America's First Black Woman Rabbi

Check it out--America's First Black female Rabbi. Alysa Stanton was ordained this week and will be taking her first position as Rabbi at a 60-family synagogue in Greenville, North Carolina.

Two decades ago, an African-American leader in a synagogue might have been about as likely as an African American in the White House. But Stanton's ascendancy reflects the slowly changing face of America's Jews. According to Diane Tobin, a demographer with the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research (IJCR), some 20% of American Jewry is now non-Caucasian. While there is no data specifically on black Jews, "a large percentage [of nonwhite Jews] are African American," Tobin says. "Most arrive via conversion, adoption or mixed Jewish-black marriages," she adds, "and are far from Judaism's fringes and part of traditional communities." (source)

I find it fascinating that she was able to beat out so many other candidates, especially in the South:

She beat out some half-dozen candidates for the position of rabbi at Congregation Bayt Shalom in North Carolina. Much of Stanton's appeal, says synagogue president Michael Barondes, lies in her ability to connect and communicate powerfully, both from the pulpit and face-to-face. Those are skills Stanton honed during an earlier career, before entering the seminary — as a psychotherapist specializing in grief and loss. She helped counsel victims of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School. "She knows intuitively how to listen to people," says Barondes. "And as a one-synagogue town, we need a rabbi who can reach out to all of our members." (source)

Times are a'changin....

-t

Learning about the City

Yesterday I went to my second softball game with my new "league." Really it's just a bunch of guys that meet at a certain time and place with beer and gloves who organize themselves loosely into teams and play until it gets too dark to continue! I had a respectable day at bat, managing some nice hits. A lead-off double in the second inning, however, was my best play of the day. As I was coming up to second base I could see that the second baseman was about to catch the ball and possibly tag me, so without even thinking about the consequences I slid into the base to roaring applause. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea considering that I was wearing shorts. Nasty scape on my left thigh!

Looking up at the Toronto skyline, smelling the cigarettes and beer, I find myself thankful that I live in a very cool city. I find Toronto much more livable than, say, L.A. For one thing, as my new softball friends demonstrate it is much easier to get to know people in this city!

Today I spent most of the day at a "Pastors' Day" Workshop held at the Yonge Street Mission. We met in a brand new, immaculate community centre the Mission just built. Most of the workshop was taken up by a presentation by Dr. David Hulchanski analyzing demographic data for the last 39 years in Toronto. He and his team have done some amazing work just documenting trends involving poverty in the city. In a nut shell, since 1970 the income desparity in the city has gotten much greater as the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. But it's also true that the neighbourhoods have become much more segregated both by income and race. The well-off have established themselves in the core of the city (think everything south of the 401 between Bathurst and Leslie) while the poor have moved to the northeast and northwest of the city. Indeed, there are really three different cities in Toronto that equate to three distinct experiences and cultures of Toronto City Life.

This map shows the change of average income by neighbourhood from 1970 to 2005. Pretty interesting, isn't it, too see how much the city is changing. There was a time when some of those blue striped areas weren't upwardly mobile at all!

To learn more about this check out the Greater Toronto Urban Observatory or read Hulchanski's paper: The Three Cities Within Toronto.

It seems most likely that this trend of increasing income disparity is the result of lots of little policy changes that were made in the late 80's and kept through the 90's. In particular, the cuts to social services and various forms of "deregulation" seem to have had a role. But at Dr. Hulchanski pointed out, if this trend was caused by lots of little decisions it could also be reversed by lots of little decisions.

(Interesting factoid: 50% of all immigration to Canada settles in Toronto.)

After the presentation and lunch we spent a few hours brainstorming about possible responses our church could have to the problems arising from these patterns. After that I headed back to church. I felt very in touch with the city as I read the Metro on the TTC Subway and digested more of the presentation I had just heard.

Back at church... Ordered some business cards (for some strange reason I never got around to doing that before). Answered some e-mails and returned some calls. Getting ready to call it a day...

-t

If God Had Texted the 10 Commandments

Meg sent this to me--as seen on McSweeney's blog...

1. no1 b4 me. srsly.
2. dnt wrshp pix/idols
3. no omg's
4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)
5. pos ok - ur m&d r cool
6. dnt kill ppl
7. :-X only w/ m8
8. dnt steal
9. dnt lie re: bf
10. dnt ogle ur bf's m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.

M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl.

ttyl, JHWH.

ps. wwjd?

