Dancing Church

The week after I attended the Quaker Meeting I attended St. Gregory of Nyssa. This is an Episcopalian church. I heard about this congregation from my dance class because they have a couple of congregational dances in their service.

When you walk into the church, technically you walk into a part of the worship space. It is mostly wood! The room you walk into is octagonal in shape and around the top are 90 dancing saints painted in a mural! It is quite a magnificant site! We all congregate in this room with the saints and then the priests or leaders lead us into the worship space. The congregation is divided in half and they face each other. In between the two sections of cogregation is a runway of sorts. At the far end is the area where the priest sits and some of the other worship leaders. At the closer end, are some poles with banners on them and then the lectern where the scripture was read.

They sing all of their liturgy. In addition to singing the liturgy, they just sing alot! Something I appreciated about their service was after each of the scripture readings and the sermon, they rang these bowls and everyone sat in silence to reflect and meditate on the "Word" and on the priest's message. How appropriate to reflect on what the Spirit is trying to communicate with us. Then after his message and the silence, he asked if anyone felt they needed to share soemthing with the community. Following these reflections the whole community porcessed back into the room we had originally come from by form of a dance. We were connected to each other by putting our right hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us. We processed as a congregation around the communion alter. We participated in communion and then we closed with a circle dance as a community!

It was just a very rich and neat experience. After the service, I stayed for a prayer study. The man leading it had been a monk for 6 years. He asked each of us to think about our prayer life for a minute. Then we were to reflect on how we felt about our prayer life and what we hoped to receive from the prayer studies.

It was so enriching to hear each story. To hear where their prayer life began and where it is now, some came full circle some were just beginning, some were wanting something different. but as I wrote some of the significant comments made by people it was obvious several things were at the heart of everyone there...hunger for something more, something deeper; yearning; wanting to be connected; a friendship with a higher being...it was so powerful to hear other people struggling to understand this connection we have to this great mysterious being and all of us wanting that connection to be more intimate!

WOW to think we didn't use any curriculum...we just shared our personal story of prayer! Loved it!