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Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx

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ISBN-10:: 0807072575
ISBN-13:: 9780807072578
Pub. Date:: 09/10/2004
Publisher:: Beacon Press

ISBN-10:: 0807072575
ISBN-13:: 9780807072578
Pub. Date:: 09/10/2004
Publisher:: Beacon Press

Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx

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Overview

Breathing Space is the story of Heidi Neumark and the Hispanic and African-American Lutheran church-Transfiguration-that took a chance calling on a pastor from a starkly different background. Despite living and working in a milieu of overwhelming poverty and violence, Neumark and the congregation encounter even more powerful forces of hope and renewal.

This story of a community creating space for new life and breath is also the story of a young woman-working, raising her children, and struggling for spiritual breathing space. Through poignant, intimate stories, Neumark charts her journey alongside her parishioners as pastor, church, and community grow in wisdom and together experience transformation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807072578
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	09/10/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Heidi B. Neumark has served as pastor of Transfiguration Lutheran Church in the South Bronx since 1984. She is a founding member of South Bronx Churches, an ecumenical community organizing group that has trained local leaders, built hundreds of low-cost homes, and established a top-ranked public high school. She lives with her family in New York City.

	Preface	XIII
	Preconstruction
1	Church Doors	3
	La Casita	3
	Planned Shrinkage	5
	Reformation	9
	Malabarriga	12
	Lessons for Jonah	14
	Five Weeks	23
2	Neighborhood Doors	31
	Visitation	31
	Mother's Day at Zarephath	41
	Rizpah's Table	54
	Longwood Avenue	61
	Feast of the Transfiguration	68
	People in the Windows	72
3	Parsonage Doors	77
	Babies and Breasts	77
	Two-Headed Monster	80
	Lepers in the Bed	85
	Oma	87
	Opening Windows	90
4	Soul Doors--Breathing Space	97
	These Trees Are Prayers	97
	Poppies On and Off Broadway	100
	A Writer's Life	104
	Conspiracy	106
	Construction
5	Gathering Resources	115
	Potholes	115
	Walk-a-thon	118
	Table Dancing	121
	Feeling Rich	122
6	Summer Construction Reports	127
	Theophany, Part One	127
	Rise and Shine	128
	Gates of Heaven	133
	Theophany, Part Two	138
	Molech's Throat	141
	Boom Chica Boom	153
7	Fall Construction Reports	171
	Cracks	171
	Rats 101	180
	Pillars of the Church	186
	Rest on the Flight to Egypt	198
8	Winter Construction Reports	203
	Frozen Tears	203
	Soon and Very Soon	209
	Songlines	214
	O Holy Night	222
9	Spring Construction Reports	231
	Spring Cleaning with St. Jangama	231
	The Fall of Grit	237
	Dust to Dust	245
	Plumbing Problems	250
	And Still We Rise	260
	Space for Grace	267
	Epilogue	273
	Notes	277
	Acknowledgments	283
	Credits	285

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

With its hard-nosed realism and passion for God, this memoir should appeal to people of faith across the political spectrum.--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Surrounded by violence and poverty and threatened by urban renewal, Transfiguration Lutheran Church under pastor Neumark survived and, perhaps miraculously, thrived . . . Her story proves genuinely inspirational as we follow her from despair and frustration to cautious optimism in the face of a still tenuous future." --Booklist
"Breathing Space is a beautifully produced book, and it has a utopian poignancy . . . Yet it is grounded in the virtue of hope."--James S. Torrens, America: The National Catholic Weekly
Winner of a 2004 Wilbur Award

From the Publisher

This is a book that takes your breath away and at the same time gives it back. I have every suspicion, and say it with a sigh, that Heidi Neumark has written a classic to be.
—Sojourners

Bill Wylie-Kellerman

In 1984, when Neumark became pastor of Transfiguration Lutheran Church, the South Bronx was groaning under decades of neglect. A 1976 HUD policy called "planned shrinkage" had radically reduced city services, including hospitals and schools, and only people too poor to move elsewhere remained in this area of sewage treatment plants and torched apartment buildings. For 19 years Neumark lived and worked among addicts, pushers, prostitutes, people with AIDS, abused women and children and gang members, without abandoning hope: "I am drawn to a different vision-the walls rebuilt, the land reclaimed, the people who rise up like grass improbably breaking through slabs of stone." A gifted storyteller, she portrays people who, despite personal tragedies and minimal resources, band together to build low-income housing, create first-rate schools, restore their church, plant trees and help each other through crises. People like Burnice, who initially came to church to pick up Christmas gifts, intending to trade them for drugs and then kill herself with an overdose; but who kept coming back, got her GED, found a job and is now a leader in church and community. "Some future pillars of the church arrive in ruins," Neumark wryly notes. With its hard-nosed realism and passion for God, this memoir should appeal to people of faith across the political spectrum. (Oct.) Forecast: Books on social justice rarely grace bestseller lists, but Neumark's perceptive reflections, lyrical writing style and ability to create a sense of place call to mind writers such as Alex Kotlowitz and Jonathan Kozol. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Newly ordained Lutheran minister Neumark, a risk taker who knew Spanish from mission work in Latin America, answered a call from a South Bronx parish in 1984 and has been ministering there ever since. Her memoir, at once funny and searing, spans her 20-year tenure at the Transfiguration Lutheran Church. Neumark revitalized the congregation, which was struggling to survive in a culture of violent revenge, sewage dumping, and bureaucratic neglect. The author tells how she nurtured the leadership gifts of single women in the neighborhood to strengthen programs: support groups, after-school child care, and bilingual education. She also led a community movement to create affordable housing and improve public schools. Neumark admits she has struggled with stress overload, lack of time to spend with her husband and children, and fear of gunshots in the night. Her story will appeal to general readers and to clergy, who will find many inspiring sermon illustrations here. A good choice for most public and seminary libraries.-Joyce Smothers, M.L.S., M.Div. student, Princeton Theological Seminary, NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx

Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx

Paperback

Temporarily Out of Stock Online

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

Customer Reviews

Temporarily Out of Stock Online

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

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Customer Reviews