‘Some bodily worship is necessary to give liberty to our own devotion; yea though in secret, so more when with others . . . ‘Tis necessary that there should be something bodily and visible in the worship of a congregation; otherwise, there can be no communion at all’.I wonder what he had in mind by bodily and visible. Our corporate worship is usually done standing in rows and singing songs or reciting/singing a liturgy. As whole beings we just use our voices and move occasionally from standing to sitting. The taking of communion can be a time when you get up and walk forward to kneel and receive but where I now minister the elements are brought to people sitting in their pews.
Am I advocating dance? You wouldn't want that! Have you ever seen me dance! I don't want to hold my hands in the air to get the physical sensations that this induces as the blood drains from your arms!
How can our whole bodily reality be expressed in a time of worship? Do we want to create symbolic actions that get us moving about and doing something? (Put a pebble in the bowl, hang a leaf on this branch with a written prayer on it, sick a flag on the map of the world - I have been there and done that and as one off events they can appropriate and moving. Maybe this is a start. But these things are novelties and not really suitable to become a regular liturgical practice. And how do we include this in our regular week by week practice in buildings with immobile, uncomfortable seats in fixed rows?
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