(source)

-t

Spring Fling 2009

On Saturday the church held its annual "Spring Fling"--a day for planting flowers, cleaning up, and do the usual sort of landscaping necessary to keep the place looking beautiful in the neighbourhood. Lots of people, including kids, helped out. Mercifully, it wasn't as hot out as last year. There also wasn't quite as much catch-up work to do as last year.

After the garden work the church had a pool party at the house of one of our parishioners. Great fun was had by all, I even managed to do my famous, traditional cannonball! Just as the party was getting going I ducked back to church to do a service (the Healing Prayer Service) and then I came back for the rest of the party. Went to bed early, exhausted.

Today was a good church day. I'll share more once I get the video together. Alas, right now I have like three or four media projects to do, on top of my other responsibilities!

-t

The Tay's....

People sometimes ask me where the name "Tay" comes from. Actually, it's a very old family name. I was named after William Tay, who came over to America in the 17th century. I assume he was Scottish given that "Tay" is both the name of a town, a loch, and the longest river in Scotland. A ship's register has his occupation listed as "distiller of strong spirits." We believe he was born in 1608. He married Grace Newell in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1644. She was 13 years younger than he (23 to his 36). Together they had eight children (Grace, John, Isaiah, Abiel, Peter, Nathaniel, Jeremiah, and Elizabeth). He lived to be 75. His wife managed an impressive 91 years!

Nathaniel married and had eight more kids. Among them, another William Tay, whom I believe is the William Tay that fought in the French and Indian Wars as an officer commissioned by Samuel Adams. This William married Abigail Jones and the two of them had one child, Samuel Tay.

Samuel fought on the Patriot side of the American Revolution, rising through the ranks. Quite a few other men with the surname of "Tay" are listed on the Patriots' Rolls as being from the town of Woburn, so I suspect they were all cousins and siblings. The Woburn Militia was one of the principal combatants at the Battle of Concord Bridge, which was the first Patriot victory of the Revolutionary War.

After the war Samuel and his wife had one son, another Samuel. Several more Samuels follow down the line until you get to Samuel Wright Tay, also known as "Tutu" (the Hawaiian word for "Elder." He moved to Hawai'i in 1910 with his wife. At that time Hawai'i was a U.S. Territory with lots of agricultural production. His skills an engineer were no doubt in demand! They had no sons, so "Tay" died out as a surname, however it continued as a given name.

Their daughter Alice Elizabeth Tay married my grandfather, William Washburn Moss, Jr., and the two eventually settled back in Hawai'i after spending some time in New England and having three kids. One of them was my father. I'm not sure how my parents chose "William Tay" in particular, other than it is a historic name in our family, but I'm glad they did.

So... That's the basic story of my name!

-t

A Feature about COTM

Many weeks ago Henrieta Paukov, who writes for the Anglican among other responsibilities, came by to check out the Contemplative Eucharist and ask me about some of the other projects we've started here at Church of The Messiah. It was nice to be able to share some of the excitement about the ministries we've started.

Incidentally, we've added a new regular to the Contemplative Eucharist group. That means I have about four regulars and a couple of people who come only occasionally. Perhaps this article will generate some more interest. I've also been thinking about adding another time for the service--perhaps on Saturdays before or after the Healing Prayer Service.

-t

June Column for the Anglican

Here's my June Column for the Anglican. I went for humour, obviously. Apologies to Zen Flesh, Zen Bones and the Desert Fathers, of whom this is a parody...



Actually, I could come up with these quippy little stories all day. So perhaps next year I'll do another column along a similar vein!

-t

Power Point about Children's Ministry

Here is the power point from the Workshop that Kerrie and I did at our Synod Workshop last weekend. Perhaps I'll have a chance to add synched audio later...

Children's and Youth Ministry Workshop: Anglican Diocese of Toronto Synod Workshop 2009

View more OpenOffice presentations from Tay Moss.

You can also download the file directly from the SlideShare website.

-t

Monastic Enterprise

Bob points me to an article in the New York Times about some monks in Wisconsin that sell printer cartridges to raise the money necessary to keep the monastery going:

Ever entrepreneurial, the women also sell products made by other monasteries, including chocolates, pralines and a barbeque sauce called “Burnt Sacrifice.” They sell Benevolent Biscuits, dog treats the monks here make on cookie trays in the monastery kitchen.

Their latest product is a laser printer cartridge made with soybean oil instead of petroleum. Holding up a newly printed page, Ms. Caniglia said, “It’s environmentally safe, the print is great,” and it produces more pages per cartridge than an oil-based cartridge at a lower price. “It’s a no-brainer.” (source)

I think it's brilliant that most communities have to produce something that the ordinary world finds valuable. It helps keep such communities grounded. It's even more interesting, from my perspective, at least, when that enterprise involves the hands-on work of the monks. For instance, both the book store and the guest house at Holy Cross require a LOT of attention from the monks, which mean that the people that patronize those businesses get to interact with the monks themselves.

