This fall the Boston Faith and Justice Network is starting up its fourth season of Lazarus at the Gate, the BFJN’s lifestyle discipleship Bible Study!  Lazarus at the Gate is a small group discipleship experience designed to impact global poverty. One of the premises of Lazarus is that Christians are called not just to believe in Christ, but also to follow Christ by deciding to live and act as Jesus did. For all, this process of modeling our life decisions after Jesus’ provides an invitation both to be transformed by God’s grace and to know Christ and his love more completely. As the Christian philosopher Dallas Willard writes,

“Practicing Jesus’ word as his apprentices enables us to understand our lives and to see how we can interact with God’s redemptive resources, ever at hand.”

A second premise of this group is that money is a critical object of modern Christian discipleship. Those of us who live in the United States spend most of our time either making money or spending it. As Christians in the U.S., we easily forget that Jesus identified his own ministry and person with the needy and the downtrodden. Today, globalization has placed Lazarus at all of our gates while we all remain aware that half of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day.

Over a 12-session study Lazarus discipleship groups will support each other in making four individual commitments:
• Spend joyfully: Regularly give thanks for the blessing of wealth Spend justly
• Make one lifestyle change to consume more justly Spend less
• Make one lifestyle change in order to buy less for personal consumption
• Give more: Make a substantial gift to fight global poverty

Near the end of the course, the group selects one to four international charities. They then they pool their individual gifts and give collectively.

Lazarus is an incredible opportunity to explore yourself and your giving potential. The Boston Faith and Justice Network invites you to join us in taking steps to understanding God’s plan the blessings He has bestowed upon us. Contact us immediately if you want to:

1. Participate in the Lazarus at the Gate leader training: The training sessions will be led by the course author, Mako Nagasawa. Although the materials for this course are free there is a $25 dollar charge for the two-session training, which includes lunch. The first session will be held at Park Street Church on September 25th and a follow up session will be offered in early November.
2. Join a Lazarus group: We’ve had a number of individuals reach out to us who would like to join other Christians in and around Boston in this course. Please let us know if we can put you in touch with others who share an interest.

The Lazarus at the Gate curriculum is available upon request and if you interested in leading a group please contact Ryan McDonnell asap as space is limited.

ryan@bostonfaithjustice.org

Themes of women’s rights, social justice, and the Indian caste system are featured in a new opera by Cambridge-based composer Shirish Korde. Please read on for more information.

Boston Musica Viva
Phoolan Devi: The Bandit Queen
a multi-media chamber opera by Shirish Korde
April 23 & 24, 2010, 8pm
Boston University’s Tsai Performance Center

Contemporary music ensemble Boston Musica Viva and Music Director Richard Pittman present the world premiere of a ground-breaking new chamber opera, Phoolan Devi: The Bandit Queen, by Cambridge-based composer Shirish Korde. Performances take place at 8 pm on Friday and Saturday, April 23 and 24, 2010, at Boston University’s Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. Tickets are $15-$30 and are available at www.bmv.org.

The multi-media chamber opera Phoolan Devi: The Bandit Queen is based on true events. This compelling story focuses on the life of Phoolan Devi, who was born into poverty, sold as a child bride, abducted by bandits, abused and victimized, imprisoned, and finally elected to India’s Parliament. Just as she was assuming national recognition as a crusader for the poor, she was assassinated in 2001 at the age of 37.

Korde’s contemporary score is a powerful synthesis of Asian and Western musical traditions. Drawing on the musical styles of India such as Vedic chant, Qawwali, Bollywood, and tabla drumming, as well as contemporary Western music, the composer unifies many diverse genres into a seamless lyrical score. An international cast of musicians, dancers, and singers will join Boston Musica Viva, including Zorana Sadiq and Elizabeth Keusch, sopranos; Brian Church, baritone; Aditya Kalyanpur, tabla; Chirag Katty, sitar; and dancers Prachi Dalal, Mesma S. Belsare, and I Made Bandem.

Got something to say? I invite you join me on January 10th to engage local experts at a forum to discuss the disruptive nature of the Fair Trade economic model. This will be the third such discussion that the Greater Boston Vineyard has hosted in the past year. My favorite part of these small gatherings has been the opportunity to meet and socialize with like-minded people about issues of social justice. At our gathering in October, we shared our experiences with the Fair Trade movement, sustainable farming, and poverty in developing nations while sampling ice-cream sundaes made with Fair Trade Certifiedâ„¢ ingredients. This time we’ll be doing much of the same while eating baked goods and hot cocoa.

At the discussion, local experts are slated to talk about the history, successes, and challenges of the Fair Trade movement. Ample time will be reserved to ensure that you can share your story about social justice too, if you wish. Featured speakers include Anna Utech, director of Equal Exchange‘s Interfaith Program, Liz Green, lead organizer for Fair Trade Boston, and Ryan McDonnell, executive director at the Boston Faith & Justice Network. Perhaps you want to do more than talk. Use this opportunity to discover how you can involve yourself in the effort to fight poverty on either a personal or community level just as Fair Trade Boston moves into the final stages of its campaign to have the city of Boston declare itself a Fair Trade Town.

I hope you’ll come to learn more and support this critical movement! Please register (so that we know how many cookies and other treats to bake!)

January 10, 2010 | 1:15-3:00PM

Greater Boston Vineyard Offices

15 Notre Dame Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140

Fair Trade enables farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and providing access to the global economy. Fair Trade principles include fair price, fair labor conditions, direct trade, democratic and transparent organizations, community development, and environmental sustainability.

Jeff Purser has a real passion to find sustainable solutions to eliminate extreme poverty. He serves as a community organizer for Fair Trade Boston and lives near Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.