Joy of Momogamous Sects, Sunday Feb 2

Join the Bike Temple on Sunday, Feb 2 for a "Joy of Monogamous Sects" ride.

We'll be attending the "Salt and Light Lutheran Church" on NE 20th and Killingsworth.

Small inner-city churches face the problem of aging, declining congregations.  Every year, a few more of the small churches that dot our community go belly-up as the membership gets below the level that can sustain a congregation and maintain a building.

Emmanual Lutheran Church, now Salt and Light Lutheran, has taken a innovative approach to dealing with this problem.  They've reinvented themselves as a community center that hosts their church on Sundays.  This way, the otherwise unused classrooms can be put to a permanent alternate use, and the sanctuary and other meeting rooms can be used by the community 6 days a week.

The new organization is called "Leaven", and has a website at http://www.leavenproject.org

We'll go and see the religious side of Leaven by attending the church service, then meet for snacks or tea afterwards.

Meet at Irving Park basketball court at 9:15 am to ride up to the 10:00am service.

(as an added bonus, we'll be able to see what's going on at the historic Baptist Church on 9th and Fremont that has been purchased by a right-leaning suburban church and has gotten some new paint).  http://alamedahistory.org/2014/01/26/local-church-building-comes-back-to-life/

Test Post

Test Post, new posting format at blogger.com  This is Pasture Ted, checking in.

Riding out to Halawa Bay, Molokai, Jan 2013.  

Hello Bike Temple! Join us next week!

Our 3rd week/end Monogamous Sects event is as follows:

Arm Chair Pilgrimage
Wed, Oct 17
Meetup 5:30 Belmont Station
4500 SE Stark
Organizer: Sister Carye

We are gathering to hear first hand accounts of recent pilgrimages!

A Pilgrimage is a journey usually of spiritual significance visiting temples, shrines, and other centers important to someone's beliefs.

Typically a pilgrimage is on foot but one could do one by bicycle as well -- feel free to bring your own pilgrimage stories to share.

From 5:30-6:30pm at Belmont Station, Babs Adamski will be having an informal chat about her month-long walk along the El Camino in Spain that she took in June. She told me her feet have just now stopped hurting. Grab a beer and a bite to eat. The place isn't so big, but it's close to our second destination so we'll make do.

At 6:30 or soon thereafter we'll head over to the Mazamas HQ for their Wednesday travel slide show night that starts at 7pm. 

The program will be Shikoku 88: A Buddhist Pilgrimage in Rural Japan: Carole Beauclerk, who lived, worked and traveled in Japan for nine years takes us on a six week trek of the one thousand year old, 750 miles long, pilgrimage trail on the island of Shikoku. Carole’s photos and narrative will focus on the rewards, challenges and cultural experience as she and a friend visited the 88 temples on the this pilgrimage and also discussing her other pilgrimages in Spain, Portugal and Tibet.

If you can't make it to Belmont Station, you can meet us at the center. http://www.mazamas.org/your/adventure/starts-here/C53/

This is a walk or a bike ride. Belmont Station and the Mazama Center are just a couple blocks apart.

Ride to mass in Verboort on August 19

Verboort is little town in the Tualatin Valley northwest of Hillsboro.  Founded as an enclave of Dutch Catholics in 1886, it's been a busy little enclave in the middle of farm fields ever since. 

We'll ride MAX out to Hillsboro, then take an idyllic ride through the farms of the Tualatin Valley for 9 miles out to the church.  After attending mass at 10:00 am, we'll explore the grounds, see the famous sequoia grove, and take in a little more religious history while we're out there. 

Meet at Rose Quarter MAX Station at 8:00 am, or Hillsboro MAX station at 9:00 am. Back by mid-afternoon.  Sunday August 19th

Yours in The Faith,
Pasture Ted

More info:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verboort,_Oregon
* http://www.verboort.org/

Fieldtrip to Trinity: Woody Guthrie Tribute

It's the 3rd Weekend of July which means it's the Joy of Monogamous Sects Bike Temple Field Trip!

Once a month we visit a spiritual or religious center which is hosting an interesting event or is just a cool space. 

• • Saturday July 14th
  • 5:00 pm

    ROBO TACO

    607 se Morrison, Portland, Oregon 97214

     

We are attending Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Porchlight Concert on Saturday night on July 14 -- a Tribute show for Woody Guthrie's 100th Birthday all proceeds go to hunger programs at Trinity. The Show is free but please bring $5 or more donation.

Trinity puts on special tribute concerts/services throughout the year. Past ones have included U2, Radiohead, and Bob Dylan.

http://www.trinityporchlight.com/Porchlight_2012_Woody_Guthrie_Centennial/Woody_Guthrie_Centennial_Porchlight_Concert.html

If you can't meet us for the ride, which starts with delicious eats at Robo Taco, then meet us at the show which starts at 7pm at 147 NW 19th.

