What's Tony Thinking

This and That from New York

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After a weekend of rain, some torrential, the sun is shining on Monday morning in NYC . . . and we are heading home. It’s been a great trip.

We stayed at the Freehand Hotel at 23rd and Lexington in the Gramercy neighborhood, a cool place. A completely adequate room that couldn’t have been more than 250 sq. feet, maybe less. The upside of staying in a small room is that our 1100′ Seattle condo will seem huge on return . . .

As mentioned, New York is looking good and feels so alive. People were, without exception, friendly and helpful. I don’t know if that’s a response to the long pandemic lockdown there . . .  after being so shut down people are happy to be out and alive? But it was striking how warm, friendly and safe the city felt . . . and of course there’s an element of glamour in NYC that is fun . . . “all the world’s a stage,” said Shakespeare, and you kind of feel that in New York . . . in a good way . . .

Quite a contrast, alas, to Seattle. Seems odd that such a big, complex city as NYC appears to be working well, while Seattle is, well, . . . not. Leading one to speculate as to why. One thought . . . besides that Seattle seems a poster city for the west coast progressive cities that seem unable to accurately identify and address actual challenges, is that Seattle faces outward to the great out-of-doors. We get way . . . to the islands, to the mountains, to the forest, to the ocean and Sound. Not so much in NYC. The city is the thing. They gotta make this work, make it thrive and alive, because this is what they got. There’s a hard side of realism to life in New York. Maybe Seattle got high on its own PR during better times?

If glamour spices NYC, not so much for the crowd at the Mockingbird Conference itself. There the style might be described as disheveled, at least dressing down. Don’t think I saw a tie the entire time. It wasn’t your typical mainline church crowd either, that is mostly people over 70 (like me) or 80. Mostly folks in their 30’s and 40’s. I’m guessing that theologically it was a mix of post-evangelical and post-liberal . . . and racial diverse. I hope some of you have used the link in my last blog to access some of the really fantastic talks . . .

On Sunday we worshipped at one of the two locations of the Calvary/ St. George’s Episcopal Parish, where Jacob Smith is the rector. Smith, along with Aaron Zimmerman, hosts the weekly Mockingbird podcast on the lectionary texts, titled “Same Old Song.” The mockingbird idea is that it is a bird that hears and then tirelessly repeats another bird’s song, so with “Same Old Song,” where the message is God’s grace for ordinary people, the same old gospel song that is always new . . . I recommend it.

The congregation yesterday was probably 300, very mixed in race, style, age. Kids even! Really nice in all those ways. The entire service was serious and joyful. Serious, as in the gospel matters, is urgent, is true. Joyful for the same reasons. During Communion one of the hymns was the old one, “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood.” Most liberals I know would run screaming from the room at such a hymn, one that unashamedly celebrates the blood atonement. But it was done with such great joy, in a style that was kind of jazzy and jubilant. . .

Here are some of the lyrics:

Ever since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die
And shall be till I die
And shall be till I die
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die
Wash all my sins away
Wash all my sins away
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die
The musicians, and congregation, were just banging it out . . . “Redeeming love has been my theme And shall be till I die.” That is the message! I loved it. The catch line/ slogan for Calvary/ St. George’s is, “Enjoy Your Forgiveness,” from a parishioner who said, “I just come every Sunday to enjoy my forgiveness.” For a world that needs good news, this is good indeed.
We enjoyed two Broadway musicals, “Wicked,” and the new, “Kimberly Akimbo.” Both had their sad moments and acknowledgment of the tragic, but were overall joyful. And just plain fun. Again, the crowds were very diverse in all ways and loving the whole joyful thing. More joy! More NYC!

 

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