Meals/Meetings

Meals:  In the past our community meetings were a mix of business and food.  We have separated the two and now meals only feature food and good conversation  We hope to have a community meal once a month.  Please see the calendar for our next meal.  

Meetings:  As we grow and evolve as a community, we have found it necessary to set aside time for updating and sharing about what going on and at times making formal decisions. Please check the calendar for our next community meeting.  

Retreats

Retreats: We have a retreat at least once a year.   This is a time for mediation, study, and reflective thought on our individual and community spiritual journeys.  Please check the calendar for our next retreat.  

Community 

Community is day to day and about the small stuff. When to have meetings. When to eat. Who does a given task. Who hasn't done a given task. But it adds up to something great. Something that can change the world.

Our community is a good representation of our members passions and talents.  Our community meals are a bright spot that people love. Meals are almost always potluck, but often with a defining theme, like Mexican or Indian. Linda is a driving force, always wanting to make something beautiful happen with food...as with the Bethany project in general.  We have workdays in what will one day be easily recognizable as the "gardens." Carolyn is our muse here, teaching us soil and compost, raised beds and urban food growing. Rocks are moved, a composter is built, grass is cut, and a landscape begins to take (ruggedly handsome) shape.

Prayer and study are of course major community activities, but they are still always "small" when done day to day. About once a year we also get together for a retreat weekend and those times are bigger and special, laying down spiritual memory and resource for the coming months.  

​Community can mean the wider community. So many neighbors on Richfield and surrounding blocks stop by to say thank-you and congratulate us on the restoration done to the brick building. It is a gift to the local area and many people recognize it for that. In the grand scheme of things it is still a relatively small contribution, but the reality of the transformation it signifies is huge.   Somewhere on the same lines Bethany has forged a link with the Syracuse Turkish Cultural Center and its Muslim brothers and sisters. An unforgettable occasion was the Christmas Carol service when three "wise men" read and sang the Quran account of the birth of Jesus!

If anyone has a job as the wider community point person it is Earl. He keeps us up to date with activities in the religious groups of Syracuse and the city as a whole. From Jazz Vespers in a local Presbyterian church to the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse, he provides the nerve synapses to keep us in touch with what's happening at large.
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What's happening, we hope, is transformation. Community is both its means and its end. 

Winter Retreat January 2016