Blessing of The Bicycles: Wednesday at St. Stephens

Photo from the 2010 Blessing of the Bicycles

This Wednesday is the annual Blessing of The Bicycles at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Home of the Portland Bike Shrine.

St. Stephen's has a corner of their sanctuary set aside as a bicycle shrine, where bicyclists can come in and meditate whenever the building is open. There are a few icons and artifacts there, including the ghost bike that commemorated PNCA student Tracey Sparling's fatal crash location.

You'll want to come a bit early to this event. Come right on inside, with your bike (use the wheelchair ramp on the north side). Then you can mix and mingle, enjoy the harp music, and wait for the very short service to begin.

The service consists of
* the prelude music (usually by Halley the Harper -- Portland's own Bicycling Street Harpist),
* a short reading by Deacon Ken and others, praising the bicycles and the hardy people that ride them,
* a blessing of each bicycle in the sanctuary with holy water and a few words,
* then a short closing statement, and
* socializing with punch and cookies.

5:30 - 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, at the parish, 1432 S.W. 13th Ave (SW 13th at Clay).

Note that the event only lasts 15 minutes. If you're schedule challenged like me, plan to arrive by 5:15 at the latest.

Yours in The Faith,
Pasture Ted

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More info:

* St. Stephens web page here and Bike Shrine page here. (no mention of the blessing, maybe their web guru is out for the month)

* Portland Tribune story on the service Here.

* St. Stephens also blesses pets -- here's a Facebook link to their "Celebrity All-Star Pet Bless-O-Rama EXTRAVAGANZA!"

East Portland Sacred Spaces ride tomorrow

This just in -- 3rd annual "East Portland Sacred Spaces" ride is tomorrow.

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Hey all, it's our 3rd Annual Sacred Spaces Ride, this Saturday,
October 1st, from 9:30 am to Noon, starting and ending at the
Eastminster Church, 12505 NE Halsey. For early arrivals, there is also
a free breakfast at 9 am.

The ride is about 14 miles on mostly residential streets in northern
East Portland, and includes a labyrinth, a sacred druid grove, an
Orthodox church, a Lutheran church, and several other sacred spaces.
The ride is lead by our own Brian Heron, recently returned from a
74-day bike tour of the western US.

We hope to see you there!

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& check out their nifty flier from the First Annual ride in 2009
http://biketemple.blogspot.com/2009/10/portland-sacred-spaces-ride-tomorrow.html

Yours in The Faith,
Pasture Ted

"Joy of Xhurches" ride, Sunday Aug 7th

The Bike Temple is pleased to partner with Matt at the Xhurch to have the first ever tour of Xhurches in Portland.

Xhurchs are buildings that look like churches, used to be churches, but aren't churches anymore. They may be private residences, community centers, event centers, schools, or anything else.

On the June "Joy of Sects" ride we visited the Xhurch on NE 20th and Going -- we were invited in by Matt, who told us about the various events that happen there, some religious, some secular, and some somewhere in between. (like a live nativity scene -- http://www.xhurch.net/nativity_slideshow.html )

The ride will visit xhurches of all descriptions -- including a "nascent xhurch" -- a masonic temple, turned Christian church, now for sale for whatever purpose anyone cares to put it to.

Meet at the Bike Temple at 11:00am, depart at 11:15 sharp. We'll cover 6 different xhurches in about 12 miles. Pace is slow.

Bike Temple is at 6 NE Wygant St. (N Williams at Wygant).

Your in The Faith,
Pasture Ted

Downtown and NW Sunday Parkways -- This Sunday

Portland's next Bicycle Holy Day is this Sunday, when Sunday Parkways returns to the Northwest to sanctify some of the most profane streets in the city.

The route promises a transformation of 8 miles of downtown streets into sacred space for humans and their pedal-powered machines. Big streets, normally filled with vile, smoking smoldering cars will be made open to us, in a wonderful example of how we can make our future Bicycle Heaven right here on the existing pavement in Portland Oregon.

The transformation will come to Big Name Streets. Streets best known for gridlock, smog, big boxes of steel, unhappy humans stuffed in the cars or squoozen between them. Naito Parkway (2 lanes will be free of cars). Columbia Street (lined with profane financial institutions) and SE Stark.

