Bridgeport Alliance General Meeting: May 28

BA's next meeting will be at 7pm in the Community Hall at First Trinity.  We know spring is in full swing, but we're looking forward to seeing you!

Meeting: April 30

BA's next general meeting will be at 7pm in the Community Hall at First Trinity.  See you Thursday!

Bridgeport Alliance Meeting: March 26

BA's next meeting will be at 7pm in the Community Hall at First Trinity.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Aldermanic Forum Coming Up!

https://www.facebook.com/events/574680952658792/

Bridgeport Prayer Vigil for those Imprisoned or Detained

To Our Neighbors and Community Members in Bridgeport!

For those who have not yet received an invitation to Thursday's Vigil, please consider this yours!

All are welcome as we gather to pray, especially for those in prison or detained. The prayers will include prayers for prisoners, detainees, parole officers, guards, our elected officials and law makers, police, the sheriff, judges,our youth, our families, our neighbors, ourselves, those caught in the system, and many more—all touched by incarceration, detention, and our criminal justice system.

In addition to prayers, petitions and spiritual songs, we will hear a few brief reflections from community members about their varied experiences with our justice system. Speakers will include a retired parole officer, a former prisoner and convicted felon, clergy, family members and individuals of those migrated to the US. Also, young teenage community member will speak whose father is in prison.

All faith and all walks of life are welcome at the vigil, planned as an ecumenical Christian service. In the longstanding tradition of Christian vigils, community members are invited to wear white to symbolize hope, peace, and unity. You may also bring names or photos to add to the lists of those prayed for, and bring your own candles, or means of remembrance for those apart from us, in prison, or detained.

The vigil will last less than an hour, near the alley just west of 31st and Halsted.

All are welcome.

See you then!

Thanks!

Rev. Tom Gaulke, First Lutheran Church of the Trinity

“I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'” - Jesus, Matthew 25:36

Jesus unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the captives go free,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. -Luke 4:17b-21

Bridgeport Prayer Vigil For Our Sisters and Brothers, Imprisoned or Detained

Facebook Event

If you are interested in helping plan, call Pastor Tom at First Trinity - 312.842.7390. Or email pastor@firsttrinitychicago.com.

THANKS!

Where: Bridgeport, Chicago, Bridgeport Homes

When:  Thursday, July 24, 6pm-7:30

Why: Bring the community together, Pray for and bless our sisters and brothers who are imprisoned or detained, Put Hope into action by offering opportunities to fight against mass incarceration – through organizing and direct action.

Jesus and Justice: First Trinity Summer's Eves Day Camp

Join us for fun, community building, worship, study, guest speakers, discussion and debate around Jesus, Social Justice, Liberation, Community Organizing, and Living out our Faith in the world today.

August 20-24.
Tues-Fri 6pm-9pm.
Saturday 10-Noon.

Presenters (Subject to Change)

Tuesday: Called to be Christian Doormats? Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. - David Hatch(IIRON / The Peoples Lobby / First Trinity Lutheran)

Wed: Holy Haiku: Writing The World As It Is -Jim Peters

Thurs: TBA awesomeness!!! - Kristina Tendilla (Benton House / Bridgeport Alliance)

Fri: God's Stories / Our Stories / New Stories of Justice and Love - Marge Fashing (First Trinity Lutheran Lifer)

Sat: Pastor Tom Gaulke (First Trinity Pastor) Be Not Conformed, Be Transformed: Living Romans 12, Transforming the World As It Is

For Adults and Families.
Community meals to be served each day.

31st Street Bus Photo Petitions

Tell us where the 31st Street Bus can take you

And collect one of these sweet pins!

Stop by 31st and Lowe

Tuesday, July 16 - 5:00 - 7:00 

Friday, July 19 - 10:00 - Noon

Saturday, July 20 - 9:00 - 2:00

Check Out The Photos Here!

TRIVIA NIGHT: Fundraiser For Training Bridgeport's Leaders

Help Send Members of Bridgeport Alliance, Benton House, and First Trinity Lutheran for training in leadership and community organizing.

To send all of our candidates, we'll need just under $2,000.

This training has helped several of our leaders so far, and is certain to improve Bridgeport, Benton House, and First Trinity.

Current candidates for training are: 
Mary Cantore (God's Closet at 1st Trinity / St. Mary's / BA)
Claudia Hajdas (God's Closet / First Trinity / BA)
Megan McDonald (Benton House / BA)
Ambria Nicole Taylor (Benton House / BA)
Marcus Hollowell (Benton House / BA)
Jess Saldania (Trinity House / BA)

TRIVIA NIGHT: $20 per person 4 people per team (table).
Build your own team or come stag and join other local singles.

You will have too much fun.

Facebook Event Page

Annual Earth Day Clean Up

Save the Date!

SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2013

9:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Chicago's City Wide Clean and Green 

Volunteer Clean Up!

We will meet at the McGuane Park Field House (29th and Poplar) at 9:00 am for refreshments, including Jackalope Coffee.

Then we will hit the park and the streets to pick up trash and have fun!

We will have some tools and supplies, but everyone is encouraged to bring gloves, sunscreen, water and any tools that they might find useful.

