Introduction to this Reading
I have been learning about Worship through my engagement with the World Methodist Council. Part of my learning has been the opportunity to gather with other people formed and nurtured by the Wesleyan tradition. It has been a steep learning curve and full of challenges and delights. This essay was an opportunity to reflect on some of the emerging issues. The original version of this essay has been published in a collection from the Pacific/Oceania:
When We Pray - The Future of Common Prayer
Edited By Stephen Burns and Robert Gribben, May 2020
As the WMC member churches live through 2020, we are mindful that migration and justice issues, climate emergency and racism are all shaping our contexts and heartaches. Each of these areas have been building up and we seek God’s guidance with how to address all of them. At the same time, the global pandemic has pushed us into different forms of communication and confronted our sense of time and progress.
In isolation, we have found connection. Outside church buildings, we still form community. In worship, we have been stripped out of our buildings and have had to find ways to continue to connect with one another and God and be God’s people. It is, therefore, timely for us to consider how we worship, when so much has changed and yet so much remains.
For the purposes of discussion by members of the World Methodist Council, I have edited the original essay and inserted some questions for reflection.
_____
The first time I led worship with the Parramatta Fijians was after several months of sitting in the pew, learning how to be in the community. I was surprised when I was welcomed every week, but came to learn it is part of being a Talatala. I will always be welcomed. I wonder if it is because for so long Talatalas were foreigners, missionaries, not really part of the community? The congregation were surprised I did not default to starting worship with words, as most English-speakers did. After they sang, I herded a young boy to the front to help light the Candle, sent him back and signaled for everyone to bow their heads in prayer... Bula! Let’s pray.
At inauguration (1977), the Uniting Church in Australia had myriad resources5. Identity was summarized in The Basis of Union6 and new logo, but negotiation and compromise left little energy for integrating offerings as subsequent communities entered union. In 1988, booklet-form services and the ‘...publication of a comprehensive collection of services and other resources’ were released in Uniting in Worship (UiW). UiW tried to capture and embed the new ‘Uniting’ identity, using phrases from The Basis of Union. Adherence to set texts gave way to pockets of creativity as people used new language about themselves.
The ecumenical DNA began to find expression, taking members beyond known catholic, reformed and evangelical traditions. Liturgists collaborated with partners in Aotearoa-New Zealand and Canada. Many embraced elements from the pentecostal movement, with Hillsong events populated by Uniting Church worship leaders and musicians. Diversity was embraced with the declaration ‘We are a Multicultural Church’ in 1985 (welcoming recent migrants and international partnerships). By 2005, the new edition, Uniting in Worship 2 (UIW2) included core materials, with more comprehensive data-resources on CD.7
We go
Notes:
1. For those unfamiliar with Fijians, these Melanesian people have a strong heritage of communal singing, with fine choirs and household singing and ritual practices. The language of Fiji connects strongly with the land and sea culture of the collection of Pacific islands. Fijian people value collective, yet highly structured community. Fijians are among the most dark-skinned in the Pacific, often appearing distinctive when standing alongside their Polynesian neighbours from Samoa or Tonga.
I have been learning about Worship through my engagement with the World Methodist Council. Part of my learning has been the opportunity to gather with other people formed and nurtured by the Wesleyan tradition. It has been a steep learning curve and full of challenges and delights. This essay was an opportunity to reflect on some of the emerging issues. The original version of this essay has been published in a collection from the Pacific/Oceania:
When We Pray - The Future of Common Prayer
Edited By Stephen Burns and Robert Gribben, May 2020
The essays in this volume from liturgists in mainstream Christian churches in Australia and New Zealand gladly acknowledge that when we pray, we join with others.We share a history, a way of worshipping, often a common language and established forms, with authorised prayer books designed to retain the theological and liturgical emphases of the various churches. Yet it is a subject that can divide as well as unite; with a variety of experiences, attitudes and aspirations, especially in a world where forms of worship are readily accessible from internet sources.If worship and prayer express what we believe, who authorises forms of worship; who determines the authenticity of liturgy; what principles underlie and surround how people of faith worship in formal gatherings? These are some of the issues that inform the essays in this practical and ecumenical resource.Robert Gribben is a former member of the WMC Steering Committee and has a keen sense for encouraging some of the smaller voices to speak up.
As the WMC member churches live through 2020, we are mindful that migration and justice issues, climate emergency and racism are all shaping our contexts and heartaches. Each of these areas have been building up and we seek God’s guidance with how to address all of them. At the same time, the global pandemic has pushed us into different forms of communication and confronted our sense of time and progress.
In isolation, we have found connection. Outside church buildings, we still form community. In worship, we have been stripped out of our buildings and have had to find ways to continue to connect with one another and God and be God’s people. It is, therefore, timely for us to consider how we worship, when so much has changed and yet so much remains.
For the purposes of discussion by members of the World Methodist Council, I have edited the original essay and inserted some questions for reflection.
_____
Becoming we: Exploring Liminality
A missional argument for ambiguity in liturgical language
Amelia Koh-Butler
Abstract
Hospitality operates in and beyond words, in story, sign, symbol and embodiment. One area of experience does not invalidate others, yet our tradition often emphasizes text-specific language. This chapter explores how different cultural groups carry different perceptions, yet, God may build communitas through shared liturgical experiences, including the interaction of verbal and non-verbal languages. Building imaginative and intentionally ambiguous languages in worship leads us into a new common sense of missional identity.
__________
Leader 1: "Talatala (tr. Minister)... when are we going to start?"
Me: "Whenever you are ready to sing.[pause...]
Leader 1: "oh"
Other members: "What happened? What’s she doing?"
Leader 1: "We are doing it Fijian-style."
The first time I led worship with the Parramatta Fijians was after several months of sitting in the pew, learning how to be in the community. I was surprised when I was welcomed every week, but came to learn it is part of being a Talatala. I will always be welcomed. I wonder if it is because for so long Talatalas were foreigners, missionaries, not really part of the community? The congregation were surprised I did not default to starting worship with words, as most English-speakers did. After they sang, I herded a young boy to the front to help light the Candle, sent him back and signaled for everyone to bow their heads in prayer... Bula! Let’s pray.
Waiting for the community, the sung call, the visual action, the greeting in ‘mother’ language... were all part of worship that acknowledged who we were before God. My congregation were initially concerned about what I might be doing. (I don’t look Fijian)1. The moment of waiting and not knowing had transformed them and me into us. Once they realized I knew who we were, we were able to worship together.
In July 2018, I reported on behalf of the Worship and Liturgy Committee of the World Methodist Council (WMC),
Coordinating WMC Worship in Seoul, I described the scope of our difference. Some have set texts and narrow expectations, emphasizing piety from the Wesleyan heritage2. Others have flexibility, prioritising community relationships. The Committee’s task was curating worship3 for our global context. Turning to established performative patterns (shaped by the rubrics of a prayer-book) and familiar words (exemplar texts), we also used more than twenty languages and symbols from six continents.
I write, conscious of my Uniting Church heritage and formative years in an Anglican school, using An Australian Prayerbook (Church of England, 1978). I have automatic responses to trigger phrases. I write as worshipper, practitioner and missiologist. I am a Multifaith Tertiary Chaplain, worshipping in a Fijian-Australian UCA Congregation, as a Buddhist convert of Chinese-Scottish heritage with my Aussie- Spanish-Irish husband. My congregation has set a goal to decolonize worship4. This essay is my response.
...Many of our churches offer a great gift in their preservation of historical forms and some translate those into vibrant expressions that engage people in contemporary life and service.
What is noticeable, is that those Churches who have the longest-established Books of Order/Books of Discipline often have liturgies with deeply historical roots, whereas the more recently-established Churches often have more flexibility and more options for liturgical components. (Koh-Butler 2018)
Coordinating WMC Worship in Seoul, I described the scope of our difference. Some have set texts and narrow expectations, emphasizing piety from the Wesleyan heritage2. Others have flexibility, prioritising community relationships. The Committee’s task was curating worship3 for our global context. Turning to established performative patterns (shaped by the rubrics of a prayer-book) and familiar words (exemplar texts), we also used more than twenty languages and symbols from six continents.
I write, conscious of my Uniting Church heritage and formative years in an Anglican school, using An Australian Prayerbook (Church of England, 1978). I have automatic responses to trigger phrases. I write as worshipper, practitioner and missiologist. I am a Multifaith Tertiary Chaplain, worshipping in a Fijian-Australian UCA Congregation, as a Buddhist convert of Chinese-Scottish heritage with my Aussie- Spanish-Irish husband. My congregation has set a goal to decolonize worship4. This essay is my response.
Question for Reflection:What cultures shape your experiences of worship?What has surprised you when experiencing worship among people of other cultural backgrounds?
