Admittedly Sue Johnson and Fred Hiltz waltzing to "One Bread, One Body" is far from the best use of dance at what I presume was a worship gathering. If it had been the 1970s, at the height of the charismatic movement, and a Fisher Folk team from the Community of Celebration had been leading the worship, they would have played something livelier, such as "The King of Glory comes, the nation rejoices," and taught simple dance steps to the entire congregation. Then everybody could have "danced before the Lord" as King David did.
"When the Spirit of the Lord is within my heart, I will dance as David danced.
When the Spirit of the Lord is within my heart, I will dance as David danced.
I will dance, I will dance, I will dance as David danced.
I will dance, I will dance, I will dance as David danced."
Circle dancing was not unknown in the early church and the medieval church. The tunes of the older Christmas and Easter carols are dance tunes. In an earlier age their singing was accompanied by dancing.
The tunes of the metrical Psalms, popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean England are dance tunes.
The monks of Weston Abbey reintroduced the circle dance in the 20th century.
In Africa in Anglican churches the choir and the congregation dance and stamp their feet to hymns and worship songs.
Hand clapping, uplifted hands, and moving to the beat of the music are common practices in a number of contemporary churches--Anglican and non-Anglican, charismatic and non-charismatic. The practice of uplifted hands is found in the Bible and was a common practice in the early church. It was NOT confined to the clergy.
You may personally not be comfortable with such practices but they are actually much more agreeable to the teaching of the Bible than let us say ringing bells during the Words of Institution and elevating the cup and host for adoration after the consecration.
I've got no problems with dancing, unfortunately 99% of time I've witnessed liturgical dance, it's been poorly executed. This is not even liturgical, it's swing dancing. A partner dance. I find it interesting the female Lutheran chose to fall into her gender role as 'follow' to the male Anglican 'lead'. The only decent church dancing takes place in a Southern 'Holiness' church where the Spirit takes the members in the pews as others shake tambourines.
While I can understand folks not being comfortable with dance as a form of worship, and some kinds of dance I would allow have no place in Christian worship, characterizing it as something that always and invariably worthy of disgust or hatred, which is what an "abomination" means strikes me as an extreme view. This is certainly not a view that the Bible supports.
The main reasons that I find people are not comfortable with dance in worship is that they are not accustomed to it and dance for them may have other associations. They may even consider dancing to be immoral or lascivious.
The simple dance steps that the Community of Celebration's Fisherfolk teams taught congregations were taken from Israeli folk dances and were quite innocuous. They provided the congregation with another set of body movements with which they could express their praise and adoration of God. The Bible teaches that we should worship God with our whole being--body, heart, and mind.
My problem with this particular example, and with many examples of liturgical dance, is that the participants tend to draw attention to themselves, rather than to the Lord.
. . . ouch . . . my me hurts . . .
ReplyDeleteWannabe, you are growing stuffy in your old age.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly Sue Johnson and Fred Hiltz waltzing to "One Bread, One Body" is far from the best use of dance at what I presume was a worship gathering. If it had been the 1970s, at the height of the charismatic movement, and a Fisher Folk team from the Community of Celebration had been leading the worship, they would have played something livelier, such as "The King of Glory comes, the nation rejoices," and taught simple dance steps to the entire congregation. Then everybody could have "danced before the Lord" as King David did.
"When the Spirit of the Lord is within my heart, I will dance as David danced.
When the Spirit of the Lord is within my heart, I will dance as David danced.
I will dance, I will dance,
I will dance as David danced.
I will dance, I will dance,
I will dance as David danced."
Circle dancing was not unknown in the early church and the medieval church. The tunes of the older Christmas and Easter carols are dance tunes. In an earlier age their singing was accompanied by dancing.
The tunes of the metrical Psalms, popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean England are dance tunes.
The monks of Weston Abbey reintroduced the circle dance in the 20th century.
In Africa in Anglican churches the choir and the congregation dance and stamp their feet to hymns and worship songs.
Hand clapping, uplifted hands, and moving to the beat of the music are common practices in a number of contemporary churches--Anglican and non-Anglican, charismatic and non-charismatic. The practice of uplifted hands is found in the Bible and was a common practice in the early church. It was NOT confined to the clergy.
You may personally not be comfortable with such practices but they are actually much more agreeable to the teaching of the Bible than let us say ringing bells during the Words of Institution and elevating the cup and host for adoration after the consecration.
I've got no problems with dancing, unfortunately 99% of time I've witnessed liturgical dance, it's been poorly executed. This is not even liturgical, it's swing dancing. A partner dance. I find it interesting the female Lutheran chose to fall into her gender role as 'follow' to the male Anglican 'lead'.
ReplyDeleteThe only decent church dancing takes place in a Southern 'Holiness' church where the Spirit takes the members in the pews as others shake tambourines.
100% of the time I've witnessed liturgical dance it has been an abomination.
ReplyDelete(I do not consider holy rollers carrying on to be liturgical dance. Such is not included in the above 100%.)
wannabe
That is a curious way to get the "one bread" to rise.
ReplyDeleteWannabe,
ReplyDeleteWhile I can understand folks not being comfortable with dance as a form of worship, and some kinds of dance I would allow have no place in Christian worship, characterizing it as something that always and invariably worthy of disgust or hatred, which is what an "abomination" means strikes me as an extreme view. This is certainly not a view that the Bible supports.
The main reasons that I find people are not comfortable with dance in worship is that they are not accustomed to it and dance for them may have other associations. They may even consider dancing to be immoral or lascivious.
The simple dance steps that the Community of Celebration's Fisherfolk teams taught congregations were taken from Israeli folk dances and were quite innocuous. They provided the congregation with another set of body movements with which they could express their praise and adoration of God. The Bible teaches that we should worship God with our whole being--body, heart, and mind.
My problem with this particular example, and with many examples of liturgical dance, is that the participants tend to draw attention to themselves, rather than to the Lord.
ReplyDeleteYou win
ReplyDeleteI lose
I could not watch it to the end