Supervised children and teens are encouraged to participate.

Questions?

Contact info@bridgeportalliance.org

Visit the Facebook Event Page 

Flier attached

Businesses and Organizations wishing to participate please contact us no later than April 15.

This event would not be possible without the participation of the Palmisano Advisory Council and McGuane Park Advisory Council along with Bridgeport Alliance, Jackalope Coffee & Tea, Benton House, First Trinity Lutheran Church, Senior Suites, Bridgeport Citizen's Group, The City of Chicago, The Department of Streets and Sanitation and Friends of South Halsted!  We had a blast last year and hope you can join in the fun!

General Meeting Annoucement

Our Next General Meeting will be held:

Thursday, February 28th

7:00 pm

At First Lutheran Church of the Trinity

(31st and Lowe)



SPECIAL MEETING RE: SCHOOL CLOSINGS
Tuesday, February 19
7:00
Benton House
(31st and Gratten)

Reminder - to join our email list, please write to bridgeportalliance@gmail.com

Join us on Facebook

Subscribe to our calendar (below)

Community Forum on School Closings - Bridgeport, Canaryville, Chinatown, Chicago

Elementary schools in our Chicago neighborhoods are at risk of being closed.

Join parents, students, leaders, and community members who want to keep our schools safe from school closings, and strengthen our schools for the future.

Learn what schools are at risk and what you can do about it and take action after the forum! We will attend the CPS meeting for our area immediately after the forum. A bus will leave First Trinity Church for Fuller Park and return after the action. Please contact Maria at maria@soulinchicago.org if you would like a space on the bus.

Sponsored by Bridgeport Alliance, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL), Raise Your Hand, the Chicago Teachers Union, Parents 4 Teachers, and First Lutheran Church of the Trinity.

Facebook 
DNA Info - Bridgeport Parents Plan Rally Before CPS Utilization Forum

SOUL - Martin Luther King Day 2013

Sunday, January 13, 2013
2:30pm - 4:30pm
 3566 S. Cottage Grove.
West Point Missionary Baptist Church

This is the time each year when we celebrate the legacy of Dr. King and continue his work through community organizing. Some of the issues we will address include funding for an arts & recreation center in Bronzeville, restoring bus service on 31st Street, closing state corporate tax loopholes so we can avoid massive budget cuts to Medicaid and education, and addressing the vacant property epidemic through a land bank that will create both affordable housing and jobs.

We will be asking elected officials to make commitments on issues affecting our communities. We need to show our elected officials that their constituents are watching and that people care about these issues.

Please come out and bring your friends, neighbors, and fellow congregants!

Musical celebration and sign-in will take place from 2:30 - 3:00, with the public meeting starting promptly at 3:00.

Bridgeport Alliance will have two buses leaving Benton House. Boarding at 2PM. Refreshments will be served starting at 1PM. Rides will be given to Benton House from First Trinity Lutheran after 10:30AM worship. We will have 100 folks from Bridgeport, so get there early if you don't want just scraps.

We Will Not Go Back

As part of the ongoing "fiscal cliff" discussions, Senator Durbin is negotiating behind our backs to gut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- cuts that could create depression-era conditions for millions of Americans who've paid for and earned support from these vital programs.

Join us on December 6th at noon to tell Senator Durbin that we won't go back! On December 6, we're building a Durbinville Shantytown encampment at the Federal Building to symbolize the dire consequences these cuts could have, and fight to preserve these essential programs. Join us! And bring a tent!

Come get free soup and bread every day in Federal Plaza from December 3rd - 6th!

Monday, December 3, noon: Soup and Bread line in Federal Plaza

Tuesday, December 4, noon: Soup and Bread line in Federal Plaza

Wednesday, December 5, noon: Soup and Bread line in Federal Plaza

Thursday, December 6, noon: Erect the "Durbinville" shantytown to show the world what these cuts really mean!

Enough is enough! It's time to stop unnecessary budget cuts and make corporations and the rich pay their fair share!

Demand that Senator Durbin:

Block the "debt ceiling sequester" cuts -- say no to austerity!

Reject Simpson-Bowles or any other "Grand Bargain" that attempts to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, working people, the sick or the elderly -- protect vital public programs, no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid!

Block the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts for the top 2% -- it's time for the rich to start paying their fair share!

Support and fight for progressive sources of revenue -- impose a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street financial speculation, tax capital gains as normal income and close corporate tax loopholes, cut Pentagon spending!

Christ at the Capitol

This past Tuesday, members of First Trinity, Benton House, and Bridgeport Alliance traveled South.

South to Springfield.

With our friends from SOUL and IIRON,

and a whole network of folks from Make Wall Street Pay, IL.

We were lobbying for SB-282, a bill that passed the senate, but is still up in the house.

This bill, if passed in IL, would require publicly traded corporations in IL to disclose their tax info. Right now, they don't.

Doesn't seem like a big deal.

Unless you're aware that about 2/3 of Illinois corporations don't pay any taxes.

Some of them even get paid to be here.

Nice, huh?