At inauguration (1977), the Uniting Church in Australia had myriad resources5. Identity was summarized in The Basis of Union6 and new logo, but negotiation and compromise left little energy for integrating offerings as subsequent communities entered union. In 1988, booklet-form services and the ‘...publication of a comprehensive collection of services and other resources’ were released in Uniting in Worship (UiW). UiW tried to capture and embed the new ‘Uniting’ identity, using phrases from The Basis of Union. Adherence to set texts gave way to pockets of creativity as people used new language about themselves.
The ecumenical DNA began to find expression, taking members beyond known catholic, reformed and evangelical traditions. Liturgists collaborated with partners in Aotearoa-New Zealand and Canada. Many embraced elements from the pentecostal movement, with Hillsong events populated by Uniting Church worship leaders and musicians. Diversity was embraced with the declaration ‘We are a Multicultural Church’ in 1985 (welcoming recent migrants and international partnerships). By 2005, the new edition, Uniting in Worship 2 (UIW2) included core materials, with more comprehensive data-resources on CD.7
As Uniting Church members, we named inclusion as a core value8. Inclusion grew and tight boundaries around liturgical conformity (sticking to reading English- language texts and performing habitual actions) were replaced with more hospitable ways of gathering diversity (including multilingual texts, negotiated verbal-visual language and contextualized movement). Marking the shift, Ordered Liberty9 was argued for:
Ordered Liberty included following rubrics in the text advising whether something might or should happen. While liberty was implied in the rubrics in UiW, its first decade coincided with a period of identity-formation. Only Ministers/Presiders had copies of ‘the UiW Red Leader’s book’, so creative input by worshippers, who had ‘the UiW Blue People’s book’, was significantly restricted. Where UiW was less visible, a sense of pioneering saw freedom to draw upon international materials. The Canberra World Council of Churches (1991) inspired choreographers, actors, musicians and wordsmiths, resulting in pilgrimages to Taize, Glasgow, Singapore and Toronto. Affirming multicultural identity and covenantal relationships with First Peoples, new resources were created or sourced to suit emerging contexts.11
One of the highly significant aspects of these (reformed) traditions was their reassertion of that liberty to which we are all heirs through Jesus Christ (see, e.g. Gal.S:1 and 2 Cor.3:l7.) Such liberty was and is valued, not only in belief and practice, but also in forms of worship so that dulling uniformity and 'vain repetitions' (Matt.6:7 KJV ) are avoided.
At the same time as it is the Holy Spirit's role to be 'the Lord and giver of life' we can be sure that the Spirit will enliven set orders and written prayers, including the words of the Lord's Prayer and of Scripture, and, just as readily, will inspire extempore forms.10
Ordered Liberty included following rubrics in the text advising whether something might or should happen. While liberty was implied in the rubrics in UiW, its first decade coincided with a period of identity-formation. Only Ministers/Presiders had copies of ‘the UiW Red Leader’s book’, so creative input by worshippers, who had ‘the UiW Blue People’s book’, was significantly restricted. Where UiW was less visible, a sense of pioneering saw freedom to draw upon international materials. The Canberra World Council of Churches (1991) inspired choreographers, actors, musicians and wordsmiths, resulting in pilgrimages to Taize, Glasgow, Singapore and Toronto. Affirming multicultural identity and covenantal relationships with First Peoples, new resources were created or sourced to suit emerging contexts.11
Dorothy McRae-McMahon12 exemplified creativity at Pitt St Uniting Church and in Worship Expos held at The ELM Centre13 in the 1990s-2000s. Rich liturgies were trialed at Pitt Street and adapted, via the Expos, into other congregations. Once liturgical liberty was understood by local leaders, there was no going back. Dorothy invited us into her world of liturgical imagination and poetry. Her presentations at Worship Expo involved inviting young and old to become flexible. She brought rocks, cloth, candles and other items, coaxing us to enact a liturgy using approachable elements. She challenged us to experiment within our own environments. Members of Pitt St shared how they had grown spiritually through worship creation, developing new language to express their faith.
As a missiologist, I call locally-grounded worship “liturgical contextualization”. It involves making meaning, communicating and recognizing who is making the ‘sacrifice of praise’. It makes tangible our grappling with gospel and culture, carrying an expectation of God’s inspiration everywhere. Contextualizing liturgy becomes an act of faith, as we attend to God’s revelation in situated time and place.
UIW2 gave permission to explore, to liberate order14 from the perception that it was restrictive. We may recognize God’s grace in different forms of physical greeting (a reverent bow or touching of forehead) or the way in which the seating and serving protocols of certain communities demonstrate relational respect. In 2014, a UCA Moderator, Rev Myung-Hwa Park, greeted retired Ministers with a deep Korean bow. From her embodied spiritual heritage, she demonstrated relationship by sharing Korean language and culture. She did not reenact a set piece. The meeting of Moderator and Ministers provided opportunity for fresh ritual action.
Despite expecting cross-cultural integration with UiW2, the reality was marked by lost potential. Leaders were often instructed to stick with published texts rather than treating them as examples. This lost opportunity was stark when UIW2 texts were translated into community languages, rather than using community cultural expressions and languages to realize the rubrics in UIW215. Using English as the dominant language did not give us the tools to go beyond non-English-language concepts.
What do you know about the liturgical heritage of your “home church”?
[Can you describe your heritage experiences for people from other backgrounds]?
______________
As a missiologist, I call locally-grounded worship “liturgical contextualization”. It involves making meaning, communicating and recognizing who is making the ‘sacrifice of praise’. It makes tangible our grappling with gospel and culture, carrying an expectation of God’s inspiration everywhere. Contextualizing liturgy becomes an act of faith, as we attend to God’s revelation in situated time and place.
UIW2 gave permission to explore, to liberate order14 from the perception that it was restrictive. We may recognize God’s grace in different forms of physical greeting (a reverent bow or touching of forehead) or the way in which the seating and serving protocols of certain communities demonstrate relational respect. In 2014, a UCA Moderator, Rev Myung-Hwa Park, greeted retired Ministers with a deep Korean bow. From her embodied spiritual heritage, she demonstrated relationship by sharing Korean language and culture. She did not reenact a set piece. The meeting of Moderator and Ministers provided opportunity for fresh ritual action.
Despite expecting cross-cultural integration with UiW2, the reality was marked by lost potential. Leaders were often instructed to stick with published texts rather than treating them as examples. This lost opportunity was stark when UIW2 texts were translated into community languages, rather than using community cultural expressions and languages to realize the rubrics in UIW215. Using English as the dominant language did not give us the tools to go beyond non-English-language concepts.
______________
Questions for Reflection:What do you know about the liturgical heritage of your “home church”?
[Can you describe your heritage experiences for people from other backgrounds]?
What might your heritage have to contribute to global conversations and discoveries about worship?
Words unite and divide: ‘emerging’, ‘missional’ and ‘fresh’
With globalization, English and American-speakers were struggling with language too. The term, Emerging mission, gained traction with The Gospel and our Culture Network (GOCN16) in the 1990s, as it focused on developing local missiologies (Hunsberger and Van Gelder 1996). Leaders in the Emerging Church movement worked with new forms of Christian community, articulating faith in context, with few assumptions about how Christianity was defined or the lens of Christendom applied (Sweet and Crouch 2003). ‘Church-planting’ and evangelistic circles, referred to emerging models of faith communities, built on spiritual traditions, but not bound by the constraints of inherited community expectations. While some church-planters had church-replication and site-inhabitation models in mind, others questioned what it meant to be church.
With globalization, English and American-speakers were struggling with language too. The term, Emerging mission, gained traction with The Gospel and our Culture Network (GOCN16) in the 1990s, as it focused on developing local missiologies (Hunsberger and Van Gelder 1996). Leaders in the Emerging Church movement worked with new forms of Christian community, articulating faith in context, with few assumptions about how Christianity was defined or the lens of Christendom applied (Sweet and Crouch 2003). ‘Church-planting’ and evangelistic circles, referred to emerging models of faith communities, built on spiritual traditions, but not bound by the constraints of inherited community expectations. While some church-planters had church-replication and site-inhabitation models in mind, others questioned what it meant to be church.
