The National Weather Service is predicting a large storm to descend into the valley tomorrow, 1-21-10, bringing up to 5″ of rain, possible thunderstorms and gusty winds. The prediction calls for light rain to begin to fall after 11pm tonight and pick up around 11am tomorrow. The Downtown Phoenix Partnership is working closely with police and city staff, and will provide current information throughout the day based on the severity of the storm.
Please be aware of unscheduled road closures put in place due to flooding, debris in the roadway, and traffic signals that may be out due to a power outage.
Contact the Downtown Phoenix Ambassadors at 602-495-1500 to report power outages or debris – we will contact the correct department at the City. Also – call if you have questions about travel conditions in the downtown area – they are your Go-To-Resource!! Remember – the Ambassadors provide Umbrella Escorts – so if you need to go out during the day…they are equipped with large umbrellas and can escort you to your destination.
Earlier today (12 January 2010), a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck 10 miles outside Port-au-Prince in Haiti. This has been followed by several aftershocks. Most everyone’s thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti at the moment.
To recap: At 2.53pm Phoenix time, the primary 7.0 earthquake struck. The media has reported that a hospital and the UN building have collapsed with many of their occupants still unaccounted.
Some things you might need to know:
The US State Department toll free number for family members who are looking for info about the safety of either Americans or Haitians in Port au Prince: (888) 407-4747
From myself and from my colleagues in the Dean’s Office of the College of Public Programs, we wish you a successful, productive, and engaging Spring 2010 semester.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, emphasis added]
Thus begin the Amendments to the United States Constitution. As anyone who’s taken a civics course knows, the US Constitution is the “supreme law of the land” (cf. Article VI par. 2; also see the 14th Amendment).
Consider also the late developments happening with Crossroads United Methodist Church. As preface, they had a homeless ministry at their church, Central Avenue and Northern in the quasi-upscale North Central neighborhood. Then the neighborhood didn’t like seeing homeless people in their posh neighborhood, complained, got the city involved, and the city made a decision that Crossroads had to stop this ministry. After an appeal made by Crossroads, the city still stood by its decision.
Depending on your angle, it’s NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) at its finest or its worst.
Granted, when one thinks of the neighborhood around Central and Northern, one doesn’t really think about homeless ministries. Most of the homeless reside in and near Downtown Phoenix. I would think that if Crossroads wanted to do this in a more effective (whatever this means) fashion, then doing outreach and meal service would be more effective there. There’s a fantastic human services campus at 12th Ave and Jefferson–maybe a partnership there should be in the works.
But that’s irrelevant to my argument. I am, however, reminded of something from Scripture:
“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” [excerpted from "The Judgment of the Nations," Matthew 25:31-46 NRSV]
As The Rev. John Petty (All Saints’ Lutheran Church, Aurora, Colorado) noted in his blog Progressive Involvement,
In liberation theology circles, this is called the “preferential option for the poor,” which is supposed to be controversial, but, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. All four gospels state very clearly, one way or another, that Christ is a friend of the poor, identifies with them, is found with them. It’s not for nothing that Jesus was born to a poverty-stricken Jewish family from a hick little town. [source]
Jesus was a friend of the poor. Christians – followers of Christ – should be friends of the poor as well.
This brings me back to the original crux of this entry, taken from the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Let’s make a few assumptions here. First, that the Gospel of St Matthew is accepted canon in Christianity. Second, Christianity is accepted as a religion. In essence, the city is redefining Christianity. Christianity by city policy.
If a church wants to reach out to “the least of these” in a homeless ministries program, then it has its Constitutional rights to do so. NIMBY-ists can complain until they’re blue in the face, but it should be a Constitutional right. Wait: it is.
Last week, retired US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor stopped by KAET’s public affairs program Horizonto talk about what she’s been doing since she retired from the high court, civility in government, and her O’Connor House Project.
Justice O’Connor’s confirmation created the Horizon program back in 1981 and it’s apropos that she was the first guest in Horizon’s new set in the Cronkite School building on the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus.
Reporter JJ Hensley from the Arizona Republic sat down with Ted Simons on a recent edition of KAET’s Horizon to discuss what’s going on in Maricopa County.
