Greetings from Revolution NYC!
Hope your summer is treating you great! Things have been busy here and I’m excited to tell you about what’s been going on.
Summer started with the Wild Goose Festival. It was great to meet many of the online members of Revolution. We had a great time and are excited for next year’s festival. Pastor Vince has been busy touring Europe. He has been playing Christian festivals in Germany and Holland, and is headed to England to lead the worship music at Greenbelt. He will also be performing with Peter Rollins with a program they are currently developing for a U.S. tour this winter.
This summer we celebrated New York state making same-sex marriage a reality here. We have a few weddings coming up, and we are excited to officiate these weddings and further God’s vision of equality here on earth.
In efforts to further this vision, I have initiated a campaign called, “Are you affirming?”. I believe the time is now for Christian leaders to come forward and affirm the LGBTQ community. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” The time is now for us to break the silence and fully welcome and include all of God’s children in the church. I firmly believe that silence = violence. The violence of “riding the fence” must stop for full inclusion to be realized.
Please ask your favorite pastors, speakers, authors if they are LGBTQ (gay) affirming?
One way to find out is by asking them through social media. The time to speak up is now! If you are an ally let your voice be heard, you may be the voice some one desperately needs to hear. Facebook it, twitter it, etc. If you are using twitter, please use the hashtag, #areyougayaffirming.
In other news, we are currently constructing a new website to better serve our online community. We need funding to make this happen, as well as funding to continue our on going ministry. Please consider making a donation so we can continue our work. Thank you! Click here to donate.
In GRACE,
Jay Bakker
Co-Pastor, Revolution NYC
Posted by Reverend Vince
3 Responses to “August Newsletter”
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Revolution NYC meets every Sunday at 4 pm, at Pete's Candy Store, 709 Lorimer St., Brooklyn, NY 11211 (map here).
This bishop touched on the problem of “Christian silence” a little bit in this vid–apologies if you’ve already seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJOhjLXJmaY&feature=related
So sad to know that most of the community I belong to is not gay affirming.
I love my pastor and my community but they aren’t gay friendly.
: P
I just heard an interview with Jay Bakker on the radio and was so impressed. I am neither Christian nor gay (although many of my friends are), but was so glad to hear that there are Christian pastors speaking lovingly and forcefully about the need to love everyone for whom they are, not for whom they love. Just writing that seems crazy to me, why on earth is choosing to love anyone a cause for condemnation?
I’ve never been able to navigate the tides of conventional religion enough to opt for one, but if I could it would be for the kind of religion that Jim describes, a sort of homecoming through grace. Just opening a door that leads you to peace, and comfort, the smells and sounds and family feeling that makes you feel that no matter who you are, and all with all your faults, you are loved, tremendously, anyway.
So anyway, Jay, if you read this, please know that you are reaching many people out there that you will never know, and providing a bit of grace to each one.