
basis.) If you'd
like to visit
a religious
service,
discussion
group, or
class, but
would like a
guide
or host or
hostess, wwe are
happy to
arrange that.
Give us an
e-mail (
admin@memphisirg.org
) or a call (
901-327-9735
) I rarely
list regular
weekly
services here.
Often
houses of
worship have
small services
at other
times, these
may present a
better chance
to chat with
clergy.
#
Churches
usually Sunday
morning, often
with classes
or discussions
available.
Sometimes
Sunday
evening,
Wednesday
evening, or
others.
#
Mosques
have daily
services but
the main
sermon is
usually at 1
or 1:15 PM
Friday
(Friday, since
that's the day
God created
Man). Mosques
have frequent
classes,
lectures,
etc., check
theri
websites; I'll
note
occasional
ones here.
#
Synagogues
(Including
Temple Israel)
have services
Friday evening
and/or
Saturday
morning, (the
Sabbath, the
day God
rested), some
short weekday
services,
often classes
Saturday
mornings or
afternoons
and/or Sunday
mornings.
# The
Buddhists have
a meditation
and talk
Friday
evenings and
perhaps other
times.
#
The Sikhs
have a Sunday
morning
service.
#
Services at
the Indian
Cultural
Center and
Temple (Hindu)
seem more
irregular - I
note many
events in the
schedule below
but feel free
to visit (or
ask for
help visiting)
most mornings
and evenings -
it is usally
closed
afternoons. Monthly, listed by day of week.
(Many are suspended due to the epidemic. Call and ask or check
online if possible)
on line 2nd
and 4th
Mondays. Lynching
Sites of
Memphis
Project .The
time is from
5-7 p.m. in
the Jones
Building, 3rd
floor at
Idlewild
Presbyterian.
Excellent
speakers and
discussions.
It's OK if you
can only come
to part of the
meeting.
NOW BEING HELD ONLINE
x First Tuesday evening - Potluck
supper and speaker at Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception,
sponsored by the Catholic Ministry to Gay and Lesbian Persons. By
no means are all the attendees Gay or Lesbian, all are welcome and
the talks are excellent. 6:30 supper, 7 PM talk, in Marian Hall
(underneath the sanctuary. It is easiest to park in in the lot in
back around the block and enter from the back./ No need to brting
anything for the potluck the first time.
March
3: Fr. Valentine
Handwerker, Director of CMGLP and Pastor of St. Patrick Catholic
Church speaking during Lent on our dying and rising with Christ
April
14th(second
Tuesday due to Holy Week): Dr. John Kaltner, Associate Professor
of Religious Studies at Rhodes College speaking on the hidden
meanings of names in the Bible
May
5th:
15thAnniversary Celebration of
CMGLP withBishop Steib and Bishop Talley
in attendance.This
event will be catered. Please come show your appreciation and
support of our ministry by being present!
online Second Tuesday
evening - monthly meeting of MICAH, the Memphis Interfaith
Coalition for Action and Hope. Meeting places vary, check
their facebook page.
x Third Tuesday evening - potluck and
speaker at the Memphis Friends Meeting House, Walnut Grove
and Prescott, sponsored by PAX Christi, the Roman
Catholic Peace group. Again, all are welcome, and no need to bring
anything your first visit. Dinner 6:30,. speaker at 7.
x
Wednesday -
breakfast and
dinners,
weekly, above.
x
2nd
Thursday,
noon. Healing
Eucharist at
St Marys
Episcopal.
2020
April
20,
Cancelled
MICAH Spring Soiree
at the
Children's
Museum. $50
April
30th, 2020, at
6:00pm CDT,
ONLINE
EVENT:
six community
organizations
are joining
forces to make
the new PBS
documentary
“Viral:
Antisemitism
in Four
Mutations”
accessible for
an advanced
public online
screening,
followed by a
discussion
with Professor
Jonathan
Judaken of
Rhodes College
and Dimitry
Anselme of
Facing History
and Ourselves.
The discussion
will be
moderated by
Marcy Stagner,
M.A. Ed. and
Program
Director of
Cultural Arts
and Adult
Services at
the Memphis
Jewish
Community
Center.
the Press
Release is
here, and
the Poster
is here.
You
have to go in
advance
to the link
https://ovee.itvs.org/screenings/6jjrt
to RSVP
and open an
account to
sign up. Given
the
sponsorship
(Rhodes
College,
Facing
History, WKNO)
I believe that
the sign-up
site has been
properly
vetted.
X
June 7, 4
PM St.
