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4

CHAPTER FOUR

APPLICATION TO
CHURCH AND WORSHIP

Kinesis


 

APPLICATION TO
CHURCH AND WORSHIP

Kinesis

Body Movements, Dance   

 

Text Box: "The spiritual dance has no other purpose, no other aim than to elevate [hu]mankind beyond self-thought, to joy, to bliss, to realization and to peace ... the sincere dancer is one of the best workers for universal harmony, and so, for universal peace..." (Samuel Lewis, founder of the Dances of Universal Peace)    

 

 

 

 

The body movements show attitude or emotion, or even something as general as the clothes they wear. Both these are absorbed in the traditional liturgy in the clothing of the celebrant and the celebration of sacrament. 

Singing and dancing are elementary creative expressions of our being. Focusing and using our bodies, hearts and souls brings our whole being into balance and harmony.

 

 

Text Box: "We sing and dance and move in circles. This is the outer form - yet beyond this there is something subtle and penetrating that can be felt deep inside when we dance. These simple circle dances, which can be wonderfully joyful and yet profoundly moving, are inspired by the wisdom and sacred phrases of the world’s spiritual traditions. Essentially they are a form of meditation through sacred sounds and devotional movements."  (Philip O'Donohoe)

 

Text Box: "The feeling of chanting simple, sacred phrases with devotion in English, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit and many other languages gives, especially when combined with movement, an immediate, accessible feeling for another tradition." (Saadi Neil Douglas Klotz)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rhythm is life: every step - every heartbeat - breathing in and out. When all mankind resonates there is oneness and they become part of the body of Christ. The human voice is a gateway to the soul.

 

This oneness feeling is part of the process of worship.

Hare Krishna chant and dance.    

       

Sufi Whirling Dance Worship

 

Charismatic worship

 

Extreme symbolisms are employed in this worship where all the elements of visual and auditory senses are brought in to create a strong mystic understanding of relation between man and God. (Charismatic Episcopal Church, Selma, Alabama)

Forming a circle is a symbol and reminder of us being part of a community. In synchronised movements of the group as one organism, the separated individuality may dissolve into a blissful state of oneness.  Singing in harmony with others resonates with all creation: sun, moon and the planets, the elements around us - and the dancing atoms in us.  The soul can rejoice - and worries fade away... (Ralph)

 

 

Modern Jewish worship

This early Christian practice of singing spiritual songs is a continuation of the ancient Judaic tradition of chanting psalms. For centuries, before the appearance of the Messiah, Israel had declared the praises of our Lord with hymns found in the Book of Psalms.

                            David the Psalmist                                     

        


   Celebration lead by Mirium

 After the Resurrection and establishment of the New Covenant therefore, it was only natural that these first Christians and members of the New Israel, should pray with the same voice as the fathers of old; embroidering it with their own Hellenic tradition as well.  As the church grew in various cultures, it takes the language of the culture to express itself in psalms and chants and rituals.

As the church grew, and especially after the years of early Church persecutions, many new hymns which were specifically Christian in character began to appear. But how were these hymns to be sung? Where they to be chanted by harmonizing or by monophonic choirs? To answer these questions the early Christians referred to Isaiah's vision of angels of the Lord praising God and singing in one voice: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah 6.3). It was precisely because the heavenly hosts sang their praises of God in a single voice that the early Christians, favored monophonic singing, and adopted it as the early form of Christian chant.

There were two kinds of singing in the early Church:

  • an ancient Responsorial Form.  This began with a soloist's singing of the response, which was usually a selected verse from a psalm. This gave the proper pitch to the choir, made of the congregation, which then repeated the response
  • a later Antiphonal Form. The Antiphonal procedure required that the congregation be divided into two choirs, each with its own leader and each with its own refrain.  

 Liturgical chant became an integral part of Christian worship since Apostolic times in agreement with the admonition of St. Paul: "With gratitude in your heart sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God" (Col. 3:16). Chant, especially in the Byzantine Rite, became an expression of liturgical piety of the faithful, who used to come together in their churches not only for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, but also for their common prayers, offering to God their "sacrifice of praise" (Heb. 13:15).