Mission-terminology appeared: missionary congregation (Robert Warren In the UK in 1995 and Alan Roxburgh In the US in 1997), missional church (Guder and Barrett 1998) and missional leader (Roxburgh, Romanuk, and Network 2006). Both Warren and Roxburgh documented attitude shifts required for institutionally-enculturated leaders to be more missional. They made the case for transformation through experience17. Where I believe the movement lost momentum, was in emphasising leadership, without sufficient attention to whole community practices and liminal reformation.18
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams influenced the English church to consider being mission-shaped and mission-focused (Williams, Mission, and Public Affairs 2005). Over a thousand fresh expressions of church developed since 1990. They were defined as:
In the Uniting Church, Congregations are defined by worship, witness and service19. Despite a history of service-oriented Presbyterian and Methodist Deaconesses in pre-union community development work, church-planters post-union focused on starting worship services on new sites. During the 2000’s people started talking about alternative faith communities20. However, it was 2009-2011 when service groups reported building new witnessing faith communities. In order to gain ecumenical support and blessing, Uniting, Lutheran and Anglican churches launched ‘pioneer’ mission-shaped-ministry training in Adelaide and Canberra21.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams influenced the English church to consider being mission-shaped and mission-focused (Williams, Mission, and Public Affairs 2005). Over a thousand fresh expressions of church developed since 1990. They were defined as:
... established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church [which] will come into being through principles of listening, service, incarnational mission and making disciples [and] will have the potential to become a mature expression of church shaped by the gospel... (Williams, Mission, and Public Affairs 2005)
In the Uniting Church, Congregations are defined by worship, witness and service19. Despite a history of service-oriented Presbyterian and Methodist Deaconesses in pre-union community development work, church-planters post-union focused on starting worship services on new sites. During the 2000’s people started talking about alternative faith communities20. However, it was 2009-2011 when service groups reported building new witnessing faith communities. In order to gain ecumenical support and blessing, Uniting, Lutheran and Anglican churches launched ‘pioneer’ mission-shaped-ministry training in Adelaide and Canberra21.
The Uniting Church’s Mission and Evangelism Network looked at how Fresh Expressions (FX) connected with groups of different cultures, languages and philosophies. FXs often start as contextualised experiments outside churches. New initiatives were encouraged, but the blessing of sacraments was harder to come by.
As we go through 2020, what factors shape the future of worship in your context?
______________
Questions for Reflection:As we go through 2020, what factors shape the future of worship in your context?
________________
Sitting at the little table
Growing up in Australia, I remember childhood Christmases where adults would sit at the big table and children, not yet trusted with the crystal and silverware, would be seated at the little table. There were advantages to being at the little table. Mess and noise were more acceptable, but the richer food and mysteries of the big table.
Likewise, some FXs failed due to lack of eucharistic access22. New believers might be baptised in small groups, but without Communion in their own discipling groups, some felt starved or rejected. Few could imagine themselves as bearers of life for the world when the institutional Church judged them too immature for the heavenly banquet23. Differing attitudes to church membership challenged ideas of how hospitality was respectfully given, received and shared. In the Uniting24 Church, Communion was understood to be nourishment for the baptized, but the practice was to welcome all to an open table whether they were able to confess faith or not25.
Growing up in Australia, I remember childhood Christmases where adults would sit at the big table and children, not yet trusted with the crystal and silverware, would be seated at the little table. There were advantages to being at the little table. Mess and noise were more acceptable, but the richer food and mysteries of the big table.
Likewise, some FXs failed due to lack of eucharistic access22. New believers might be baptised in small groups, but without Communion in their own discipling groups, some felt starved or rejected. Few could imagine themselves as bearers of life for the world when the institutional Church judged them too immature for the heavenly banquet23. Differing attitudes to church membership challenged ideas of how hospitality was respectfully given, received and shared. In the Uniting24 Church, Communion was understood to be nourishment for the baptized, but the practice was to welcome all to an open table whether they were able to confess faith or not25.
Confessional absence or ambiguity is sometimes only noticed when public confession is demonstrated. In one of my congregations, I was approached by two elderly women. Both served in church roles over many decades, but were now experimenting with contextual mission. After twenty years discussion together, they asked me to baptise them. Having been communicants for longer than anyone remembered, I asked ‘why now?’ They were not baptized as infants because their families could not afford Christening gowns. The social expectations had been obstacles to their embrace. As they matured, they remained silent. Now they sought release from fear and shame26 to publicly testify to friends and family beyond church.
Post-Christendom saw people questioning Christian identity. They were wary of socializing influences (seemingly at the expense of faith formation), as with the women and their Christening gowns. Some were exposed to Christianity through interfaith activities27. Bosch encourages us not to be scared of such interactions (Bosch 1991, 467-474), but to expect to meet God.
Amid religious suspicion, rigid norms could not be imposed. People longed for authentic worship with integrity of meaning. It was not appropriate to put words into their mouths, but it was possible to negotiate fresh ways of offering praise, sorrow, thanksgiving, proclamation of truth and pleading for mercy. Paradoxically, when our local Church Council learnt of the christening gowns, they gifted white dresses to the women. Obstacles to grace were now received as gifts of love and healing, symbols of interwoven stories.
Ambiguity allows room for flipping meaning, reducing reliance on particular interpretation. The sacrament-sharing community becomes less focused on itself and more on God, who includes those beyond the initial invitation (Luke 14:15-24). The women sought to celebrate their lives of faith, using sign, seal and symbol (sacrament). The Church recognized the shift in narrative around the symbolic ‘new garment’, affirming a sacred-familial relationship between the fellowship and the women. The event provided the opportunity for an act of grace (sacramental behaviour). The work of the people involves negotiating the explicit and the ambiguous, so ‘the ancient dream of God’ (Schori 2012, xvi) can be experienced. The risk is the Gospel can become so subtle it ceases to be proclaimed, while consciousness of the Kingdom of disappears28.
Post-Christendom saw people questioning Christian identity. They were wary of socializing influences (seemingly at the expense of faith formation), as with the women and their Christening gowns. Some were exposed to Christianity through interfaith activities27. Bosch encourages us not to be scared of such interactions (Bosch 1991, 467-474), but to expect to meet God.
Amid religious suspicion, rigid norms could not be imposed. People longed for authentic worship with integrity of meaning. It was not appropriate to put words into their mouths, but it was possible to negotiate fresh ways of offering praise, sorrow, thanksgiving, proclamation of truth and pleading for mercy. Paradoxically, when our local Church Council learnt of the christening gowns, they gifted white dresses to the women. Obstacles to grace were now received as gifts of love and healing, symbols of interwoven stories.
Ambiguity allows room for flipping meaning, reducing reliance on particular interpretation. The sacrament-sharing community becomes less focused on itself and more on God, who includes those beyond the initial invitation (Luke 14:15-24). The women sought to celebrate their lives of faith, using sign, seal and symbol (sacrament). The Church recognized the shift in narrative around the symbolic ‘new garment’, affirming a sacred-familial relationship between the fellowship and the women. The event provided the opportunity for an act of grace (sacramental behaviour). The work of the people involves negotiating the explicit and the ambiguous, so ‘the ancient dream of God’ (Schori 2012, xvi) can be experienced. The risk is the Gospel can become so subtle it ceases to be proclaimed, while consciousness of the Kingdom of disappears28.
Working with Parramatta Mission, I experience God’s hospitality when God’s people gather to intentionally extend God’s hospitality beyond themselves, whether through Christmas lunches, soup kitchens or drop-ins. They incarnate God’s mission. Sharing through meal and community, they enact Gospel proclamation (1 Corinthians 11:26). Janet Fishburn argues the marginalised should find hospitality at the Lord’s Table29, where God’s universal invitation challenges local habit. Without a sense of table extension, the heavenly banquet is reduced to a cramped and contained family meal.
__________
Question for Reflection:
In isolation, what has still been authentic about worship?
___________
The Butler’s Mission: Grace through Music
As a Presider, I often reflect on my late-husband’s name – Butler. To be a good butler, I must make room, prepare for guests, adapt to unanticipated needs. Hospitality needs space where people can be free of fear, particularly the fear of exclusion or judgment. Eric Law refers to the suspension of fear as existing within a grace margin, where differences or ambiguities can be tolerated (Law 2000)30. Many churches describe the desire to create a ‘safe place’. The grace margin, however, is not determined by what dominant members feel as safe, but by the amount of grace they need to exercise to assist the most marginalized to be free of fear.
Music-making offers opportunity to be both explicit and implicit. We make music. It is not an object, but an activity demanding participation, whether through performing or listening (McGann 2002, 22). Lyrics can define theological concepts or provide the ambiguity required to share safe space. Substance and meaning can be discovered in unregulated listening, singing, humming, moving, or even breathing with music without agreeing to the meanings others ascribe to it.
__________
Question for Reflection:
In isolation, what has still been authentic about worship?
___________
The Butler’s Mission: Grace through Music
As a Presider, I often reflect on my late-husband’s name – Butler. To be a good butler, I must make room, prepare for guests, adapt to unanticipated needs. Hospitality needs space where people can be free of fear, particularly the fear of exclusion or judgment. Eric Law refers to the suspension of fear as existing within a grace margin, where differences or ambiguities can be tolerated (Law 2000)30. Many churches describe the desire to create a ‘safe place’. The grace margin, however, is not determined by what dominant members feel as safe, but by the amount of grace they need to exercise to assist the most marginalized to be free of fear.