Mary's
Episcopal
Cathedral,
Beale Canto
concert
June 8
Lynching Sites
Projest,
online
June 12, J
Historical
Society event
online
X
June 16, Pax
Christi meets
at the Quaker
Meeting House,
Walnut Grove
and Prescott. The
national
director of
Pax Christi
will come and
speak. Pot luck
supper at 6:30
or just come
for the
meeting at 7.
X June
19
JuneTeenth has
been postponed
until next
year
(announced
March 24)
June 26. J
Historical
Society,
online
ONGOING EVENTS
(I am not attempting to update this section at present)
(Some places
below here have bad formatting-software bug, sorry. Zoom
to 200% may help.
I'll get it fixed when I can.)
Reminder: Loyalty Cards. Many local
houses of worship, and other charities, are signed up to
get donations from Kroger and from Superlo foods. If you
have a loyalty card at either, you must RE REGISTER
EVERY YEAR to make a percentage of your purchases go to
your selected charity. Sign up using your loyalty number
at either or both of kroger.com and
superlo.com. Re register now and very year
on your birthday, or some other day you choose to
remember.
(So far as I know, your registration at
smile.amazon.com is permanent, no re registration
required.)
Farmers Market Note: Thistle & Bee: Thistle
& Bee: Visit Thistle & Bee at the Cooper-Young
Farmers Market on the first and third Saturdays of
each month. The market’s summer hours are 8 - 1. You
can purchase T&B’s cold lemonade and tea by the
cup or growler, their amazing granola, and other
products. Products are also available at Curb Market,
The Mustard Seed, St. George's Book Shoppe, and
Highpoint Grocery. All products are made by women
employed by Thistle & Bee, who have survived sex
trafficking and prostitution. Learn more on their
Facebook page (Thistle and Bee Enterprises, Inc.), and
at http://www.thistleandbee.org.
Current art exhibits at the Ross Gallery, Plough
Library, Christian Brothers University, (Need to
check...)
Friday 8 PM Lectures on the life of Muhammad,
Memphis Islamic Center.
See the flier at http://memphisirg.org/2SLegalAid.pdf Monthly:
2SLAC (2nd Saturday Legal Aid Clinic) Every 2nd
Saturday of the month | 10:00 – 12:00 pm
Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library | 3030 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, TN 38111
[Are the following still
going?
Weekly:Courthouse Advice & Counsel
Clinic Every Thursday | 1:30 pm 140
Adams Ave, Room 134, Memphis, TN 38103
Mediator of the Day Every Thursday | 10:00
am 140 Adams Ave, Div. 4, Memphis, TN 38103
Veterans’ Pro Bono Clinic 2nd Tuesday of the month |
12:00 – 2:00 pm 1407 Union Ave, 11th Floor, Memphis,
TN 38104]
Last Tuesday of the Month: The Mystic: Discussion at
Crosstown. Crosstown concourse, Church Health Center
Community Room. A monthly gathering to find connection
through music, story, and dialogue. All are welcome. Stop
by. Bring a friend. Hosted by Rabbi Micah Greenstein, Dr.
John Kilzer, Chris Miner, Dr. Scott Morris, and Kirk
Whalum.
First
Thursday, 5:30 PM.
Potluck supper, "Faith
Series", St. Mary's
Episcopal Cathedral. Brief
service in the Sister's
Chapel, potluck supper, each
table will discuss a faith
question of the night.
Monthly event, from Oct 2018
Last Thursday of the month:6-7 PM Monthly meeting of
PERL (People for the Enforcement of Rape
Laws) At
MidSouth Peace and Justice, 3573 Southern Avenue.
Organization website is http://enforcerapelaws.org/
Which also has important info such as the phone number for
the YWCA Domestic Violence Hotline
(Eunice Ordman was a long-time volunteer at the YWCA
shelter for abused women.) Sunday 8 AM: Calvary
Episcopal Church Community Breakfast: Cook or serve breakfast between 6-8 a.m. any Sunday
morning for 200 poor and homeless guests at Calvary’s Community
Breakfast in the Mural Room. Contact Mary Nease:
maryvnease@gmail.com
First Tuesday evening: Catholic Ministry to Gays and
Lesbians, Pot Luck supper, all welcome. 6;30 PM. Speaker follows. Marian Hall,
under the sanctuary at Immaculate Conception
Cathedral. 1695 Central Ave. Parking lot
is at the rear, around the block.