In our current political context, where cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and where scheduled upcoming Sequestration Cuts threaten to plunge our most vulnerable sisters and brothers into even more vulnerability, putting many of them in danger of losing their lives and well being (this is not an exaggeration),

it is our belief that SB-282, if passed, would be a step toward creating revenue through taxing the income of the ultra-rich and corporations, rather than taxing the lives of the poor.

One small step toward something better.

As we were hurrying about through the Capitol, finding our state reps,

sharing with them the importance of passing this bill,

(four of the six people in my group from Bridgeport are personally now, or about, to get cuts to the medicine they rely on),

we passed,

at the center of the building,

a Christmas Tree.

Along side it was a Nativity Scene, and around the scene were set-up chairs,

as if 

near the manger of Christ, 

there was about to be a press conference.

As I walked by the reporter and the camera standing up front, 

in a hurry, 

the reporter extended her hand to shake mine, 

asking if I was Pastor Something-Or-Another.

I shook her hand. “No. I'm not. Sorry.”

She looked confused. I walked away.

It turns out, as we made our way by the manger again later,

that there was a press conference, and from what I overheard,

it was some clergy-type ranting about how Our Nation was Founded 

on Judeo-Christian Values, etc., etc.

He was talking about the importance of the image of Christ at Christmas,

and how the Nativity was an important thing to display in our government building because some dead founders might have been Christians.

I heard no love in his voice.

But I was in a hurry, so maybe I missed it.

(The Nativity Scene itself is sponsored by a public-interest law firm).

Truth told, I'm not one to argue either way, for or against, religious imagery in a state building.

As long as all religions have equal access.

But if I were to stand up where that ranting man was Tuesday, 

speaking of the importance of the baby Jesus lying in a feeding trough at the center of the Capitol, 

I wouldn't be yelling about our founding fathers.

In fact, I wouldn't mention them at all.

Not even the Deists...

Rather, what I'd say is something like this:

To our Senators, State Reps,

(CC'ed to all the lobbyists and state-residents who pass through this building),

especially to Christians, to whom this symbol might hold some sort of meaning,

Remember this:

Remember this season,

when bills (like SB-282) are up for passing,

when choices being made about budgets directly help or hurt the poor...

Remember that this scene...

this Nativity of Christ

declares, through and though

that the one whom Christians call the Son of God,

and even the King of Kings...

remember 

that the Most High 

was born into poverty,

among animals,

and among the (ewwww...) common people.

His mother, looking dreamily upon him in this sentimental diorama

is the same scared, unwed, teenage-mother-to-be who cried out with joy at the good news of her son's birth,

singing powerfully about the lifting up of the lowly, 

the scattering of the proud,

and the tearing down of the powerful from their thrones.

Remember when you see the shit-covered shepherds gathered around this rag-bundled child,

when you see the Three Great Kings (or magi) bowing down to Jesus,

when you see the donkey and the camel and the mice,

what you are witnessing, friends,

is the acting out of the exultation of the poor,

the acting out of the disenfranchised worker placed,

now, at the center of God's story,

You are witnessing the bowing down of royalty

in order to serve the poor and vulnerable,

You are watching Kings

bringing valuable gifts to the Lowly One,

born in a barn,

without healthcare,

without hand sanitizer,

the wealthy sharing wealth

so that the Son of God might be lifted from such poverty,

just as he, one day, will declare that his mission 

is to liberate the captives,

to restore vision to those without,

and to declare the year of the Lord's reign, 

where the first become last, and the humbled are exalted.

Where the lowly are lifted up.

When you pass that sentimental,

pretty-and-glowing Nativity Scene this season,

remember that the decisions you make as our public servants,

sisters and brothers, matter.

Your decisions matter.

And when your decisions lift up the mighty 

and cast down the lowly,

not only are they unethical, but they are anti-Christian,

regardless of your political party,

and regardless of what church you attend.

When you pay mind to those with money, 

granting them special wishes,

rather than asking those with money to serve the poor, 

and to share their wealth for the good of all,

you are enabling those with money, and yourself, 

to destroy Mary's Song,

and to pervert the Gospel.

You sanitize the manger that declared God acting among, and lifting up the poor.

If you are going to put Christ at the center this season,

if you insist on it,

even at the center of the Capitol,

may the purpose not be

to dwell on some fantastic past,

or some idealized or beatified forefathers,

but rather

let the purpose be a reminder

that Christ at the center means the lifting up of the poor,

Christ at the center means Kings bowing down to the vulnerable,

Christ at the center means making decisions that liberate

and heal

and set free.

I pray that you make these decisions, in the Spirit of Christmas, and in the Spirit that showers constantly with the opportunity to reform and change.

Amen.

31st street update - one more win on our route

Good news, dear people:

Mr. Claypool (CTA President) replied "Yes." to our ask tonight.

And he promised he meant it, right in front of the altar at First Lutheran Church of the Trinity here on 31st St. in Bridgeport :)

The Bridgeport Alliance, the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization were all present.

We will be meeting with the director of the CTA's 6 month study re: the FULL 31st Street route, monthly.

Alderman James Balcer showed again to support BA.

One more battle won on our way to victory!

Good job, team.