Music-making offers opportunity to be both explicit and implicit. We make music. It is not an object, but an activity demanding participation, whether through performing or listening (McGann 2002, 22). Lyrics can define theological concepts or provide the ambiguity required to share safe space. Substance and meaning can be discovered in unregulated listening, singing, humming, moving, or even breathing with music without agreeing to the meanings others ascribe to it.
Musiking (participation in making music) allows people to engage and play with ideas, in a temporary time and place. Singing words of faith seems to allow greater flexibility than speaking them (Saliers 2007, 20, 69-73). Music-making can allow community-with-diversity to be experienced. Hospitality is found in music that allows bodily engagement among the gathered. Ambiguity allows for multiple definitions, where obstacles to community are suspended. Such suspension can become an expression of the in-between space. It is ‘time-out’, a form of liminality.
Paul, the Coordinator of our Christmas lunch for 600, described the good-spirit of this year’s guests. He put it down to our singing of carols. It didn’t matter how many guests were Hindu, Muslim, Christian or people of no faith. Music was not simply an entertainment. People were more respectful of one another. Many did not understand the words, but thanksgivings were made. Carols helped make the gathering sacred.
Mary E.McGann describes a musical-theological approach as “how community members understand, interpret, and critique their musical-liturgical performance” (McGann, 2002:50). As a musician-liturgist, I have often focused on the words in songs. I get distressed when the lyrics do not fit my current theology. I struggle when the language we are singing does not sit neatly with my ‘finely- honed’ sermon. Yet, even recognizing my desire for textsof integrity for my context, I currently experience music-assisted liminality worshipping in Fijian a language I do not comprehend.
Toward the end of his life, my husband could no longer form, read or comprehend words quickly. Singing in a ‘foreign’ language allowed him freedom not experienced when singing in his own language (English). Listening to faith-filled voices, without understanding, allowed us to be in communion. There was an element of faith- nurturing as we were carried by the loving ministries of others. The mystery enhanced our experience of worship. We relied on the community revealing God’s richness to us. In their harmonies and consciousness of one another, talking about God gave way to wonder at what God’s Spirit was doing and, somehow, God was glorified.
__________
Question for Reflection:
Post-2020, who will be the people most likely to find themselves on the margins of worship? Why?
___________
Paul, the Coordinator of our Christmas lunch for 600, described the good-spirit of this year’s guests. He put it down to our singing of carols. It didn’t matter how many guests were Hindu, Muslim, Christian or people of no faith. Music was not simply an entertainment. People were more respectful of one another. Many did not understand the words, but thanksgivings were made. Carols helped make the gathering sacred.
Mary E.McGann describes a musical-theological approach as “how community members understand, interpret, and critique their musical-liturgical performance” (McGann, 2002:50). As a musician-liturgist, I have often focused on the words in songs. I get distressed when the lyrics do not fit my current theology. I struggle when the language we are singing does not sit neatly with my ‘finely- honed’ sermon. Yet, even recognizing my desire for textsof integrity for my context, I currently experience music-assisted liminality worshipping in Fijian a language I do not comprehend.
Toward the end of his life, my husband could no longer form, read or comprehend words quickly. Singing in a ‘foreign’ language allowed him freedom not experienced when singing in his own language (English). Listening to faith-filled voices, without understanding, allowed us to be in communion. There was an element of faith- nurturing as we were carried by the loving ministries of others. The mystery enhanced our experience of worship. We relied on the community revealing God’s richness to us. In their harmonies and consciousness of one another, talking about God gave way to wonder at what God’s Spirit was doing and, somehow, God was glorified.
__________
Question for Reflection:
Post-2020, who will be the people most likely to find themselves on the margins of worship? Why?
___________
Sending via Liminality - COMMUNITAS31
Ritual can: invite participants into liminal space, offer a framework for liminal engagement, or provide response to liminal experience (Grimes 1990). A characteristic of liminality is participant transformation. Victor Turner described the process as having a threefold pattern: (1) movement from structure into ambiguity and disorientation, (2) the experience of anti-structure, liminality or threshold space, and (3) reformation and renewal (Turner 1969, 94-95). Experiencing eucharistic ritual can provide the opportunity to develop communitas (a transformed community with new internal relationships and identity).
In the work of salvation, liminality can provide room for conversion and repentance.
Revisiting liminality is part of continuous re-formation in discipleship32. Regularly and ritually breaking bread and sharing wine are necessary for the faithful to be God’s transformed people. As disciples mature, they recognize their appetite for revisiting liminality in order to sustain communitas.
The ordo traces the movement from hospitality (invitation) to mission. The communitas transformation sees those who have participated as ‘going into the world’ (Erickson 1989, 8-9, White 1999, 113-118, Long 2009, 108-109). Missio (Latin: being sent) is linked to the intention of being brought together to partake of Communion. We gather and receive and, in turn, are sent to share God’s grace in the world. Example services UiW include a missional ‘Charge’ or a ‘Word of Mission’ before the final blessing to highlight the sending of the people into the world33.
United Methodists, Swanson and Clement (1996, 4), remind us of the importance of the ekklesia or gathered congregation. They argue the worshipping community carries the responsibility to send people, rather than persons, to join God’s mission. Worship, focusing on God, should also be evaluated for how it inspires communities to participate in God’s mission. While drawing people to worship God is one of the core outcomes of mission, it is also part of a living cycle of ‘worship, witness, and service’ (Uniting Church in Australia 1992, Paragraph 1).
Mission’s big table
How do we get a seat at the big table? The Uniting Church in Australia’s Basis of
Union states about Baptism, that it “...initiates people into Christ’s life and mission in the world, so that they are united in one fellowship of love, service, suffering and joy, in one family of the Father of all in heaven and earth, and in the power of the one Spirit” (Uniting Church in Australia 1992, Paragraph 7). Through participation in Holy Communion, we claim disciples are nourished to become missional nourishment, “...the people of God...are strengthened for their participation in the mission of Christ in the world...” (Uniting Church in Australia 1992, Paragraph 8).
Ritual can: invite participants into liminal space, offer a framework for liminal engagement, or provide response to liminal experience (Grimes 1990). A characteristic of liminality is participant transformation. Victor Turner described the process as having a threefold pattern: (1) movement from structure into ambiguity and disorientation, (2) the experience of anti-structure, liminality or threshold space, and (3) reformation and renewal (Turner 1969, 94-95). Experiencing eucharistic ritual can provide the opportunity to develop communitas (a transformed community with new internal relationships and identity).
In the work of salvation, liminality can provide room for conversion and repentance.
Revisiting liminality is part of continuous re-formation in discipleship32. Regularly and ritually breaking bread and sharing wine are necessary for the faithful to be God’s transformed people. As disciples mature, they recognize their appetite for revisiting liminality in order to sustain communitas.
The ordo traces the movement from hospitality (invitation) to mission. The communitas transformation sees those who have participated as ‘going into the world’ (Erickson 1989, 8-9, White 1999, 113-118, Long 2009, 108-109). Missio (Latin: being sent) is linked to the intention of being brought together to partake of Communion. We gather and receive and, in turn, are sent to share God’s grace in the world. Example services UiW include a missional ‘Charge’ or a ‘Word of Mission’ before the final blessing to highlight the sending of the people into the world33.
United Methodists, Swanson and Clement (1996, 4), remind us of the importance of the ekklesia or gathered congregation. They argue the worshipping community carries the responsibility to send people, rather than persons, to join God’s mission. Worship, focusing on God, should also be evaluated for how it inspires communities to participate in God’s mission. While drawing people to worship God is one of the core outcomes of mission, it is also part of a living cycle of ‘worship, witness, and service’ (Uniting Church in Australia 1992, Paragraph 1).
Mission’s big table
How do we get a seat at the big table? The Uniting Church in Australia’s Basis of
Union states about Baptism, that it “...initiates people into Christ’s life and mission in the world, so that they are united in one fellowship of love, service, suffering and joy, in one family of the Father of all in heaven and earth, and in the power of the one Spirit” (Uniting Church in Australia 1992, Paragraph 7). Through participation in Holy Communion, we claim disciples are nourished to become missional nourishment, “...the people of God...are strengthened for their participation in the mission of Christ in the world...” (Uniting Church in Australia 1992, Paragraph 8).