Second Tuesday: Meeting of MICAH, the Memphis Interfaith
Coalition for Action and Hope. Location varies. https://www.micahmemphis.org/
Third Tuesday: Pax Christi, the Roman Catholic
peace group, pot
luck supper at 6:30 PM, meeting at 7. Friends Meeting House,
Walnut Grove at Prescott. http://www.paxchristimemphis.org
Third Wednesday: 5:30 PM - Words3, the writers group at
Holy Communion Episcopal Church. (Walnut Grove between
Poplar.) It
is nice to call in advance if you are planning to read a five
minute piece. All are welcome to come listen. http://www.holycommunion.org/events
First and third Wednesdays, 6-7:30 PM. meetings at the
Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, 3573 Southern Ave. http://www.midsouthpeace.org/
"Memphis United", discussing criminal justice reform. But see the Mid-South Peace and Justice website for
many more kinds of meetings.
Indian Cultural Center and Temple. It is worth checking their
website as often I get rather short notice of events. Food is served at
noon on Saturdays, if you'd like a chance to visit with the
people as well as see the building. https://icctmemphis.org/icct/home/node
(daily) St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral; The
Memphis Yellow Fever Epidemics. As Episcopal nuns were actively involved in aiding the
sick, the cathedral has in its social hall a museum-quality
exhibit about the epidemic.
Every Monday, 5:30-7:30 PM. Church Health
Center. Church Health offers free Health Education from
5:30-7:30 p.m. each Monday at 1115 Union. Health Education will
teach you how to manage your hypertension, cholesterol, or obesity.
It’s free and open to community. Registration is not required. Can’t
make it on Monday? We also offer a special session from 9-11 a.m.
the second Saturday of the month. Registration is required for the
Saturday class. Please call 901-259-4673 to sign up.
Every Tuesday, 10-11 AM, Short Story Group at St. Mary's
Cathedral.
Every Wednesday, St Mary's Cathedral, 700 Poplar. A
brief service at 8 AM, then a breakfast. A large turnout of homeless
people, everyone is welcome, a chance to visit with people you might
not otherwise meet. "a hearty breakfast as well as art classes,
neighborhood prayer walk, If you've never gad a chance to mingle
with the homeless community on an "equal footing", this is highly
recommended.
blood pressure checks, literacy classes, computer lab & career
training"...
Wednesday: How many Churches have regular Wednesday evening
dinners and programs?
Calvary Episcopal downtown 5:15 - 6:15 PM, $6 adult, $3 child, $20
family max. Discussion groups follow.
Second Presbyterian (Poplar and Goodlett) also has a very nice
dinner at 5:30; excellent programs / discussion groups follow.
Holy Communion Episcopal, Walnut Grove between Perkins, 5:30
$8.50 suggested donation
We get requests for information on 5K runs, group walks, and
the like, in terms of exercise, whether or not they are faith or
charity related. Those interested should look at the calendar
page of Shelby Farms Park at http://www.shelbyfarmspark.org/calendar
which has a remarkable number of events with a variety of goals and
sponsorships. 5K's, bicycle events, stroller walks,
nature walks, outdoor festivals, all too numerous to list here
individually. If these events appeal, check their list at least
monthly.
Fridays after the sunset prayer (Maghrib).
Koran, Word for Word, exposition by Imam Anwar Arafat, at
Masjid Ar-Rahman. Some of the Friday noon sermons
at this mosque are available online at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXfMPAjkjTo8ghKT6hzDH_w
if you'd like to listen to a Muslim sermon.
The Hindu Temple (Indian Cultural Center and Temple,
Eads.) has classes in Sanskrit and in Carnatic Music.
Healthy Memphis - Common Table
has a website on the subject of end-of-life planning
at http://www.planwishlive.org/
They can also provide speakers on this topic for
houses of worship or other organizations.
Should I sometimes mention
regular services or events that are not at the usual hour?
E.g. St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral has a Communion and
Breakfast every Wednesday at 8 AM. St Mary's will
have a new cookbook for sale from Nov 8. Temple Israel has a regular Bible discussion group
with breakfast ("Torah Study", but colloquially "Bagels and
Bible") with lox, bagels, and other goodies, at 8:45 Saturday
mornings - most arrive by 8:30 to start eating before class.
(Yes, Temple Israel also has Sunday School classes on Sunday.) Masjid Ar-Rahman has a Koran study Friday evenings.
(start at sunset) - http://files.ctctcdn.com/98c2aa0a001/38a5a115-0354-454b-87b7-e6b6b116d73c.pdf
see also http://files.ctctcdn.com/98c2aa0a001/dcb49750-7b18-43c4-8958-88d32b5e15be.pdf
Allegro
Music in Germantown prepares a weekly guide to musical
events in Memphis. They are clearly finding out about some
events (especially in churches) that I don't. They have allowed
me to reproduce their weekly newsletter at
http://memphisirg.org/Allegro_Concerts_List.html
Sept 7 and every
Sunday 2:30-4, Memphis Islamic Center, ages 13 and up.
