Talk, talk, talk... Discovering the power of experience

One of the most exciting ideas we have explored recently is the concept in worship of "less talk, more experience." It seems kind of obvious, but it takes careful planning and preparation to incorporate symbolic art and movement into the worship experience in a way that is NOT merely decorative, but actually engages congregants in a visceral way, not just an intellectual appreciation. I'm tired of feeling like I need to take notes on the sermon or clap for an excellent musical offering. As a congregant, I don't want to be a spectator, but I also don't want to have a microphone thrust into my hands to overshare.

A collective artistic creation can be made a part of a service by which each member of the congregation is given a piece of an element and at some point in the service can be added to a large composition. I have seen this done effectively with the colors of the rainbow: each congregant given (or choose) a piece of the rainbow's colors and at a given point in the service, come up to add their colorful portion to the building of a large rainbow of color.  A mural of hand cutouts can be made, each person adding their "hand" to the assemblage.  These ideas work well at Stewardship time when we bring our pledges forward to build a church budget for the upcoming year. Time, talent and treasure, creative gifts, listening ears, helping hands - all can be symbolically portrayed in a mural of hands...


Incorporating devotional stations in worship can be a powerful tool. A number of years ago, we had a group of justice-seeking people create a service based in the fundamental need for water. At different point in the service, people had the opportunity to carry water in buckets to experience the weight of water and appreciate the energy many on our planet have to expend to bring water to their families. We had a station where we used water as a tool of anointing. Another where we intentionally experienced the withholding of water (seeing it, but not able to drink it), then quenching our thirst with a drink. Still another station was a washing station to wash away dirt, shame, negativity, sin, whatever. With drumming and flute music in the background, many came away from that service changed by the experience.

Walking the labyrinth together as part of a worship service can also be powerful. Each person experiences it differently but in the context of community.

Adding one's light to a predetermined display can be a powerful message of collective energy and mission.

Communion, in all it's variety of forms, meanings and traditions is the most familiar shared worship ritual available to us. Experiencing communion as partaking in the nourishment of divine love is a powerful healing metaphor that can renew our commitment to being a light in a dark and troubled world.

Bringing folks out of the pews with a purpose, not to show off, but to experience a ritual collectively but, importantly, anonymously, can be very freeing. Elderly and physically challenged people MUST be joyfully included in ways that are not patronizing but empowering.

What other rituals have you experienced that impacted you?

Ritual, Play, Symbolic Action...

Recently, especially since reading Saving Paradise and attending some worship services led by young emerging preachers, Courtney Jones and Hilary Allen, I have been struck by the timeless importance of ritual and symbolic action in worship.  As Parker helps us rediscover ancient meaning in the Communion table and Baptism, I wonder if symbolic action isn't one of the things we have lost touch with in our modern lives that we fill with the literal, the practical, the urgently important.

Why do I feel so refreshed and renewed after prayer, song and communion? Why does the fact that I love to get up out of my pew and move, prayerfully, toward the table and the bank of candles at Hope Central Church every week matter so much? Sinking down into myself in honest and frank confession is followed by the standing up to receive the good news of forgiveness and a fresh start. "We are only human and doing the best that we can," is, like Hilary said in her sermon, not a cop out. The tacit assumption is that we are trying to do and be the best we possibly can be, honestly and with a sense of humility. The simple, symbolic act of walking together towards the Feast and then on towards candles lit in recognition of needs yet unmet fills me with a sense of purpose and commonality.


In a kind of goofy way, I see a similar need fulfillment in my work at the library where we are preparing for our November Cardboard Tube War. Yes, war. But yesterday, my band of 7th grade boys and I spent an hour examining the reasons why we love to fight each other. We realized that we weren't in an angry place, we were in a state of mutual enjoyment. Is this a male thing? An ancient biological/psychological re-enactment of the Hunt? A power trip? It was fascinating to hear them talk. They loved each other while they were "fighting."

Eli said later to me, after we worked on our cardboard shields and armor, "Ellen, can we have Philosophy Club more than once a week?"
I feel the same way about worship! The Gestalt of boyish combat is not death, dying, morbid selfishness. Is it symbolic play, a dance, finding community, shared ritual, perhaps ?

They see the Hero as the person who sacrifices for the group to survive, fighting evil, dying if necessary, like Harry Potter, only to be reborn in a transformed way. Sound familiar?

Saving Paradise: A new framework in more ways than one

Rediscovering Paradise as a potent metaphor

I just got back from a weekend at Rowe Camp & Conference Center in the Berkshires were I was privileged to spend the entire weekend listening and talking with a group of fellow seekers and Rebecca Parker, cutting-edge theologian on the Early Christians, as she shared the research that she and Rita Nakashima Brock did on "Saving Paradise: How Christianity traded love of this world for crucifixion and empire."  This is ground-breaking scholarship that has implications for all denominations and faiths that share the early Christians as part of their heritage.  Without getting into the fascinating historical record that Parker and Brock lay out in this must-read book (which is now available in paperback), I want to share some my thoughts on what elements of this new paradigm emergent Christians, progressive Christians, Universalists, and others might consider useful when planning worship and ritual.