Christ offers sustenance, so the people become the means of encountering Christ for others. Bosch argues the Church’s essence is missionary. His identification of “Church-with-others” (Bosch 1991, 368), “Missionary by Its Very Nature”(1991, 372), “Pilgrim People” (1991, 373), and “Sign, Sacrament and Instrument”(1991, 374), encourages forming and nourishing community in a context characterised by diversity. Bosch’s work prompts the following questions in relation to such a missionary congregation’s liturgical life:
● How do we address the tension between individualistic world-views and an emerging call to community-oriented mission?
● How important are liturgy and hospitality in shaping our missional identity?
● How important is our identification as ‘local church’(Bosch 1991, 378)?
● How are diverse groups being ‘church’ within our local experience of the world?
● How do we understand our location, cultural identity, life-stage, politics, demographic, as we bear light and life within a local community?
The movement towards ministry by the whole people of God (Bosch 1991, 467-474) requires building connections between gatherings of individuals who then come to identify themselves as a people, bound in God’s story. Hospitality and eucharistic experience provide opportunities to build connection, with liturgy articulating identity. These are also times when different world-views can lead to tensions and conflicts around language, culture, tradition and relationship. Addressing these differences are required for any ecumenical future.
In Rome 2017, the World Methodist Steering Committee celebrated fifty years of ecumenical dialogue between the Vatican and Methodism. Expecting diplomacy, Pope Francis issued us a challenge. He proposed nothing short of full communion should be the goal of our dialogue34.
My thoughts went to the obstacles to be overcome. I imagined ecumenical worship teams moving beyond World Day of Prayer compromises (made possible by strong lay-women) to courageous creativity embraced widely. Bearing witness to Francis’ prophetic words, I wonder why we cling to the security of past practice, when the vision of broader inclusion is before us? What do we fear? Do we think we will be corrupted by becoming too close to alien cultures (syncretism)?
● How do we address the tension between individualistic world-views and an emerging call to community-oriented mission?
● How important are liturgy and hospitality in shaping our missional identity?
● How important is our identification as ‘local church’(Bosch 1991, 378)?
● How are diverse groups being ‘church’ within our local experience of the world?
● How do we understand our location, cultural identity, life-stage, politics, demographic, as we bear light and life within a local community?
The movement towards ministry by the whole people of God (Bosch 1991, 467-474) requires building connections between gatherings of individuals who then come to identify themselves as a people, bound in God’s story. Hospitality and eucharistic experience provide opportunities to build connection, with liturgy articulating identity. These are also times when different world-views can lead to tensions and conflicts around language, culture, tradition and relationship. Addressing these differences are required for any ecumenical future.
In Rome 2017, the World Methodist Steering Committee celebrated fifty years of ecumenical dialogue between the Vatican and Methodism. Expecting diplomacy, Pope Francis issued us a challenge. He proposed nothing short of full communion should be the goal of our dialogue34.
My thoughts went to the obstacles to be overcome. I imagined ecumenical worship teams moving beyond World Day of Prayer compromises (made possible by strong lay-women) to courageous creativity embraced widely. Bearing witness to Francis’ prophetic words, I wonder why we cling to the security of past practice, when the vision of broader inclusion is before us? What do we fear? Do we think we will be corrupted by becoming too close to alien cultures (syncretism)?
Bosch offers a reminder to confront syncretism and broaden perspectives about diverse gifts and graces in our community. The way to avoid syncretism is to ensure the salvation is not narrowly defined for a chosen few. He advocates the re- articulation of salvation in each missional context: how gospel is mediated relates to fresh interpretations of justice, evangelism, context, liberation, and enculturation. Surely, their pleas apply, not just to theology-missiologist, but also to worship?
In Seoul, one year after the Rome meeting, we gathered a global community to enter liminality and move towards unity of Spirit. Worship can be key to developing covenantal relationships (Lingenfelter 2008, 82-83). What did we hold ‘in common’. The eucharistic prayer provides the opportunity to invite diverse community to testify to their part in the story of God. Together, they proclaim the Gospel and experience the Kingdom as immanent (Welker 2000, 29-41, 88, 165, White 1980, 200, 1999, 28, Saliers 2007). It can be a time when God calls and sends. Disappointingly, what was suggested as common was the singing of Wesleyan hymns. As much as I love a good sing, I longed for more than a hymnfest at the ‘heavenly banquet’! I turned to our Nigerian members to share their abundant joy in a sung and danced Call to Worship, followed by a litany in eight languages. We heard the scriptures in the musics of different tongues and prayed a eucharistic prayer full of beautiful cultural imagery with different angles on the gospel story. The highlight, for me, however, was a prayer made meaningful through ritual action.
__________
Question for Reflection:
During 2020, has our understanding of little table and big table changed? Why? Why not?
___________
Contextual ritual reveals the potential We
Shared physical ritual can move community into communitas (Turner 1969, 96). People can overcome difference by sharing a ‘sympathetic’ sensation of mutual ‘fellow-feeling’ (Smith 2000). They move beyond holding things ‘in common’ to experiencing community as sacred and blessed (Carvalhaes 2011). While Turner makes the distinction between phases of communitas as existential, normative and ideological, rituals are not always experienced in the same way, even within shared communitas.
In Seoul, one year after the Rome meeting, we gathered a global community to enter liminality and move towards unity of Spirit. Worship can be key to developing covenantal relationships (Lingenfelter 2008, 82-83). What did we hold ‘in common’. The eucharistic prayer provides the opportunity to invite diverse community to testify to their part in the story of God. Together, they proclaim the Gospel and experience the Kingdom as immanent (Welker 2000, 29-41, 88, 165, White 1980, 200, 1999, 28, Saliers 2007). It can be a time when God calls and sends. Disappointingly, what was suggested as common was the singing of Wesleyan hymns. As much as I love a good sing, I longed for more than a hymnfest at the ‘heavenly banquet’! I turned to our Nigerian members to share their abundant joy in a sung and danced Call to Worship, followed by a litany in eight languages. We heard the scriptures in the musics of different tongues and prayed a eucharistic prayer full of beautiful cultural imagery with different angles on the gospel story. The highlight, for me, however, was a prayer made meaningful through ritual action.
__________
Question for Reflection:
During 2020, has our understanding of little table and big table changed? Why? Why not?
___________
Contextual ritual reveals the potential We
Shared physical ritual can move community into communitas (Turner 1969, 96). People can overcome difference by sharing a ‘sympathetic’ sensation of mutual ‘fellow-feeling’ (Smith 2000). They move beyond holding things ‘in common’ to experiencing community as sacred and blessed (Carvalhaes 2011). While Turner makes the distinction between phases of communitas as existential, normative and ideological, rituals are not always experienced in the same way, even within shared communitas.
In Newcastle (Australia), I worked with four distinct identity groups. Each participated in the same Eucharistic worship services, but understood what was happening in different ways. Some emphasized being in God’s presence, others saw the communal integration of their personal devotional lives, while others experienced a symbolic enactment of their life as God’s community in the world. Their different experiences did not detract from the building of communitas, neither did their understandings negate the understandings of the others. They held some things in common and lived in harmony, but were not conformed to one another. People enter into communitas with different understandings and experiences of what is happening. Communitas can develop from competing discourses (Eade and Sallnow 2000, 5), particularly as parties share journey or pilgrimage (Di Giovine 2011, 252-254).
Turner's work built on Arnold Van Gennep. He described three stages of movement from liminality to communitas in coming of age rituals: separation, liminal period, and reassimilation (Van Gennep 1909). He identified liminality as the space between stages or “intermediate” place. It can also be thought of as the 'in-between' time (Turner 1969). Communitas, comes when those who have undergone liminality are reassimilated into a new expression of community.
Christian Communitas sees gathered people, moving from a community structure, through liminality, where they thank God for Jesus' sacrificial love and receive gifted identity. In turn, they offer themselves to the society around them (Van Gennep 1909, Turner 1969, Higashi 2011, 52-55). Recent experiments in Christiancommunitas feature: space and color (Frost and Hirsch 2003, 27), healing (Griffith 1981), bread-baking (Hu 2011) and drumming (St Matthew’s Church 2014).
As people find themselves entering into and sharing God’s story through art, wellness, cooking and musicking, they are sharing in new forms of communal prayer. In the Eucharistic prayer, all people find themselves invited to participate at the universal table. Here, people say thank you, not always through the Presider’s words, but certainly as they receive and experience grace. Whatever is spoken, presence at the Creator’s table of shared creativity is an act of thanksgiving.
Prior to leaving Australia for Korea, I had a moment of foolishness and inspiration. Knowing there would be Pacific Islanders at the gathering, I hijacked my suitcase to pack a Samoan fine-woven grass mat35. Such mats are used in ceremonies and gatherings. They carry histories of communities and memorialize sacred storying. When I packed I did not know how the mat would be used, but I did know we wanted to include participants’ diverse languages, musics, signs and symbols. While curating can produce badly fitting patchwork coverings rather than beautifully woven garments of praise, I went with the expectation wisdom would emerge from the community.