Portland is going to great lengths to make this transformation happen -- we Believers should turn out in force, to play and ride in these beautiful spaces. Bring your friends. Come and walk, ride, skate or dance. Enjoy the beautiful downtown canyons, play on the park blocks, see sights never seen before by the un-windshielded eyes.

Sunday July 23rd, 11am to 4pm. From Waterfront Park and the Salmon Street Fountain in the SE to the Portland Art Museum and Park Blocks in the SW, to Union Station and the Overton Neighborhood Greenway in the NE to Wallace Park and Chapman School in the NW, come and enjoy a car-free downtown!

Bring your friends.

The Bike Temple will be staffing a corner, possibly at Johnson and 17th. Stay tuned.

Yours in The Faith,
Pasture Ted

Enjoy Sunday Parkways with the Bike Temple

Dear Faithful,

Tomorrow is the first "Sunday Parkways" event of the year in the Holy Bicycle City of Portland. From now until September, the fourth Sunday of each month will be observed with the closure of an 8-mile loop of streets for sacred travel by bicycle, skateboard, foot, and other modes of transportation.

This divine gift is a fabulous opportunity for bicyclists of all stripes and skills to get out and experience a car-free city. A city free of the noise, smells, and potential fatal interaction that cars impose on their surroundings. There will be masses of children wobbling along, families out together, and elderly people. And you.

The route stretches from Lents Park in the northwest to the Springwater Trail in the south. There's also a Lents Street Fair, or something along those lines.

The Bike Temple is hosting the intersection of SE 88th and Reedway -- just north of Foster Blvd and just south of Lents Park. We'll be there from 11am to 4pm, offering bicycle blessings, sermons from the 2030 Portland Bicycle Plan, miraculous healings, and general socializing. Stop by and join us, and enjoy the wonderful parade of two-wheeled traffic rolling by. Bring your own holy equipment or music to share -- bells, whistles, musical instrument, holy scripture, communion, sidewalk chalk, incense, etc.

If you want to help set up, we'll meet at N Williams and Wygant at 9:30, roll out at 9:45, and head back to N Portland at about 4:15, any help staging equipment or carrying part of the load is welcome.

And remember -- Sunday Parkways events are unparalleled opportunities to put your bicycle-lite or nonbicycling friends on a bike, rolling around, having a safe and wonderful time. It's an opportunity for conversion. If they have a great time tomrrow, they'll be more likely to get on a bike in the future. You can even load the bikes on the back of your car and drive there to make the whole experience easier for them.

Yours in The Faith,
Pasture Ted

Map and details at
http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?a=282549&c=51515 and
http://bikeportland.org/2011/05/18/pbot-to-make-portion-east-portland-carfree-on-sunday-53152

Possible new home for the Bike Temple?

Believers, Unbelievers, and Anyone Else --

The Bike Temple has a possible new home at the "Rainbow Love Sherbert House" on N Williams and Wygant. The RLS has a 20 x 60 commercial space built into the side of the house, and they're looking for tenants who want to be part of a small community of artists there. Br. Taddeas and Pasture Ted investigated the space on Monday, and deemed it suitable to our needs.

We'd have the "Williams" end of the space, with a private entrance onto N. Williams Ave. The other end has access to N. Wygant (for better street parties) through a garage door.

It looks like a good prospect for The Temple -- we'd be able to store all of our sacred material there (pulpit, shrine, pop-up canopy, art supplies) as well as our healing tools and spare bike parts.



They'd give us access to the space during the day, access to the restroom in the house, and they'd encourage us to make the place the home for The Temple, and be part of their little community. The rest of the community includes a house, 6 humans, a cat, and a good-size permaculture garden.



They pay $400 for the entire warehouse, and we'd be expected to pay about $100.

If we take them up on it, we'd be able to do most of the things we did at the old Highland Church location -- weekly healing ministry, our sign on the door, storage of our religious equipment. They don't have a sanctuary or large kitchen, but we would be able to have modest worship services.

