September 2008

Worship Service Schedule!
All Worship Services are Sunday nights @ 6pm.
FREE PARKING is available along the south side of Pine Street! b/t Broad and 13th St. Pick up a parking permit from the church and throw on dashboard!!--or download it from the BSM website by clicking here!! Please come and be encouraged, challenged, inspired, comforted!!!! We also eat dinner together following each service!

Sunday, September 7th
Meditation offered by Bill Golderer
Music offered by BSM Choir

Sunday, September 14th
Meditation offered by Erika Funk
Music offered by Nate Gonzalez and Julie Woodard

Sunday September 21st
Meditation offered by Rhonda Rhone
Music offered by BSM Choir

Sunday, September 28th
Meditation offered by Bill Golderer
Music offered by Lisa Lynne Mathis and Friends

BSM Health Initiative Launches Officially with a HEALTH FAIR!
Thursday September 11th @noon
FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Please download the flyer about this event and share with neighbors and friends.

Access to quality health care in an environment of respect and dignity regardless of socioeconomic status is crucial to experiencing the fullness of life. Yet in Philadelphia, among the 85,000 patients who visited one of the city's eight public health-care centers in the past year:

• Patients faced a five-month wait before seeing a doctor.
• Of the 320,000 visits to the city's public health-care centers in the past year, half of the visits were uninsured.
• The Health Department reports that most of the patients who visited the centers in the past year were impoverished.
• The city of Philadelphia is seeking to decrease this wait period to 30 days, in comparison to Baltimore's
  seven-day wait period for such care.

An additional barrier to health care involves the reported mistreatment patients, who are near or under the poverty line, receive within institutional medical settings. With little or no health coverage, those who are living amid the challenges of the health care crisis and are poor, homeless or immigrate to the U.S. resist formal medical care because of the treatment they receive. The result: many who are most acutely in need of medical care avoid the facilities amply equipped to provide the care they need.

So why we are extending our community to work for greater access to quality health care?

We begin with Jesus.  He spent a great deal of time healing people--their bodies, their minds and restoring their spirits.  He always saw the person as greater than their affliction, and embraced the full personhood of everyone, never restricting or limiting them to their circumstances.  So we attempt to follow Jesus' lead by providing a framework for healing with the conviction that everyone deserves the opportunity to experience wholeness and abundant life. It is this notion of abundant life that truly serves to drive the health initiative.
We need YOU!!!

• Practicing health care professionals: physicians, nurses, dentists, podiatrists, ophthalmologists, gynecologists
• Retired health care professionals
• Pastoral counselors, social workers, and psychiatrists
• Lay volunteers to serve as "guides" to connect people to health care and help to overcome barriers that may prevent someone from seeking care on their own

If you would like to help, we need a commitment of 3 hours per month for one year in order to maintain consistency and build trust with those who are already disadvantaged. Questions? Interest? Reach out to Kristin Walsh at kristin@broadstreetministry.org.

BSM is Having A Block Party to Welcome UARTS STUDENTS to Philly!
Saturday, September 13
5pm-10pm
To welcome new and returning University of the Arts students "back to school" in a way that may enhance their perspective of the city of Philadelphia and expose them to community organizations like Campus Philly, Philly Cares, Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Broad Street Ministry etc. It is our attempt to introduce and expose the university students to the opportunities and events occurring around them every day that they may not have the privilege of experiencing whether it be due to lack of information, or otherwise. Broad Street Ministry hopes to strengthen its ties with the University through this event which will offer live music and performances food/beverages, games, prizes, and helpful information for first timers in the city, from where to grab a bite to eat, to how to get involved in casues they care about here, etc.  Wanna help?! We can use it!!  Contact kirsten@broadstreetministry.org

BSM's clothing closet for our homeless brothers and sisters is dangerously bare!
First the statistics:
BSM has an average of 300-350 folks per week cycling through there looking for things to wear...basically a change of clothes. Many of us think of this in the winter time (and rest assured we will be back to you then) but we are so low on clothing we can't stand it.   SO...can we ask that u consider a mini-clothing drive? What we need (and we hate to be a choosers...) are:

• men's collared shirts (all sizes)
• men’s and women’s JEANS!!! please God! (all sizes)
• new men's underwear and socks...boxers/briefs/ athletic sox are best..cushy

We are asking for clothing that is gently used or new. We don't need shorts, t-shirts, or much in the way of women's clothes but warm things.  The reason we are being so specific is that it takes a ton of human hours to sort through all this stuff and if I can get what is most needed on the front end...

Broad Street Ministry sizes up the 2008 Live Arts/Fringe Festival!!
The 2008 Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival is a celebration of theater, dance, and performance art with a focus on innovative and creative voices from the Philadelphia area and around the world. This year BSM will be bringing you the scoop on the fest! Our Arts Marshal Liam O'Donnell and Princeton Seminary Intern and Arts and Culture Critic Extraordinaire  Becca Blake will be giving you the low down on the fest, letting you know what they loved, what they didn't get, and what they saw that connected to life here at BSM. To get the scoop on what to see and what to skip…head over to the BSM blog for full reviews of some of the most interesting performances at the fest!  You can reach the blog by clicking here!! or visit www.broadstreetministry.blogspot.com

SAVE THE DATE!!
A Living Room Conversation on the Future of the Church
Tuesday October 21st @ 7pm
We are pleased and excited that the PCUSA's new(ish) moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow will be coming to BSM
Dinner (Free) @ 6pm
Conversation @ 7pm
*What’s a Moderator? It’s the Presbyterian Church’s top elected official…
All who love the church, all who struggle with the church, all who are hopeful and all who are less than hopeful are welcome to join this conversation!

To learn more about Bruce Reyes-Chow please visit:  http://www.reyes-chow.com/
We are still working out the details but Bruce (a friend to BSM) and Bill Golderer and others from BSM will be in conversation about what is going on out there on the landscape that is hopeful and challenging about the future and we hope you can make it!

No Holds Barred Bible study: Try it!
Every Wednesday
5:30 dinner
6:00-7:00 Study and prayer
Bible Study?! How can that be something you would want to come out for? Whether you are a scholar or just curious or have serious issues with the Bible, you are welcome to this gathering. There is diversity of every kind at this study. Come out! We encourage a diversity of views and asking hard questions with humility. The text we examine is the text to be meditated upon on the coming Sunday. Plus—there is free dinner. It is a great group—just try it?! You might like it.

Next No Barriers Dinner
Wednesday September 24th
From 6pm-8pm!
August’s NBD was great! But we can and should always do more! We hope you will come out and share in this dynamic dining experience. Please invite your friends, people you meet during the day/week. There are a couple of surprises in store for this dinner.

Sitting room: We Need Chairs!!! (Please)
Metal chairs are not part of the vision for our sanctuary.  They speak of agencies, formality and uniformity.  That's not Broad Street Ministry. So we need to replace all our metal chairs with wooden ones and add a few more to seats the growing number of people worshipping in the sanctuary. We're asking everyone to bring in a wooden chair, new or old, and place it in the sanctuary next time you are here.  Each chair will add a fresh new place of welcome to the community.   All we ask is that they be sturdy. Bring in one or bring in 20!  Just bring 'em in!!  The more diverse the better.   Like BSM. 

Bring in one or bring in 20! Just bring 'em in!! The more diverse the better. Like BSM.