Monks and nuns around the world do all kinds of interesting things. I've always been fascinated by the Monks at New Skete raising German Shepherds. Or how about Mother Noella Marcellino, who did her Ph.D. and a Fulbright Scholarship becoming a world-renowned expert on Cheese.

Much has been written about the spirituality of such labour. Unfortunately, our society has lost something along the way when it comes to the meaning of creative work. A recent long New York Times feature on the meaning of work noted the rise in popularity of shows like "Dirty Jobs" and "Deadliest Catch" as evidence of a kind of nostalgia for the perceived meaningfulness of blue collar work. The feature article was written by Matthew Crawfrod, who adapted the essay from his new book Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work.

This is about craft. I appreciate good craftsmanship in all it's forms because it shows a kind of a cooperation with creation. Shoddy workmanship suggests disharmony with creation. And I'm not just talking about crafts that involve physical stuff. Consider the craft of a well-delivered sermon or the craft of doing good liturgy!

Alas, the days when Shop class was a mandatory part of education are slipping. More and more kids are connecting on Facebook rather than under the hood of a car.

-t

Air France 447

I've been tracking the tragic loss of Air France flight 447 in the news. As usual, the major news outlets are only reporting a fairly broad overview, while more details are available for those who look. For instance, what about these automated message coming from the airplane before contact was lost. One aviation blog seems to have an inside source about these:

Sources within Air France reported, that the automatic message did not only report an electrical short circuit, but also the loss of cabin pressure. This information has been confirmed by FAB, who also stated, that the position of the airplane was given as N3.5777 W30.3744 in that message.

New information provided by sources within Air France suggests, that the ACARS messages of system failures started to arrive at 02:10Z indicating, that the autopilot had disengaged and the fly by wire system had changed to alternate law. Between 02:11Z and 02:13Z a flurry of messages regarding ADIRU and ISIS faults arrived, at 02:13Z PRIM 1 and SEC 1 faults were indicated, at 02:14Z the last message received was an advisory regarding cabin vertical speed. That sequence of messages could not be independently verified. (source)

ACARS is the data-link that also carries all kinds of useful information between the airplane and the ground. Many news reports seem to be surprised to discover that this exists, though actually it has been around for a long time and is now being phased out in favor of even more advanced communications systems.

Anyway, this series of messages has caused a lot of speculation in online forums devoted to airplane stuff. Many people are pointing to some previous problems with the ADIRU (Air Data Inertial Reference Unit) on the airbus A330 (same type aircraft as this recent crash). In the previous incident, the failure of one of three ADIRU caused the flight computer on Quantas Flight 72 to pitch down violently. 72 passengers were injured, some badly, but the airplane was able to make an emergency landing. There are are three such units onboard so that flight can proceed normally even if two of the three are rendered inoperable. Part of the mystery of flight 72 was why the flight computer didn't recognize and ignore the faulty data.

There other incidents involving "uncommanded" maneuvers as flight computers reacted to faulty data from ADIRU units, so this is naturally the first place people are looking. Yet many other things could have caused this sequence of system failures and messages--a fire being an obvious example (Cf. Swissair 111). We probably won't know the real cause for many months.

Reflecting on this today I thought about how much attention air safety gets compared to, say, car safety. So much more could be done to lessen traffic fatalities. Yet something about the horror of airplane accidents make them much more provocative. I just pray for the families and all who work and travel in the skies....

-t

Run, Forrest, Run!

That streak of light is actually me running toward home plate. Sweet.

-t

My Day Off

Last night I picked up Betsy at the Buffalo Airport. Traffic on the QEW going back to the GTA was terrible thanks to the night construction. So we got back around midnight and went straight to bed. I slept in 'tlll noon. Felt great. Made lunch for the two of us and then watched a little TV. Made supper (Green Thai Curry with shrimp). Then Betsy and I went to a softball game. A friend of mine plays in a regular pick-up game and invited me to join him. I haven't played softball in a long time, but I sure did enjoy it tonight. I managed to get several base hits, and even got in for a run myself! Great. Next time I'll remember to bring beer--this is the sort of group that like to drink beer while they play ball. All good. Nice group of guys. Betsy watched from the sidelines.

Came home and enjoyed a very nice BLT. I've been feeling the BLT-love lately. What a great late night snack! Now I'm just watching the "Daily Show" and enjoying the end of my day off...

-t