LIVING FULLY IN THE HERE AND NOW:

• PARADISE (p. 409 SP):   "We can come to know the world as paradise when our hearts and souls are reborn through the arduous and tender task of living rightly with one another and the earth. Generosity, nonviolence, and care for one another are the pathways into transformed awareness. Knowing that paradise is here and now is a gift that comes to those who practice the ethics of paradise. This way of living is not Utopian. It does not spring simply from the imagination of a better world but from a profound embrace of this world. It does not begin with knowledge or hope. It begins with love.... Paradise can be experienced as spiritual illumination of the heart, mind, and senses felt in moments of religious ecstasy, and it can be known in ordinary life lived with reverence and responsibility.... Paradise is not a place free from suffering or conflict, but it is a place in which Spirit is present and love is possible...."

ON BEAUTY AND THE PURPOSE OF THE AESTHETIC:

Rumi: "Let the Beauty we know become the good we do."
Elaine Scarry: "Beauty comes to us as a gift and leaves us ready to do great good."

The human body was sacred and to be cherished. Christ's incarnation reveals that "God has humanity the way the sun has rays... God has become human and humanity has been deified." But not in a single person.  Any particular man is limited.. the gift was given to all, equally. It took a whole community to reflect the image of God. (SP p. 177)

Art conveyed divine power to early Christians in ways we have trouble understanding today as we are inundated with images and sensory overload. Worship was a time to come into sacred space and be moved by the presence of mystery and the divine and, hopefully, be changed by the encounter.

THE VALUE OF RITUAL:

• Early Christian Baptism: required great preparation: moral discernment, intellectual acuity, and control of the body. The ritual involved bathing naked, then turning west to face down Evil and temptation, then turning East toward Good and taking the vows of citizenship into Paradise.  Water was a cleansing but also life-giving medium, ritually applied to all senses, hearing, sight, taste, smell, touch, to affirm the body as an integral partner with the spirit and mind in developing one as a lover of Beauty and a defender of Justice.

• The Eucharist: NOT as a ritual reenactment of Jesus' betrayal and crucifixion but rather as a Feast of Abundant Life hosted by the risen Christ. Images of the risen Christ represented resistance to oppression and empire to the early Christians. The story told at the Eucharist is NOT the story of the betrayal and death of Jesus, nor was it the Passover story of the Seder, but rather, the Creation story. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY / CHURCH:

• It is in community that we can find life-affirming rituals through which we can experience opening to the spirit, transformation, a nurturing aesthetic which then translates into activism and a collective restoration of paradise. MLK's Social Gospel focused on engaging with life in the here and now rather than salvation in as afterlife. Through witness and visionary leadership, churches can provide the moral compass so sorely needed in the world today. We need to fan the "Fire of Commitment" but we can only sustain that effort if we have in our collective tool bag a shared awareness of the preciousness of life and the irreplaceable sanctity of THIS Earth.

There is way more in this paradigm than what I have outline here, but these elements I pulled out because I think they translate directly into useful symbols, metaphors, and concepts that can guide us into powerful, transformational worship.  In the next post we can explore ideas that Diane and I have already used as well as new offerings and links to more people's work in the area that might help in creating the sacred space needed to feel the presence of the Divine.

Looking for an "Aha" moment in worship? Try the hidden power of a well-structured hymn

Allow ourselves the time and space to Stop. Look. Listen.

As lay worship leaders, we are frequently asked merely to fill in either when the minister is away, church is on hiatus, or there is a need for an extra time of worship. Sometimes that feels like a low bar to reach - just write a short message, fill in appropriate songs and readings, and you're done. You 're probably given a template of the expected service format so you don't even have to plan the outline of worship.

But what if you want to achieve something different? What if you set your sights on bringing your congregation to an unexpected place? Maybe a message of social justice - a good outrage moment? Perhaps a particularly beautiful piece of music that transports one to a higher place? What about a good cry with a well-written testimonial?

Here at WCL, we believe that worship is most powerful when it flows one element into another in a way that challenges us as individuals to be more honest with ourselves, face uncomfortable truths with awareness and hope while finding the motivation to act in radically new ways to build a better world.

We ask ourselves tough questions, leave time for silent awareness, then build through music, ritual and prayer to an affirming sense that we are here together to help each other when times are hard as well as celebrating when things go well. These are elements that move people out of their comfort zones to acts of radical welcome, risk-taking justice, and transformational forgiveness.