Turner's work built on Arnold Van Gennep. He described three stages of movement from liminality to communitas in coming of age rituals: separation, liminal period, and reassimilation (Van Gennep 1909). He identified liminality as the space between stages or “intermediate” place. It can also be thought of as the 'in-between' time (Turner 1969). Communitas, comes when those who have undergone liminality are reassimilated into a new expression of community.
Christian Communitas sees gathered people, moving from a community structure, through liminality, where they thank God for Jesus' sacrificial love and receive gifted identity. In turn, they offer themselves to the society around them (Van Gennep 1909, Turner 1969, Higashi 2011, 52-55). Recent experiments in Christiancommunitas feature: space and color (Frost and Hirsch 2003, 27), healing (Griffith 1981), bread-baking (Hu 2011) and drumming (St Matthew’s Church 2014).
As people find themselves entering into and sharing God’s story through art, wellness, cooking and musicking, they are sharing in new forms of communal prayer. In the Eucharistic prayer, all people find themselves invited to participate at the universal table. Here, people say thank you, not always through the Presider’s words, but certainly as they receive and experience grace. Whatever is spoken, presence at the Creator’s table of shared creativity is an act of thanksgiving.
Prior to leaving Australia for Korea, I had a moment of foolishness and inspiration. Knowing there would be Pacific Islanders at the gathering, I hijacked my suitcase to pack a Samoan fine-woven grass mat35. Such mats are used in ceremonies and gatherings. They carry histories of communities and memorialize sacred storying. When I packed I did not know how the mat would be used, but I did know we wanted to include participants’ diverse languages, musics, signs and symbols. While curating can produce badly fitting patchwork coverings rather than beautifully woven garments of praise, I went with the expectation wisdom would emerge from the community.
The first use of the mat was in the Opening Service. We read the story of lowering the paralytic through the roof and Jesus telling him to take up his mat and walk (Mark 2:1-12). In the magnificent Kwanglim Church in Seoul, we had covered the communion table with the mat, then covered the mat with stoles from around the world. The visual welcome was immediate. During the reading, the stoles were swept aside to reveal the mat. It became a sign of sweeping away our overlaid stories to allow miracle-stories to be seen and told36.
The mat had a more subtle presence in a Second Worship Service, providing the background for the presentation of a pair of Peace Awards. Although it faded into the furnishings for most people, I was conscious of the Pacific (meaning peace) at a service focusing on peace.
The Closing Communion was when the impact of the mat became apparent. I approached a chiefly leader from Samoa to read the confessional prayer, developed by women from South Pacific fellowships, while the delegates from Oceania placed the mat over the leaders of our gathering, the President and General Secretary of the World Methodist Council. McPhearson describes the process as follows,
In Samoa, those confessing bring a mat and sit under it until the offended chooses to offer mercy. Under the mat, the supplicants do not eat nor drink. They do not leave to relieve themselves nor wash. There is a complete loss of dignity, a stripping of humanity, a sense of entering the tomb.
In ifoga, grace is not guaranteed. Risk, faith and hope all come into play. Through ritual, forgiveness withheld and grace fulfilled are sharply contrasted. The whole community prayed as if under the mat, naming self-awareness and recognising brokenness. When God’s forgiveness and redemption was proclaimed and celebrated, the mat was removed. We were given back the gift of our humanity, not simply by reconciling, but by being able to respond to God’s invitation together. Through shared restoration, we were able to be a whole community at the Lord’s table.
The next day, I debriefed some of the participants37. The ritual, held in eucharistic preparation, had deepened our appreciation of the restoration found in sharing bread and wine. While anyone remains ‘under the mat’, presence at the heavenly banquet remains incomplete. The global leaders found themselves humbled and grateful for the gift of grace in Jesus Christ.
The ritual gift for all came from part of the community. The larger gathering respectfully and gently entered into wisdom held by a few, in that time and place. Here, contextualization was not in a cultural icon the collective already held in common, but identifying which of many cultures present could contribute wisdom within the community. We layered meaning so the mat became part of our shared language38. To create mat-language with integrity, we needed ‘mat-Elders’ to guide us39. The value of a prayer- book, in this instance, was encouraging the common confession to be grounded in the languages available to the gathered community.
The ‘fine mat’ (with a President and General Secretary underneath)
- July 14, 2018, Seoul, Korea
The mat had a more subtle presence in a Second Worship Service, providing the background for the presentation of a pair of Peace Awards. Although it faded into the furnishings for most people, I was conscious of the Pacific (meaning peace) at a service focusing on peace.
The Closing Communion was when the impact of the mat became apparent. I approached a chiefly leader from Samoa to read the confessional prayer, developed by women from South Pacific fellowships, while the delegates from Oceania placed the mat over the leaders of our gathering, the President and General Secretary of the World Methodist Council. McPhearson describes the process as follows,
in a form of exchange known in samoa as the ifoga, one group submits to a ritual and public humiliation in return for the forgiveness by another offended one. (McPhearson 2005).
In Samoa, those confessing bring a mat and sit under it until the offended chooses to offer mercy. Under the mat, the supplicants do not eat nor drink. They do not leave to relieve themselves nor wash. There is a complete loss of dignity, a stripping of humanity, a sense of entering the tomb.
In ifoga, grace is not guaranteed. Risk, faith and hope all come into play. Through ritual, forgiveness withheld and grace fulfilled are sharply contrasted. The whole community prayed as if under the mat, naming self-awareness and recognising brokenness. When God’s forgiveness and redemption was proclaimed and celebrated, the mat was removed. We were given back the gift of our humanity, not simply by reconciling, but by being able to respond to God’s invitation together. Through shared restoration, we were able to be a whole community at the Lord’s table.
The next day, I debriefed some of the participants37. The ritual, held in eucharistic preparation, had deepened our appreciation of the restoration found in sharing bread and wine. While anyone remains ‘under the mat’, presence at the heavenly banquet remains incomplete. The global leaders found themselves humbled and grateful for the gift of grace in Jesus Christ.
The ritual gift for all came from part of the community. The larger gathering respectfully and gently entered into wisdom held by a few, in that time and place. Here, contextualization was not in a cultural icon the collective already held in common, but identifying which of many cultures present could contribute wisdom within the community. We layered meaning so the mat became part of our shared language38. To create mat-language with integrity, we needed ‘mat-Elders’ to guide us39. The value of a prayer- book, in this instance, was encouraging the common confession to be grounded in the languages available to the gathered community.
The ‘fine mat’ (with a President and General Secretary underneath)
- July 14, 2018, Seoul, Korea
Communitas sees people form missional community built through sharing together. The varied people of God respond with storytelling (proclamation) and thanksgiving (eucharist) to God's call to gather, confess their separation from one another and God, receive relational restoration, and cross a spiritual-liminal threshold as they are united with God at the common table. The new communitas is declared as the restored spiritual people are named as those sent by God and with God's Spirit into the world. Turner referred to communitas where people articulate a sense of the "essential We" (Turner 1969, 137), but eucharistic communitas is not simply a collection of people who have shared their liminal experience with one another. The key difference is in becoming, or being transformed into, the Body of Christ, ready to engage in God’s mission. I pray we may always be prepared to undertake this commission in fresh words and actions.
__________
Questions for Reflection:
__________
Questions for Reflection:
What new rituals have emerged during 2020?
Does that change our sense of who we are?
___________
Does that change our sense of who we are?
___________
Notes:
1. For those unfamiliar with Fijians, these Melanesian people have a strong heritage of communal singing, with fine choirs and household singing and ritual practices. The language of Fiji connects strongly with the land and sea culture of the collection of Pacific islands. Fijian people value collective, yet highly structured community. Fijians are among the most dark-skinned in the Pacific, often appearing distinctive when standing alongside their Polynesian neighbours from Samoa or Tonga.
2 See https://www.oikoumene.org/en/folder/documents-pdf/fo_celebrationseucharist.pdf P.7
The WCC “Fundamental Pattern of Eucharistic Celebration” (Ordo) was developed for a broad ecumenical family. In international conversations with Methodist/Wesleyan/Nazarene/United/Uniting colleagues, what and how to include worship elements had to be negotiated. e.g. particular themes of justice to be woven throughout, visibility of lay leadership, various spiritual disciplines (prayer, testimony, service and accountability practices from groups/class meetings).