"Seven Habits of Highly Effective Muslim
Teenagers." I don't normally post
house-of-worship youth group meetings, but I liked the
title. Further info Br Malik at 734.644.1966
The Memphis Islamic Center provides a set of links https://www.youtube.com/user/MemphisIslamicCenter https://www.facebook.com/MICmemphis https://twitter.com/micproject
Which I think well exemplifies good use of social media
- it has a lot of sermons and other talks, but I didn't
immediately see youth-group related material there.
(Aug
2015 notice) Traditional Indian Dance Lessons at
the Indian Cultural Center and Temple:
Kuchipudi
Dance Classes by Indian Ballet Theatre
Every Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM
Venue: ICCT Multi-Cultural Pavilion
Fee: A nominal donation of $ 40 per month
Dance Masters - Master Ramana and Chandra Prabha
Vasili
Contact Master Ramana at (901) 387-9646 for
additional details
6 PM Fridays - music and prayer:
Award-winning musician Rev. John Kilzer hosts The Way, a service
of recovery, at 6 p.m. every Friday at St. John's United
Methodist Church, 1207 Peabody Ave. The Way focuses on recovery,
encouragement, and hope. Music is a key component of the service
with many local musicians stopping by to perform. The service,
which is a joint ministry of Methodist Healthcare, St. John's,
and the Church Health Center, is free and open to the public.
For more information, call 901-726-4104 or visit http://www.stjohnsmidtown.org.
The Church Health Center
The
Church Health Center Newsletter has
too many events to list them all
here. I've put excerpts from the
newsletter of May 30, 2016 at
http://memphisirg.org/CHCNewsletter.html
A few
examples: *Farmer's
Market Tuesdays through Oct 25/ 1115
Union Ave. Join us at 9 a.m. for a
free healthy cooking class; the market
then runs from10
a.m. to 2 p.m.
* Canoe and Kayak Race June 18
* The Church Health Center
now offers free Diabetes Education, a 2-class
series that will give you the skills to
self-manage your condition. Classes are held
each Tuesday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Church
Health Center Wellness, 1115 Union.
Registration is not required, and you may
start at any point during the month. Can’t
make it on Tuesday? Diabetes Education is
presented in its entirety from 9 a.m. to 1
p.m. the second Saturday of each month.
Registration is required for the Saturday
course. Please call 901-701-2221 to sign up.
* The Church Health Center offers free Commit
to Quit smoking cessation groups each month.
Four-week group sessions start the first
Tuesday of every month from 6 p.m. to 7:15
p.m. at Church Health Center Wellness, 1115
Union Ave. Call 901-701-2222 to enroll.
.
The Memphis
Jewish Federation and Jewish Foundation of Memphis are
increasingly doing things jointly, as "Jewish Community
Partners." They have a calendar of Jewish events,
at
http://www.memjfed.org/community-calendar
We are experimenting with
putting some Quran excerpts, organized by Tanvir Kazmi,
on-line. (more will arrive!) Is there interest in
this? The first very rough draft attempt is at http://memphisirg.org/quranexcerpts.html
Christ United Methodist Church (Poplar opposite Oak Court Mall) has
its website (including events lists and on-line sermons)
at http://www.cumcmemphis.org/
Which farmers markets shall we mention
here?
of course the one that runs all year: First
Congregational Church.
"Year-round
every Saturday, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Find us at the corner of
Cooper St & Walker Ave. in the parking lot of First
Congo http://www.cycfarmersmarket.org
"
On Fridays the Tri-State Defender puts out
a nice "this weekend in Memphis" activities list. I think the actual
web address changes weekly but you'll typically find the link
somewhere on the page http://tsdmemphis.com/greater-metro
SOUP KITCHEN: Every Tuesday
at 3:30 PM the Muslim Student Association at the University
of Memphis recruits volunteers for the Soup Kitchen
sponsored by Rhodes College which takes place at St. John's
United Methodist Church, 1207 Peabody Ave., Memphis 38104.
All are welcome to come help it you'd enjoy meeting these young
people. Even better, if you are out way east, meet with some of
them at the Memphis Islamic Center (near Walnut Grove and Houston
Levee - see our address page) at 2:45 and the carpools leave at 3
PM. For info contact Br. Shehroz Kazmi at 901-216-1022.
