Christian Tai Chi?

Last night I attended a workshop in Dunblane cathedral which was about praying using your whole body. It was lead by a delightful Roman Catholic nun who had the group of us moving slowly and rhythmically in gentle sweeping movements with our arms and shifting the balance between our feet. All the while she encouraged us with her melodious Irish voice. She said things like "as you move your hands sweep away from you all the bad thoughts" and  "As you bring your hands up to your head think of the Holy Spirit coming into your body."

It was not Tai Chi. It was led by a Christian, who read bible passages as part of the body meditation and it was held in a holy Christian setting. Tai Chi originates as an expression of the Taoist religion and this was nothing to do with that. However the exercises were based on the moves used by Tai Chi. Was it Christian Tai Chi or was it a group of Christians doing a series of exercises originally designed as part of some eastern religious practice. If you had never seen Tai Chi you would think we were just gracefully moving our arms about like the branches of a tree swaying in the wind.

I saw an article in a newspaper about a vicar in Yorkshire who banned a group of elderly ladies from having a gentle exercise class in his church hall because he believed it was influenced by Tai Chi. Perhaps that guy needs to get a life. I think he doesn't realise that he does not need to protect his little blinkered version of Christianity from things that happen in the world that might pollute it. God is far bigger than than our images and projections of him and doesn't need controlling vicars telling him what is right and what is wrong. If his faith wasn't strong enough to engage in a little light exercise without fearing to lose his faith then I feel sorry for him.

And as to the experience. It provided a deep relaxation and as we sat and meditated after standing for the exercises and I felt a very deep peace. It was a truly blessed time of prayer in which the sense of peace was profound.

As I was out in the woods today I stood alone under a tree and repeated some of the exercises and came home from my walk feeling relaxed and renewed. I don't know if this is what people get out of doing Tai Chi? All I know is that it works as an objective experience aside from any religious interpretation attached to the practice. I think I will be doing it again.


POSTSCRIPT

After blogging this post I was reminded of the following which is about Yoga but equally could have been about Tai Chi:

Many years ago there was a heated debate about Yoga which went like this:

Angry person:  Yoga is dangerous - it's demonic
Minister:       How so?
Angry person:    The poses are prayer-positions to pagan deities, which are actually demons, so if you do Yoga poses, you are praying to demons, and they can come in
Minister:     What, even if you're purely doing it for physical exercise?
Angry person:    Yes - as soon as you do Yoga, you are praying to Pagan deities
Minister:      If a non-Christian kneels at the front of a church in a Christian prayer-position, are they praying to God?  Will the Holy Spirit come in to them?
Angry person:   Only if they are praying the sinner's prayer, and then only if they really mean it
Minister:      So you're saying that God will only come in response to prayer if the person doing it fully intends to pray to him - not just because they're kneeling?
Angry person:  That's right
Minister:      But a pagan deity can take control of someone who'd assumed a yoga pose purely as exercise?
Angry person:   Yes
Minister:      That makes demons sound more powerful than God......