3 Mark Pierson (2012) and Jonny Baker (2012) both use the term ‘Curating Worship’. Pierson was known as a Worship Curator at Cityside in Aotearoa-New Zealand, while Cheryl Lawrie was referred to as a Curator in Melbourne whilst working for the UCA Synod of Victoria-Tasmania (2006-2007). The term was also retrospectively used to describe the role liturgists played in developing Worship Stations in an interview Mark gave on ABC radio in 2011,https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/spiritofthings/stories-that-heal--worship-curators/2955854#transcript
4 Migrant Fijians talk about having ‘wet feet’, an expression indicating the transformation that takes place when crossing the ocean.. Most migrating Fijians travel from their colonized birth-land to another colonized migration-land. At the same time, Fijian colonial history is recent enough for many retain indigenous cultural knowledge. In relating to both birth-land and migration- land, they become adept at negotiating the requirements of colonial cultures while maintaining identity. The request of members of the congregation to decolonize is in keeping with their desire to acknowledge their own wet feet among the other wet feet of colonizers. Fijians mark indigeneity and seek permission to be on the sovereign country, negotiating welcome from indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians or Maori’s in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Storm Swain describes ‘A New Zealand Prayer Book = He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa’ as ‘an expression of what it is to be a people of God in relationship within a complex space that both privileges the contextuality of the first peoples and socially marginalizes them within the colonial legacy of the Anglo-centrism of that later settler peoples.’ My Parramatta Fijian community seeks to cut through such spaces by attempting to decolonize multiple histories at the same time.
The WCC “Fundamental Pattern of Eucharistic Celebration” (Ordo) was developed for a broad ecumenical family. In international conversations with Methodist/Wesleyan/Nazarene/United/Uniting colleagues, what and how to include worship elements had to be negotiated. e.g. particular themes of justice to be woven throughout, visibility of lay leadership, various spiritual disciplines (prayer, testimony, service and accountability practices from groups/class meetings).
3 Mark Pierson (2012) and Jonny Baker (2012) both use the term ‘Curating Worship’. Pierson was known as a Worship Curator at Cityside in Aotearoa-New Zealand, while Cheryl Lawrie was referred to as a Curator in Melbourne whilst working for the UCA Synod of Victoria-Tasmania (2006-2007). The term was also retrospectively used to describe the role liturgists played in developing Worship Stations in an interview Mark gave on ABC radio in 2011,https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/spiritofthings/stories-that-heal--worship-curators/2955854#transcript
4 Migrant Fijians talk about having ‘wet feet’, an expression indicating the transformation that takes place when crossing the ocean.. Most migrating Fijians travel from their colonized birth-land to another colonized migration-land. At the same time, Fijian colonial history is recent enough for many retain indigenous cultural knowledge. In relating to both birth-land and migration- land, they become adept at negotiating the requirements of colonial cultures while maintaining identity. The request of members of the congregation to decolonize is in keeping with their desire to acknowledge their own wet feet among the other wet feet of colonizers. Fijians mark indigeneity and seek permission to be on the sovereign country, negotiating welcome from indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians or Maori’s in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Storm Swain describes ‘A New Zealand Prayer Book = He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa’ as ‘an expression of what it is to be a people of God in relationship within a complex space that both privileges the contextuality of the first peoples and socially marginalizes them within the colonial legacy of the Anglo-centrism of that later settler peoples.’ My Parramatta Fijian community seeks to cut through such spaces by attempting to decolonize multiple histories at the same time.
5 In 1977, Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches formed the new Uniting Church in Australia. They recognized “...the uniting Churches were members of the World Council of Churches and other ecumenical bodies, and will seek to maintain such membership. It remembers the special relationship which obtained between the several uniting Churches and other Churches of similar traditions, and will continue to learn from their witness and be strengthened by their fellowship.” (Basis of Union, Paragraph 2, 1977.)
The vision of Union involved seeing beyond the inheritance, “We were Congregationalists, Methodists, Presbyterians, but that was not the most important thing about us. The most important thing was and is that we belong to the Church of God. What we did and do is 'in fellowship with the whole Church Catholic'.” (McCaughey, 1980).J. Davis McCaughey, Commentary on the Basis of Union, Melbourne: Uniting Church Press, 1980, p 7
6 1971 edition: https://assembly.uca.org.au/images/stories/HistDocs/basisofunion1971.pdf
7 The material is summarized in the Introduction to Uniting in Worship 2, with flexible options and examples for adaption.
The vision of Union involved seeing beyond the inheritance, “We were Congregationalists, Methodists, Presbyterians, but that was not the most important thing about us. The most important thing was and is that we belong to the Church of God. What we did and do is 'in fellowship with the whole Church Catholic'.” (McCaughey, 1980).J. Davis McCaughey, Commentary on the Basis of Union, Melbourne: Uniting Church Press, 1980, p 7
6 1971 edition: https://assembly.uca.org.au/images/stories/HistDocs/basisofunion1971.pdf
7 The material is summarized in the Introduction to Uniting in Worship 2, with flexible options and examples for adaption.
8 Successive National Church Life Surveys report ‘inclusion’ as the prime self-identifier.
9 ‘Ordered Liberty’ had been used \ in the UCA’s sister Church, the United Church of Canada. See Celebrate God’s Presence (2000), p. 2, with the phrase ordered liberty ascribed to the 1932 Book of Common Order. The idea has many ecumenical parallels: GB Methodist Worship Book (1999) and USA Presbyterian Book of Common Worship (2018), “form and freedom.” Church of England, “freedom within a framework,” etc .
10https://assembly.uca.org.au/images/stories/Theology_Discipleship/pdf/Ordered_Liberty_in_Worship.pdf
11 In ‘Wide and Deep’ (Koh-Butler, 2017), a collection of liturgical resources, I sought guidance from several Elders’ focus groups (indigenous and migrant) about protocols around acknowledgements and welcomes in different situations. There was a desire for some to articulate adherence to a faith-informed Covenant (made by the Uniting Church in Australia and Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress in 1994). Group participants made the distinction between the courtesy of secular acknowledgements in our wider society and the words and actions that might articulate a ‘grounded’ spiritual relationship and commitment. I use the term grounded here intentionally, as aboriginal people reminded me of the importance of land links and naming relationships connected with land.
9 ‘Ordered Liberty’ had been used \ in the UCA’s sister Church, the United Church of Canada. See Celebrate God’s Presence (2000), p. 2, with the phrase ordered liberty ascribed to the 1932 Book of Common Order. The idea has many ecumenical parallels: GB Methodist Worship Book (1999) and USA Presbyterian Book of Common Worship (2018), “form and freedom.” Church of England, “freedom within a framework,” etc .
10https://assembly.uca.org.au/images/stories/Theology_Discipleship/pdf/Ordered_Liberty_in_Worship.pdf
11 In ‘Wide and Deep’ (Koh-Butler, 2017), a collection of liturgical resources, I sought guidance from several Elders’ focus groups (indigenous and migrant) about protocols around acknowledgements and welcomes in different situations. There was a desire for some to articulate adherence to a faith-informed Covenant (made by the Uniting Church in Australia and Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress in 1994). Group participants made the distinction between the courtesy of secular acknowledgements in our wider society and the words and actions that might articulate a ‘grounded’ spiritual relationship and commitment. I use the term grounded here intentionally, as aboriginal people reminded me of the importance of land links and naming relationships connected with land.
12 From 1993 to 2015, Dorothy McRae-McMahon published eleven books of liturgies or instructional volumes about developing worship, making her amongst the most prolific of UCA writers.
13 The ELM Centre (Education for Life and Ministry) was the Lay Ministry Education arm of the NSW-ACT Synod of the Uniting Church from 1977-2011. As a lay leader (1987-2002), the Associate-Director of ELM from 2003-2006 and Director from 2006-2011, I was heavily involved in the Worship Expos. The influence of participants shapes my thinking and practice.
14 The flipping of terminology, liberated order comes from conversations with UCA academic and worship curator, Craig Mitchell. He argues the concept of ordered liberty can have connotations about control of creativity, whereas liberated order respects the heritage while allowing the freedom of improvisation and innovation.
15 Examples of this tendency include standardization of the Charge at Ordinations (2009) and the Declaration of Purpose of Marriage(2016). Rather than utilize the texts and nuanced actions from indigenous and migrant communities, English-language versions were translated, resulting in a narrowing of expressions. Emphasizing English as normative was experienced as dominant-culture colonization and a return to the ‘white Australia policiy’ of 1901-1973. There is an increasing awareness about colonization in worship, with Carvalhaes (2015), Jagessar and Burns (2011), Suna-Koro (2017), Kim-Cragg (2012) suggesting we need to change the questions we ask and seek non-dominant perspectives.
13 The ELM Centre (Education for Life and Ministry) was the Lay Ministry Education arm of the NSW-ACT Synod of the Uniting Church from 1977-2011. As a lay leader (1987-2002), the Associate-Director of ELM from 2003-2006 and Director from 2006-2011, I was heavily involved in the Worship Expos. The influence of participants shapes my thinking and practice.