The Prizm Ensemble This is a musical group (classical chamber music)
headquartered at Shady Grove Presbyterian Church, corner of
Shady Grove and Yates, with its most important activity being a
music camp and concert series (talented musicians ages 12 and
up) in June each year. http://www.prizmensemble.com/
Bridges, the youth service
agency ( http://www.bridgesusa.org/
) has substantially enlarged its "Bridge Builders" program,
with regular events for young people from 6th grade to 12th
grade. This is an
excellent and very intercultural program and
depends heavily on having a large variety of
participants. It is often the first time that an
inner-city young person encounters a Muslim or a Jew (or
vice-versa.) We recommend it highly. On the other hand,
I don't know how many readers of this page have kids in
that age range or work with youth groups. I'd appreciate
feedback on how often we should be reporting on "Bridge
Builders" events. On this point, mail to admin@memphisirg.org
or call 327-9735.
Have you ever visited the Memphis Sikh
house of worship, 8221 Macon Rd, Cordova, TN 38018?
The web site with the schedule of services is at http://www.midsouthsikhsabha.org/
Alternate Tuesday
evenings. (Started Sept 4)
There is a program at the Memphis Islamic Center in the
late evening (after the Isha prayer, which recently has
been starting at 9:30 PM.) For roughly half an hour, Sheik
Yasir Qadhi, Memphis's nationally known Muslim cleric,
answers questions from Muslims on "Practical issues facing
Muslims", questions which may run from technical questions
about prayer and eating to questions about politics and
civil rights. Non-Muslims who wonder how Muslims are
adjusting to the United States, or want to learn more
about the practical problems facing Muslims in American
society, might want to go and listen.
Sundays 11 AM and
Fridays 7PM - Buddhist Meditation and Dharma Talk
- Link
Here
A friend who attends the Sunday
morning program points out that following the meditation, chanting,
and brief lecture, there is a free Vietnamese lunch at the
Vietnamese Buddhist Temple next door.
Training programs at Mid-South
Peace and Justice Center. I have a problem: they do
too much for me to list, but it is scattered between their website http://midsouthpeace.org//,
their Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/midsouthpeace, and e-mails.
I'll continue to list an occasional activity here, but I urge people
to go to their website and sign up for their e-mails.
Church Health
Center Events:
Free cooking classes are offered in the demonstration
kitchen at Church Health Center Wellness, 1115 Union Avenue,
every Thursday at 9 a.m.,10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. For more
information, call (901) 259-4673, or visit
ChurchHealthCenter.org. The Church Health Center and MIFA will host a farmers
market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays starting May 7 and
running through September 24 at Church Health Center
Wellness, 1115 Union Ave. The Market accepts credit, debit,
cash and EBT. For more information, call Suzanne Ray at
(901) 259-4673, Ext. 2237 or visit ChurchHealthCenter.org. The Church Health Center is now offering Wings Cancer
Support Groups at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on the 2nd and 4th
Tuesdays of the month at Church Health Center Wellness, 1115
Union Ave. For more information, call (901) 259-4673. Award-winning musician Rev. John Kilzer will host The
Way, a service of recovery at 6 p.m. every Friday at St.
John’s United Methodist Church, 1207 Peabody Ave. The Way
focuses on recovery, encouragement and hope. Music will be a
key component of the service with many local musicians
stopping by to perform. The service, which is a joint
ministry of Methodist Healthcare, St. John’s and the Church
Health Center is free and open to the public. For more
information, call (901) 726-4104 or visit
stjohnsmidtown.org. The Church Health Center is offering a free, six-week
course on diabetes education, helping people to take control
of their diabetes. Classes are Mondays at 11 a.m. or
Thursdays at 6 p.m. at Church Health Center Wellness, 1115
Union Avenue. Those interested can start anytime. For more
information, call (901) 259-4673. No reservation required. The Church Health Center and The University of
Tennessee Health Science Center are hosting the 2013 Women's
Health Conference ("Our Bodies, Ourselves") from 8 a.m. to 2
p.m. on Thursday, September 26, at the UT Alumni Center, 800
Madison Ave. Registration required; seating is limited.
Register at churchhealthcenter.org/midsouth or call
901-701-2254.
Farmers Markets <seasonal, except for the one at First
Congregational Church>
and Cooper-Young, "Year-round every Saturday, 8 a.m.
- 1 p.m. Find us at the corner of Cooper St & Walker Ave. in
the parking lot of First Congo www.cycfarmersmarket.org "
Please let me know of
things that should be included. (admin@memphisirg.org)
--
We also welcome reports of events you attended.