Using one hymn or melody as a connective tissue through a service can be very strengthening. Coming back to a tune or words can imbue it with a deeper meaning as different ritual elements are played out.  Singing the first two verses at the beginning of a service, then the last two at the end is not boring, it can be very meaningful - especially if the words work to carry you from inner awareness to outer mission.

Take for instance the beautiful UU hymn #83, "Winds be Still," lyrics by Richard S. Kimball, set to the Wesleyan Christian tune, "Lead Me Lord." The first verse speaks metaphorically of the end of a violent storm and the coming of silence, peace and tranquility.  Then the second verse talks of connecting with the mystery of Life.  Finally, the third verse speaks of illumination, clarity, and the joining of people together to bring forth a new movement of collective action.

Or another example, UU#298, "Wake now my senses," words by Thomas Mikelson set to a traditional Irish melody. Each verse awakens a different aspect: mystical Senses, Reason, Compassion, Conscience, Mission. This hymn follows precisely a natural arc of worship from private awareness to outward mission. How powerful to build a service around this set of lyrics, interpersing it with other chants, songs, anthems, readings, testimony...!  The use of repetition in this case builds the sense of unity toward a common goal and can send your congregation out into the world with renewed commitment and common purpose! Try it, you'll discover a hidden power.

Lay Worship Lessons Learned from Bruce Springsteen

from The Providence Journal, August 15, 2012

You never know where you’ll get worship inspiration. Mine came last night at a Bruce Springsteen concert at historic Fenway Park in Boston. To me the concert was one big tent revival, albeit a soulful modern-rock-‘n-roll infused one, that reminded me once again of the awesome power of music in worship. Rather than focus on the amazing musical journey of songs old and new (I’ll leave that to the music critics), allow me to focus on the worship lessons:

• DRAMATIC ARC: During the concert there was a definite, intentional pacing of energy and sound that led us along. From the buoyant beginning, “Promised Land,” that hinted to the theme, we then settled in, dug deep into the message, and ended on a celebratory, hopeful note (it doesn’t get more upbeat than “Twist and Shout” and “Dirty Water,” does it?). In the same way it is crucial to have an arc to worship to help the message unfold and play out.

• KNOW – AND HONOR – YOUR CONGREGATION: At his level of professionalism, nothing gets by The Boss. He “knew” (or at least his people did!) that a beloved Red Sox icon, Johnny Pesky, had passed away at age 92 the previous day. He seamlessly and ingeniously wove this sad milestone with another more personal one, the death of his longtime saxophone player, Clarence Clemons, a rock icon himself. At various times, Bruce, sang, spoke, showed poignant photos, and used silence (during a ROCK CONCERT!) to mark those important passings. We felt the depth of his sorrow and he honored ours.

• USE VIDEO JUDICIOUSLY: I know, I know, we’re big proponents of the projector here at WCL. But we are keenly aware that you need to know when to use it and when to let your worship speak for itself. Even during a video-laden worship service there are moments, such as times of meditation or prayer, when it’s best to allow the congregation to get lost in its own contemplation rather than the gorgeous, distracting image on the screen. Bruce and the E Street Band let their music do most of the talking, but the video images they used were highly effective devices for honoring the missing souls mentioned above.

• TAKE IT TO THE PEOPLE: The Boss does this with the best of the rock icons. From the start he was traveling, working the crowd, connecting with his audience, recognizing all ages. (He even lugged a 10-year boy under his arm to the stage, a device I most certainly DO NOT recommend for worship!) We all felt a part of his journey and he welcomed us into it. This, my friends, is a most difficult skill that I most assuredly need to work on. His music pours through his veins; if we lay worship leaders could feel even a fraction of this passion, our message WILL get through.

The Boss (The Reverend Boss?!?) is at the top form of his calling, rock-‘n’-roll anthems. What is your calling? What is beckons me? Although I have no misconceptions about my own potential, I’m inspired to challenge myself to consider those elements that can strengthen my own lay worship creations.

Atonement and Gratitude - two sides of the same coin

Why is it that, in general, we are so squeamish about building into our lives, rituals of saying we're sorry AND giving humble thanks for all that we have?

In our lay-led services, we have discovered the cathartic and soul-stretching strength of closing our eyes and walking ourselves, together, through words of contrition. "I haven't been the person I want to be."  "I could have been braver in that situation today."  "I didn't act in good faith." "I found an excuse for my behavior or lack of action."  Contrary to the assumption of many religious liberals, this is not wallowing in self-doubt or self-condemnation, it speaking from a place of aspiration and truth-telling.

We follow that with a long pause during which we can personally talk to ourselves, and/or to God. We think it's important to take time and not rush this. For our inner selves to truly feel the impact of honesty and contrition, takes more than glossing over words quickly.

