Joining the Anabaptist conspirators – The Mennonite
By Tom Sine
God is doing something new through a new generation that has a distinctly Anabaptist accent in these uncertain times. These young initiators are creating new ways to make a difference in both the world and the church. In The New Conspirators, I explained these activists and innovators as being found in at least four streams: emerging, missional, mosaic and monastic.
Here is an interview with my friend Bowie Snodgrass from NYC.
village voice sex naked city – God Loves Sex Workers and Doesn’t Require Them to Repent
Bowie Snodgrass and her colleague Isaac Everett are the founders of Transmission, an emerging liturgical community in New York City that meets every other week in its members’ homes. Participants gather to eat a vegetarian meal, socialize, and participate in a ritual that is created collaboratively by the group. Though they identify as Christian, there is no specific dogma; Transmission believes that by creating a ritual participants create community, and by being part of it they become part of the community.
It was with this foundation that eight members of Transmission, along with an equal number of sex workers and local artists, conceived of the idea of Easter at Avalon, a service that explored the Mary Magdelene story and was an open forum for sex workers and their allies. The event took place on Easter Sunday 2007 at Club Avalon, famous as both the former Limelight club and as a church founded by William Augustus Muhlenberg, whose radical ministry assisted brothel workers and abandoned mistresses in forging new paths. Bowie believes that sex workers should be wholly welcomed into houses of worship and not shamed, not least of all because, “We’re in NYC and this is the twenty-first century, so let’s push this conversation as far as we can.” She urges that in order for religious groups to stay in tune with people, “We really need talk about and acknowledge the fact that people have complicated lives.”