With apologies to Stanley Kramer, it’s a mad, mad, mad, mad, county…
Last night (6 January 2010) was the crowning concert of the first Arizona Bach Festival. On the program were four of six parts of Johann Sebastian Bach’s beloved Christmas Oratorio (S. 248) featuring the Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale and a chamber festival orchestra. The venue was the recently-renovated Central United Methodist Church in Midtown Phoenix, whose acoustics quite possibly rival Trinity Cathedral’s in Downtown Phoenix. (Yes, I said it.)
A quick note about the Christmas Oratorio: Unlike other grand oratorios from the period, Bach’s work is comprised of six separate cantatas that are for Christmas Day through Epiphany (January 6). Bach’s original design was for the six separate cantatas to be performed separately. Modern concert performances perform all six. JS Bach’s cantatas combine grand choruses, settings of chorales, arias, and recitatives. Some feature small overtures/sinfonias at the beginning of each cantata.
There is a strong element of musical foreshadowing in the Christmas Oratorio. Bach employs the Passion chorale Befiehl du deine Wege (usually sung in English as O sacred head now wounded) throughout the work. Most notably, the chorale concludes Part VI as well as the complete Oratorio. In addition, an aria and chorale from Part V (Wo ist der neugeborne König der Juden?) are borrowed from his St John Passion (S. 245).
Joining the 27-voice Phoenix Chorale was a 19-member chamber orchestra as well as a continuo organist. It should be noted that a key element to Bach’s works (and most Baroque works in general) is a strong basso continuo. In the performance, cello and organ combined to play the continuo. Jan Simiz (cello) and Sue Westendorf (organ) were perfectly together in this respect.
For the most part, the Phoenix Chorale’s pronunciation of the German text was easily discernible. When the choir was singing the same words at the same time, even non-German speakers could transcribe the text. But like most of Bach’s work, unison writing is rare and often times the different vocal parts are singing different words. That, combined with the live nature of the space’s acoustics, muddied up the text. I was sitting about 30 feet from the choir so I cannot imagine what it was like for people sitting in the back of the house.
On his game at the concert was Erik Gustafson, a tenor in the Phoenix Chorale, who performed the role of evangelist. (In the Christmas Oratorio as well as the Passions, the Evangelist connects the different arias and chorales together with text from the Bible sung in recitative form.) He sung with a pure, refined sound that, in my mind, made for a perfect evangelist. Mr. Gustafson kept to the simplicity of the text and added vocal effects (e.g. vibrato) very sparingly that actually contributed to the success of that role.
It was good to see the Phoenix Chorale return to its roots (they were, until recently, called the Phoenix Bach Choir). The Chorale, along with the orchestra and conductor Scott Alan Youngs, performed this work brilliantly. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is not a work that should be taken lightly. The combined ensemble presented the work in a manner that even those who do not appreciate JS Bach’s music would suddenly appreciate it; for those who admire the great composer’s music, their admiration would become even greater.
This concert was one part of the Arizona Bach Festival, and so far, each of the performance spaces have been packed houses. It truly is heartwarming that, even in times of economic peril and also in a state whose legislators do not recognize the value of arts in the community, people enjoy and support the arts. With a concert like last night’s, it can be truthfully said that there are artistic gems in this desert.
-Edward Jensen
(For pictures from last night’s concert as well as the previous concerts in the series, check the Festival’s Facebook page at facebook.com/arizonabachfestival.)
Coming in just a couple days (actually, beginning on the 3rd!) is the premiere Arizona Bach Festival. It’s the logical next step in Phoenix’s American Bach series that just wrapped up a seven-year cycle of the complete JS Bach cantatas as well as his St Matthew and St John Passions at All Saints’ Episcopal Church.
So this month, from the 3rd-7th, the Festival will happen at locations up and down Central Avenue. The orchestra features members of the Phoenix Symphony, the chorus is the Phoenix Chorale (of Grammy fame), the guest concertmaster is Dr. Stephen Redfield, the concert organists are Dr. Kimberly Marshall and Scott Dettra, and the conductor is Scott Youngs.
There are five events: two organ recitals (both at All Saints’), a solo violin recital (in the lobby of the Viad Tower in Midtown Phoenix), a performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (at Central United Methodist Church), and an educational component sponsored by ASU and Arizona School for the Arts. The events list is online here and tickets are available here.