As one of our worship collaborators points out, "Even when we do say we're sorry, we move so quickly into self-forgiveness that I wonder if the process is given the time it needs to go deeply into honesty and thereafter to heal through affirmation."  Wise words.

To say we're sorry is not only honest, but also means we aspire to be our best selves.

It means we take responsibility.

To be grateful means we know we aren't in control - 

we know we are lucky to be alive.

Following contrition, come words of affirmation: "We will try to do better." "We know that, in community, we can count on others to help us grow." "We find strength in sharing our burdens and rejoicing in each others gratitudes."

At the same token, we wish we would build more places into our lives and into worship to acknowledge the deep gratitude we feel for the gift of Life - in all it's messy manifestations of joy and sorrow.

A friend of mine recently shared that her son, a born UU, has been deeply effected by his contact with Catholic friends and now says grace before every meal. His parents were a bit taken aback, but see it as a sign that he is taking charge of his own spirituality. My first reaction is, "How sad that he didn't learn that habit in church." When we started saying grace before our common meal before our mid-week lay-led service, it was greeted by some with discomfort and a disparaging comment or two. We continued anyway and got quite used to it and it became second nature to those of us who made mid-week worship a part of our spiritual practice.

To carve out time in worship to allow for personal honesty - both contrition and gratitude -  is risky, but so worth it. It's challenging to look into a mirror of our character and acknowledge what we see. It takes humility to admit that much of what we have or what we experience are gifts given to us by others or through Grace. Humility is a virtue we could all do well to embrace.

Worship as an on-going spiritual practice can be a large part of this transformation. Church should be a place where we are honestly accepted for what we are but, even more importantly, where we are encouraged to grow into our better selves. It should be a place where personal gifts can be uncovered and nurtured, leadership is cultivated, moral courage can be planted and we all work together to build a better world.

"Gimme that ole metric index, gimme that ole metric index, gimme that ole metric index, it's good enough for me..."

Don't you love some of the tunes of the old hymn standards but sometimes feel the words are a tad out of date or not quite the meaning you want to impart? Allow me to introduce to you a dear old friend of ours, the Metrical Index, found in the back of every hymnal I have ever known.

Found on page 664 of the UU hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, but hiding in the back of every Protestant hymnal I have ever met, the Metrical Index lists songs that share the same line meter and therefore can have their words and tunes interchanged easily.

For instance, the Doxology, "Old Hundredth," dates back to 1551. You may know it as "All People That on Earth Do Dwell." This song is in Long Meter, 8.8.8.8 syllables per line. There are literally 45 other hymns in the UU hymnal that share that meter and therefore can be interchange - tunes and words as poignant as "When Jesus Wept,"  as yearning as "When all the Peoples of this Earth," as mysterious as the words of Hildegard of Bingen, "I am that Great and Fiery Force,"...... the possibilites are endless!

I love the Welsh tune of the hymn,"Come Thou Long Expected Jesus," written in 1844 by Rowland Pritchard (Metric name: Hyfrodol, syllabic numbers: 8.7.8.7.D). Many of us know it as the Earth Day hymn, "Blue Boat Home," arranged by Peter Meyer. It has a very adaptable meter that can handle scores of other lyrics - 14 listed in the UU hymnal.

The beautiful tune called Sursum Corda has a meter of 10.10.10.10 and can handle the gorgeous words of RabindranathTagore (UU #191) or the words of Robert Frost (UU#64) or W.H. Auden's poem, "What Shall we Learn." The fact is, "Abide with Me," which most people associate with funerals, is a beautiful 10.10.10.10 melody that can carry many, many different lyrics on its back.

When crafting a lay service, this means you can be very discriminating. You may want to chose a great tune, then see if there are words that fit both the tune and your theme, or you may choose words you love but that may be matched in the hymnal with a difficult or unfamiliar tune. Check to see if you can change up that tune to one either more familiar or easier to sing.

I'm all for learning new tunes - I'm a huge fan of the UU Teal hymnal when used properly (that's worth it's own posting...) and I feel that stretching musically bring richness and spiritual intensity to our singing repertoire, but let's face it: lay-led services can be short on expert musical resources and it's nice to know you may have options other than the particular tune currently matched with a particular lyric. Plus the old tunes are great!

Use those little color-coded post-its and mark hymns with the same meter in your hymnal!
You will be delighted by what you find!

How did I find out about this valuable gem? Years ago from my elementary and high school youth choir director at Riverside Church in New York, Rose Marie Wildman, a gifted church school teacher who believed children should be taken seriously musically. I'll never forget her leading us in the chorale of J.S.Bach's St. Matthew's Passion with an adult cast of hundreds and full orchestra. Oh, we had to sing it in German, of course. Amazing!