 

Ride to the "Signify, Sanctify, Believe" service on Sunday

Believers, Unbelievers and Agnostics --

The Bike Temple is pleased to announce a series of monthly rides on the theme of "Monogamous Sects."  We'll get together somewhere, go for a glorious bicycle ride of a modest distance, then attend a church service, a religious-themed event, or something in between.  We'll be doing this on the "Third Sunday" of each month. 


This Sunday, May 20, is our first ride, to attend "Signify, Sanctify & Believe with us!" A brunch & service at Xhurch

The details:
* 10:30 am Vera Katz Statue, East Bank Esplanade/Hawthorne Bridge
* 11:00 am Meet up at Bike Temple HQ, 4734 N Williams
* Ride Leaders: Sister Carye and Pasture Ted
* Cost: Free,but donations for food welcome, or bring a brunch potluck item
* What: Xhurch is hosting LA-based performance artist troop Signify, Sanctify, Believe. We are invited to attend a pizza brunch and service
* Length -- short ride from Bike temple HQ, brunch and service should take up to a couple hours

"Come all seekers! All curious! Come and be temporarily initiated into our order of creative spiritual experimentation and sanctified dabbling!" heart / mind / open.


More information:
* The Troupe: http://signifysanctifybelieve.org/
* The Xhurch: http://www.xhurch.org
* Youtube clips of S,S,B
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cojM1DtvAmM&feature=plcp
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRoijiOMhAU&feature=plcp

Other links to the ride: 
* On Shift Calendar: http://shifttobikes.org/cal/#20-3013
* On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/406976196001937/

Upcoming
* June -- Look for a Joy of Sects (multiple venues) Bike Temple Ride on the Pedalpalooza Calendar (http://www.shift2bikes.org/cal/viewpp2012.php)
* July 14 or 15 will be the next Joy of Monogamous Sects Ride. TBA

Attend a Mormon service, Sunday Feb 5th

Dear Unbelievers, Believers, and Everyone Else --

The Bike Temple is going on its first 2012 expedition this Sunday to attend a Mormon church service in Northeast Portland.

Meet at The Waypost Cafe at noon, ride at 12:30. Service starts at 1:00. 3722 NE Going St. -- you can also meet us outside the building if you like.

Mormons, more than any other religion, are known for bicycling. Young Mormon men are encouraged to accept a 2 year assignment as missionaries for their church, and they often ride bicycles. It's a beautiful thing.

Mormon Sunday Services consist of a three hour series of meetings. We'll just attend the first hour, though if there is compelling interest to stay we can do that.

The meetings are:
* Sacrament Service, 12:00 - 1:15. Meet in the sanctuary, members of the church partake of the "sacrament" (communion, bread and water), then there's 35 minutes of talks by members of the congregation. On the first Sunday of the month, members don't eat breakfast or lunch, and the Sacrement Service is "open mike" where anyone who feels so compelled can stand an testify their beliefs. Expect about 80 people in attendance.
* Sunday School, 1:35 - 2:05. Bible study, Book of Mormon study, or Mormon church history study. Expect about 10 people/class.
* Womens' and Mens' meetings, 2:15 - 3:00. Expect about 15 people/class.




More on The Mormons

Mormons are one of the few religions that was founded in the United States. Founder Joseph Smith said he was visited by an angel, and later given gold tablets by an deceased American Indian who returned as an angel. The tablets were translated into the "Book of Mormon" -- the spiritual history of the American Indians and their relationship with the god of the Bible. The book is still held as truth by adhering Mormons, though it has significant failings in its claims to be a historical document.

After rocky beginnings, including communitarianism, grift, wife swapping, polyandry, militias, the Mormons moved west, leaving the United States in 1847 to settle in today's Utah, only to be annexed back into the US shortly afterwards.

In the 1960s, the Mormon Church was at its finest, and touted its strengths as an American instution. Since then, its status has waned, conversions have all-but ceased, and the church leadership remains stuck in a 1960s mentality. Church services are essentially unchanged, dress is unchanged, staunch lifestyle requirements adopted in the early to mid 1900s remain unchanged, and many modern youth are not endeared to this lifestyle. Meanwhile, the internet has made it possible for members to read alternative versions of the origins of their church, which include historical events that do not support the assertions of the church leaders as being led by a diety, but rather show an eclectic bunch of men trying to create a religion out of whole cloth, and using non-god-sanctioned means to control the masses.

So, come meet the Mormons, prepare to travel back in time to about 1975. Women wear dresses, men white shirts and ties with no facial hair, and free range children.

After the meeting we can gather at a watering hole on Alberta and debrief.

Yours in The Faith,
Pasture Ted, exmormon.
(I spent 2 years in Hong Kong as a Mormon Missionary, and had 2 months of riding a bicycle out of the deal...)