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So, moving party for The Temple on Friday evening -- probably to the RLS House, and if not there then to Pasture Ted's new basement as another temporary location. Meet at 60 NE Tillamook at 7pm, April 29, for 1 hour of sorting and packing, then an hour of bike-moving.

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Thoughts, testimonials, concerns?

Yours in The Faith,
Pasture Ted

Ride to a Jehovah's Witnesses Service on Sunday night

Templors --

Our first event of the spring is suddenly upon us -- we were invited by the Jehovah's Witnesses to attend a service on Sunday night, 9pm.

Meet at Pasture Ted's house at 7:30 for snacks, or 8:00 to ride.

None of the Temple people I've spoken to know much about the JWs, but the faith received one negative review by a former adherent on the Temple's Facebook page. If one bad review isn't enough to get you curious, try a few google searches and you may find more reviews.

Details --

* Meet at 60 NE Tillamook, 7:30 to socialize, we'll leave here at 8:15 pm.
* Sunday April 16.
* Ride to Kingdom Hall at 3333 N Willamette Blvd (near Rosa Parks and Greeley).
* Service begins at 9.
* We'll make informal arrangements before we enter the building as to when we'll leave -- secret waves of the hand like "it's 10:30 and this is going on for-EV-er -- I'm ready to go to the bar." or "Hey I'm really digging this, let's stay until it's all oooover"
* Optional -- go to Florida Room bar on Killingsworth and Commercial (435 N Killingsworth). At the Florida Room we can sit on a church pew and drink beer, and look across the street at the Chapel Pub (which is pretty to look at but the food kinda sucks).

Yours in The Faith,
Pasture Ted



More on the Jehovahs Witness Faith --

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Pasture Ted's account --

I learned most of what I know by reading a book called "The American Religion" by a professor named Harold Bloom. He theorizes that all religions that were founded in America were "post-Christian" because they believe that each individual can communicate with and develop a relationship with God. This is, apparently, different from the Old-World-founded religions.

It's been a long time since I read the book, but he gives remarkably tidy histories of all the large-scale religions founded in the U.S. -- Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, Jehovahs Witnesses, Pentacostals, and a few others. So that's the sort of "family" of religions in which the JWs fall.

The other stuff I know first-hand is:

* Their worship facilities are spartan, and have no windows.

* They like to give out newsprint brochures with interesting, colorful artwork. The artwork gave it a distinct feel, and in my opinion did not produce an air of "legitimacy" to the faith (the faith I grew up in had glossy, modern tracts with photos rather than drawings). The one I received the other day (see image) has a distinctly different style of graphics (photos) and wasn't printed on newsprint. At this point this is merely a point of interest, I'm no longer more impressed with glossy stuff than newsprint stuff.

* I've talked to the JW missionaries once, a couple years ago. I tried to get them to realize that the major tenant of the Old Testament (first half of the Bible) is basically a history of deity-mandated genocide. I probed at them for a while to determine if they would personally commit genocide if the deity in whom they believed required it of them. After they both eventually said they would, I told them that I wasn't really interested in knowing much more from them.

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Various accounts --

* Leif, a Temple Adherent here in Portland, posted a negative review of the faith on the Temple Facebook page. Leif writes --
I was raised JW, mostly... The death anniversary would be more ceremonial (probably the most ceremonial thing they have - I always felt jipped in that regard), while the talk is... a talk. Full of plain earnest rhetoric. And as gorey as the Old Testament is, they're not going to talk about taking action on world problems. They may cite those current issues as signs that the end times are at hand, however.

* This page appears to be a JW-published Q & A about the faith. http://www.towerwatch.com/Witnesses/Beliefs/their_beliefs.htm
such as
"Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to associate with non-Witnesses including family. Exceptions are made if the non-Witness family member is living in the same household." (hey, at least they're open about it)
and
"They totally deny the existence of the traditional Christian view of Hell. Satan is regarded as having created the concept of Hellfire in order to turn people against God."
and
"Jesus crucified on a stake not a cross"

* Jehovah's Witness Recovery site -- where people post things that are not necessarily faith-promoting, such as "How did you de-program?"
http://www.jehovahswitnessrecovery.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9180

Other comments, encounters, snippets of info, anyone?