14 The flipping of terminology, liberated order comes from conversations with UCA academic and worship curator, Craig Mitchell. He argues the concept of ordered liberty can have connotations about control of creativity, whereas liberated order respects the heritage while allowing the freedom of improvisation and innovation.
15 Examples of this tendency include standardization of the Charge at Ordinations (2009) and the Declaration of Purpose of Marriage(2016). Rather than utilize the texts and nuanced actions from indigenous and migrant communities, English-language versions were translated, resulting in a narrowing of expressions. Emphasizing English as normative was experienced as dominant-culture colonization and a return to the ‘white Australia policiy’ of 1901-1973. There is an increasing awareness about colonization in worship, with Carvalhaes (2015), Jagessar and Burns (2011), Suna-Koro (2017), Kim-Cragg (2012) suggesting we need to change the questions we ask and seek non-dominant perspectives.
From 1993 to 2015, Dorothy McRae-McMahon published eleven books of liturgies or instructional volumes about developing worship, making her amongst the most prolific of UCA writers.
16 Ott and Strauss note the development of the missional church movement, offering the following survey of available materials: “summaries of missional church concepts can be found in Roxburgh (2004) and Van Gelder (2004). Further material is available in Hunsberger and Van Gelder (1996), Guder (1998), Gibbs (2000), Frost and Hirsch (2003), Minatrea (2004) and a critique by Goheen (2002)” (Ott and Strauss, 2010, 197-201).
17 See the similar thinking in ‘Being Human, Being Burch ‘ (Warren 1995) and “The Missionary Congregation, Leadership & Liminality” (Roxburgh 1997). In Roxburgh’s subsequent visit to the Uniting Church’s School of Continuing Education in Sydney, he picked up on the idea of liminality, where people go through an ‘in-between’, transitional time/space, emerging changed. Roxburgh’s description was similar to Victor Turner’s concept of emerging from ritual experience as a community transformed = communitas. Communitas concept will be further explored later.
18 The arise of New Monasticism and a focus on Faith Practices (Butler-Bass, 2004, 2006, 2012) may offer a corrective here. 19 Constitution of the Uniting Church in Australia, Congregation Definition, (2018 ed) p.43
20 Uniting Church Regulations changed to recognize non-congregational Faith Communities (2018 ed) 3.9.2
21 Mission-shaped-ministry education focuses on ‘pioneers’ establishing new forms of church for people previously unreached by the gospel. Cheryl Lawrie (from the Victoria-Tasmania Synod one Nicole Fleming (from the NSW-ACT Synod) led groups of potential experimenters to see what was going on in the UK. In 2011, David Male visited the South Australia Synod from the UK to talk about Fresh Expressions (FX). He returned on several occasions, building formal connections between Australian and UK networks.
18 The arise of New Monasticism and a focus on Faith Practices (Butler-Bass, 2004, 2006, 2012) may offer a corrective here. 19 Constitution of the Uniting Church in Australia, Congregation Definition, (2018 ed) p.43
20 Uniting Church Regulations changed to recognize non-congregational Faith Communities (2018 ed) 3.9.2
21 Mission-shaped-ministry education focuses on ‘pioneers’ establishing new forms of church for people previously unreached by the gospel. Cheryl Lawrie (from the Victoria-Tasmania Synod one Nicole Fleming (from the NSW-ACT Synod) led groups of potential experimenters to see what was going on in the UK. In 2011, David Male visited the South Australia Synod from the UK to talk about Fresh Expressions (FX). He returned on several occasions, building formal connections between Australian and UK networks.
22 See also Mike Earey’s reflections
23 Extending eucharistic hospitality beyond previous conventions is discussed by Barbara Glasson in I am somewhere else
(2006) and Mixed up Blessing (2006) and Katherine Jefferts Schori in Gathered at God’s Table (2012)
24 It is notable that the name is Unit-ing rather than Unit-ed. The hope for ongoing union implies ongoing welcome to those who are not yet identifying as members of the community. Whether we believe welcome invites outsiders in, or invites all into a renewing community, influences how the invitation is offered.
23 Extending eucharistic hospitality beyond previous conventions is discussed by Barbara Glasson in I am somewhere else
(2006) and Mixed up Blessing (2006) and Katherine Jefferts Schori in Gathered at God’s Table (2012)
24 It is notable that the name is Unit-ing rather than Unit-ed. The hope for ongoing union implies ongoing welcome to those who are not yet identifying as members of the community. Whether we believe welcome invites outsiders in, or invites all into a renewing community, influences how the invitation is offered.
25 The Faith and Order Paper (No.111), Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Geneva: WCC, 1982), included a Confession of Faith/Creed as part of the Eucharistic Ordo. Yet, the dual influence of progressive theology and unchurched/de-churched people approaching the table presented a challenge. The ecumenical community on the Scottish isle of Iona used the following Invitation: “Come to this table, you who have much faith and you who would like to have more;
you who have been here often and you who have not been here for a long time; you who have tried to follow Jesus and you who have failed. Come. It is Christ who invites us to meet him here.”
26 Years before, an Elder asked if it was a problem for the Church that he had not been baptised. He told me he felt welcomed by Christ, but was fearful he might not be allowed to continue in leadership. Colleagues have shared similar stories.
27 The women invited Muslim and Hindu women they had met to bear witness to their Baptisms and experienced the revelation of God’s grace in their presence.
you who have been here often and you who have not been here for a long time; you who have tried to follow Jesus and you who have failed. Come. It is Christ who invites us to meet him here.”
26 Years before, an Elder asked if it was a problem for the Church that he had not been baptised. He told me he felt welcomed by Christ, but was fearful he might not be allowed to continue in leadership. Colleagues have shared similar stories.
27 The women invited Muslim and Hindu women they had met to bear witness to their Baptisms and experienced the revelation of God’s grace in their presence.
28 Katharine Jefferts Schori (2012) argues mission commences with proclamation of God’s vision.
29 See Janet Fishburn, 2003.
30 For a more comprehensive summary of my use of the idea of Grace Margin, see https://assembly.uca.org.au/images/ Space_for_Grace_Facilitators_Guide_-_A5_v1.pdf, p.7
29 See Janet Fishburn, 2003.
30 For a more comprehensive summary of my use of the idea of Grace Margin, see https://assembly.uca.org.au/images/ Space_for_Grace_Facilitators_Guide_-_A5_v1.pdf, p.7
31 COMMUNITAS refers to unstructured community who a liminal or in-between experience through ritual, emerging changed.
32 Semper reformander (Latin) – ‘Reformed’ traditions emphasize the need for disciples, individually and collectively, to be continually re-formed in Christ.
33 This moves beyond a release of the congregation and imbues the ‘Dismissal’ with missional imperative, focusing on their going into the world. It follows the World Council of Churches’ ‘Lima Text’ (1982), found in Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, Faith and Order Paper No. 111.
34 ‘We cannot speak of prayer and charity unless together we pray and work for reconciliation and full communion.’ Pope Francis, 2017. For full text see http://worldmethodistcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ Papal_Address_To_Delegation_of_the_World_Methodist_Council-19-October-2017-_-Francis.pdf
32 Semper reformander (Latin) – ‘Reformed’ traditions emphasize the need for disciples, individually and collectively, to be continually re-formed in Christ.
33 This moves beyond a release of the congregation and imbues the ‘Dismissal’ with missional imperative, focusing on their going into the world. It follows the World Council of Churches’ ‘Lima Text’ (1982), found in Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, Faith and Order Paper No. 111.
34 ‘We cannot speak of prayer and charity unless together we pray and work for reconciliation and full communion.’ Pope Francis, 2017. For full text see http://worldmethodistcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ Papal_Address_To_Delegation_of_the_World_Methodist_Council-19-October-2017-_-Francis.pdf
35 The Samoan ‘fine mat’ is not a floor-covering, but a cultural symbol. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/‘ie_toga For an excellent discussion on the language of symbols, see Gillian Limb’s essay in Making Liturgy (2001).
36 I was told the placing of a mat on the Communion Table had probably caused some ‘Divine shock... in a good way’. 37 The insight of participants included deep and complex reflections I hope some will publish.
38 Ianthe Pratt talks of themes and ideas being part of language and argues for the inclusion of word, music, symbol and activity to be incorporated into liturgical language in her essay, Inclusive Language in Liturgy (2001).
39 In this setting we had Pacifica, African and Asian worshippers who all had ‘mat-cultures’. Being led by a chiefly Samoan was key to holding in ifoga with integrity.
_____
39 In this setting we had Pacifica, African and Asian worshippers who all had ‘mat-cultures’. Being led by a chiefly Samoan was key to holding in ifoga with integrity.
_____
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