Reverend Billy called by cell phone from the stage at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery in New York City. The room, which had been filled just 30 minutes earlier with a congregation, was empty. But that didn’t stop Reverend Billy from belting out a treatise he calls “Other Love” and describes as “a story of sidewalk rage.”

“What is peace?” he asked.

It was a near chant in an amalgamated Southern accent with the word “peace” dragged out over several seconds.

“What is peace?” Reverend Billy posed again, this time with more emphasis, more length. “The only thing that matters is peace.”

Reverend Billy, the fiery alter ego of actor and writer Bill Talen, who will perform the hour-long “Other Love” on Friday at the Camden Opera House, is best known for his anti-consumerist rants against the Times Square Disney Store and many of the Starbucks in New York. (He has been arrested several times for his staged “preach-ins” at the stores.)

Talen makes no apologies for his disruptive behavior. In fact, he’s carving a career for himself out of the character he began developing in the 1990s. So what if Starbucks has issued an interoffice memo on how to handle the guy if he shows up. All the better. The Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping have won Talen press – in The New York Times and Village Voice – and prestige in political theater ranks.

“My role as Reverend Billy has been to oppose transnational stores that come in and destroy a neighborhood,” said Talen, who originally is from Minnesota. “Starbucks comes in with its Nasdaq funny money and tried to break the lease. It’s turning the neighborhood into a mall. My contribution is that there are creative ways to oppose this. If you’re going to privatize public space, if you think you are the new village common, then I am going to treat it that way and advise people to leave the stores, to not buy the products that are produced in sweat shops.”

Talen was on the streets with his public addresses during the crisis of 9-11 and gathered material from “peace shoutings” and marches in Greenwich Village and Lower Manhattan. “Other Love” is based on what he culled from those experiences.

The story also is based on an encounter Talen had on the sidewalk in New York, where he bumped full steam into a business. It’s feisty anarchist meets purebred capitalist, and the combustion fuels the work, which is performed with Wayne Walcott on trombone.

It may sound more vituperative than cathartic but for Talen, “Other Love” is about hope.

“It asks the question: What is peace? And it asks that question because we don’t know the answer,” said Talen, who is in his early 50s. “We don’t seem to have a consensus in the world about how to create peace. I got an idea about something we can do to encourage the possibility of peace, and it comes out of being Reverend Billy and organizing peace rallies. I was disappointed in the real preachers and ministers during that time. The ascendancy of the right-wing rhetoric was so fast. And jingoistic patriotism can overwhelm peace.”

Talen may be in his element in the East Village, but will it fly in Camden, where consumerism, tourism and local livelihood are vitally dependent? Where bumping into someone on the street is more frequently an opportunity for friendship than for violence?

“The show has never been out of town before, so that’s a good question,” said Talen, who has visited friends in Maine and New Hampshire over the years. “I just love Maine and gravitate to it without knowing why. Except I am coming to decry Camden, Maine, a Starbucks-free zone.”

To that end, Talen, as Reverend Billy, will make presentations at locally run coffee shops to drum up support for his proposition that Camden be actively opposed if Starbucks tries to enter the neighborhood.

“Starbucks in New York is like Wal-Mart in Maine,” said Talen. “It’s a corporate strategy that destroys neighborhoods.”

The vehemence and certainty behind Talen’s work begs the question: Has he ever sipped from the cups of Starbucks?

“I try to live a right life,” said Talen in a humble tone. “If you saw me buying a latte in a Starbucks, that wouldn’t work.”

Then Reverend Billy took over.

“We’re all sinners, child,” the Rev proclaimed. “But you have to BACK AWAY from that $5 latte.”

Reverend Billy (aka Bill Talen) and trombonist Wayne Walcott will present “Other Love” at 8 p.m. June 26 at the Camden Opera House. For tickets call 236-8448.