February 12, 2025: Emmaus Announcements

Train-the-Trainers Civil Disobedience training

Thursday, Feb 20th 9am-2pm  - at Christ Church United Methodist Church

All are welcome! Bilingual English/Spanish speakers very welcome! 


Legal observer training - Sebastopol

Sat, Feb 22 -10 am-noon;  (more information coming soon)


Legal Observer Program

Legal Observers® are the “eyes and ears” of the legal team.  They create documentation during events which can later be use in defense cases, public statements, and litigation which aims to hold law enforcement agencies accountable for the actions of their officers.

The idea of community members watching law enforcement officers through organized patrols originates from the Black Power Movement. This practice later became known as copwatch. Many local activist organizations continue copwatch today. 

The National Lawyers Guild, as the first integrated bar association in the U.S., took components from this practice and developed its Legal Observer® Program in 1968 in New York City in response to protests at Columbia University and city-wide antiwar and racial justice demonstrations. 

Today, legal observing acts as a direct form of legal support for protesters, connecting activists to a much bigger support infrastructure made up of arrest hotlines, jail support teams, community bail funds and legal defense funds, attorney referral networks, and more.


SOLD OUT EVENT for Alice Waco!

Alice Waco receives the Lifetime Service Award from Sonoma County Democrats at their 37th Annual Crab Feed! Congratulations to our dear sister Alice, as she is recognized for all her hard work on behalf of the humans of Sonoma County and beyond. The event happens Friday, February 28, 2024, and lots of people must have heard about Alice Waco being celebrated. The event is sold out!

Update on Bill Boorman’s celebration of life:

Phyllis Bazzano hosted a wonderful meeting at her home last night to start planning for Bill Boorman’s celebration Mass at Resurrection Parish. The date is Friday, March 7, 2025. A bit unsure of the time for the liturgy, but it will be sometime in late morning. Besides Phyllis, Vera Dente was there and both are Resurrection parishioners. Emmaus members: Joe and Rosemary Silva, Victoria MacDonald, Cathy and Peter Schneider and David Carlson. Mary Maloney, Cathy’s sister – one of 5 Maloney sisters… is an old friend of Bill’s who also attended.

We sat cozily in Phyllis’s living room and made lots of tentative decisions. In fact we pretty much planned the whole thing with Victoria using her elegant and smart liturgy outline – very organized as usual! Brief note: Our own Jim McFadden has agreed to play for the celebration. Several folks from Emmaus will act as readers.

Please note: We will have our celebration of Bill’s life on March 9th at Emmaus. Bring your stories!

Tidings of Union by Persian poet Hafez (a favorite poet of Bill’s):


Where are the tidings of union? that I may arise

Forth from the dust I will rise up to welcome thee!

My soul, like a homing bird, yearning for Paradise,

Shall arise and soar, from the snares of the world set free.


When the voice of thy love shall call me to be thy slave,

I shall rise to a greater far than the mastery

Of life and the living, time and the mortal span :

Pour down, oh Lord I from the clouds of thy guiding grace.


The rain of a mercy that quickens on my grave.

Before, like dust that the wind bears from place to place,

I arise and flee beyond the knowledge of man.

When to my grave thou turns thy blessed feet,


Wine and the lute thou shalt bring in your hand to me,

Thy voice shall ring through the folds of my windingsheet,

And I will arise and dance to thy minstrelsy.

Though I be old, clasp me one night to thy breast,


And I, when the dawn shall come to awaken me,

With the flush of youth on my cheek from thy bosom will rise.

Rise up! let mine eyes delight in thy stately grace!

Thou art the goal to which all men’s endeavour has pressed,

And thou the idol of Hafiz’ worship ; thy face

From the world and life shall bid him come forth and arise!


"Tidings of Union" by Hafez Shirazi is an ode to the transformative power of love. The speaker expresses a longing for union with the Divine, which will free him from the trials and tribulations of earthly existence.


The poem's imagery of rising from the dust and soaring like a homing bird evokes a sense of liberation and spiritual awakening. The speaker's fervent desire for union is intensified by the promise of divine grace and mercy. This theme is reinforced through the metaphor of rain that quickens the grave, symbolizing the transformative power of love.


 




  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 Wednesday, January 15, 2025: Announcement for Our Potential Move - and we need your comments now! Dear Sisters and Brothers of Emmaus: On Monday Linda, Marcie and David visited with Lindsey Kerr, the Pastor of Christ Church Methodist in Santa Rosa in order to assess whether moving to Christ Church for our liturgies would be advantageous for all of us at Emmaus. Many of us have worked with Lindsey and consider her to be an excellent leader who is courageous and energetic. We received a warm welcome from Lindsey who showed us around Christ Church and opened the room in which we may meet. It’s not in the church – but an unused classroom that’s part of the larger set of buildings in the complex.  The room has space enough for us, lots of windows and some storage. They are buying new tables for the room. The room used to be a classroom so there’s plenty of room for our celebrations. Because it was a classroom, there’s also potential for hanging posters and making it our own. ...
Read more
Image
 Saturday, February 1, 2025: Announcement about Bill Boorman (Sir Will) Victoria just called and explained that Bill Boorman is in his transitional phase. He's no longer eating or drinking. He's still mentally sharp but is having great difficulty communicating. Let's lift up Bill as he begins his passage  Bill is one of the kindest, most talented, and generous people of this age or any other. He loved life,  companionship, friends, art, and good food. Bill used every day to live a full life. He was no visitor to this world but rather a one-person celebration of humanity in all its wonder.  As I think that he's passing from this world, to whatever comes next, I think this poem by Mary Oliver expresses so much of Sir William.  when death comes  I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:  what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness? And therefore I look upon everything  as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,  and I look ...
Read more
Image
Thursday, May 15, 2025: *Quote from Pope Leo X1V*:  Because this Church, as long as I breathe, will be a home for the homeless, and a rest for the weary. " Brothers, sisters… I speak to you, especially to those who no longer believe, no longer hope, no longer pray, because they think God has left. To those who are fed up with scandals, with misused power, with the silence of a Church that sometimes seems more like a palace than a home. I, too, was angry with God. I, too, saw good people die, children suffer, grandparents cry without medicine. And yes… there were days when I prayed and only felt an echo. But then I discovered something: God doesn't shout. God whispers. And sometimes He whispers from the mud, from pain, from a grandmother who feeds you without having anything. I don't come to offer you perfect faith. I come to tell you that faith is a walk with stones, puddles, and unexpected hugs. I'm not asking you to believe in everything. I'm asking you not to cl...
Read more