Dancers and Wayfarers: Creative Liturgies for Incarnational Worship: Pentecost to Christ the King

By Chris Thorpe

From cover to cover, this book is full of imaginative, read-to-use liturgies, prayers and service outlines for the Christian year, including Pentecost, Trinity, Ordinary Time, Harvest, All Saints and All Souls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Canterbury Press Norwich
• Release date: May 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781786222091

Chris Thorpe

Chris Thorpe is a parish priest in Shropshire and the author of three seasonal collections of creative liturgies, as well as numerous resources for the Royal School of Church Music.

Book preview

Dancers and Wayfarers

Dancers and Wayfarers

Creative Liturgies for Incarnational Worship: Pentecost to Christ the King

Chris Thorpe

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© Chris Thorpe 2019

First published in 2019 by the Canterbury Press Norwich

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Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Graham Kendrick and Steve Thompson © 1993 Make Way Music, PO Box 263, Croydon, Surrey, CR9 5AP, UK. [e-mail]. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

978 1-78622-207-7

Typeset by Regent Typesetting Ltd

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Contents

Introduction

pentecost

Babel Undone – The language of love in a world of strangers

Going Between – Called to build community and trust

Dry Bones – Breathing life into hopeless situations

trinity

Dancing and Loving – Relationship at the heart of God

Knowing You Belong – Our place at the heart of the Trinity

ordinary time

Storm – What we are facing? Not losing heart in the storm

Vessel – Who are we becoming? Being shaped and reshaped

Voyage – What are we made for? Venturing beyond the harbour

Loving – Enough for everyone – Abundance in the face of scarcity

Hurting – Blessed and broken – Healing at the heart of our community

Dreaming – Daring to dream – Calling and commissioning

Loving, Hurting, Dreaming – Eucharistic Prayer

Loving, Hurting, Dreaming – Agape

festivals

Creation-Tide – Good stewards or bad tenants – Responding to the climate crisis

Harvest Thanksgiving – God in all things – Fruitfulness in unexpected places

All Saints – Celebrating inspiration – Lights on a dark road

All Souls – Honest grief – Candles of joyful remembrance

Christ the King – A radical alternative – The upside-down kingdom

Resources

Dedicated to

Sarah, Sophie and Jake

and to the memory of Joy and Ernest Thorpe

Introduction

Dancers and Wayfarers is about movement and change in our worship of God. Creative prayers for incarnational worship are centred on an encounter with the living God that can change our perceptions and our actions. Each act of worship here is intended to open the possibility of change in us, for us to be different as a result of our encounter with God. This is not worship for its own sake, or as religious entertainment, but worship that expands our horizons, as we connect with the living God and with our topsy-turvy world, in all its pain and possibility. It can be transformational, if we risk opening our hearts and lives to be changed by it.

We are called to be dancers – but what’s needed to be a good dancer? It is not something you can easily learn from a book: it is not simply a matter of understanding the steps or the theory of dance. You must actually move, feel, embody the dance, usually in relationship with others.

To be a good dancer you need to practise, to experiment, to develop your sense of your body and how to move it gracefully or powerfully. You usually need to be able to relate to others in your dancing, to be in relationship, in time and in rhythm, to be sensitive to those around you and to respond to them. This may seem a million miles away from ‘going to church’ or ‘being a Christian’, but perhaps it is closer than we think. If our faith becomes more like a dance, we will be less stuck in our heads, less static in our pews, more engaged with one another, more prepared to change and to move as the dance develops.

Of course, some will still prefer a traditional formal dance, like a waltz or quickstep, as some prefer more traditional worship, carefully choreographed. Others like to experiment with improvisation, new interpretations of dance, or the full immersion of clubbing or disco, just as some will be drawn to worship where all is new and free, where they do not feel constrained. At both ends of the spectrum there is a danger of a performance and spectator culture growing up. In traditional church it is easy to become passive and static, listening to the sermon, watching the choir, servers, clergy and others as they lead worship on our behalf. Equally in more contemporary settings the music can become more performance-oriented with the focus being firmly on the worship band and leaders.

My favourite kind of dance, an echo of God’s kingdom for me, is a ceilidh or barn dance, where people of all ages and abilities, people with years of experience or none at all, can all join in together and gradually pick it up as they go along! A caller shouts out the steps, those around help with guidance and laughter, people can gradually lose their embarrassment as no one is bothered about mistakes. Through the dance, everyone is engaged, everyone is involved, and gradually the whole assorted crowd becomes one body.

Could our churches, could our worship, become more like a barn dance? Could we make it possible, by the language we use and the atmosphere we create, for all ages and all levels of experience to feel at home together? Could our worship engage everyone as active participants, body, mind and spirit, and lead to us moving together as one body, full of joyful energy, human connection, tears and laughter?

Dance has been a strong motif for some contemporary Christian thinkers. Richard Rohr and others have spoken about the ‘perichoresis’ or dance of the Holy Trinity. If the very nature of God is not static and immovable, but is instead a movement – a dance – perhaps that can encourage us to move from head to heart with God. Sydney Carter’s much-loved hymn ‘Lord of the dance’ picks up on the invitation of Jesus, the Lord of the dance, to ‘dance, then, wherever you may be’. Graham Kendrick’s song ‘Teach me to dance’ makes a similar connection: as we learn the rhythm of life, ‘let all my movements express, a heart that loves to say yes’. There is a strong link to King David dancing before the Lord and being despised for it; but David is vindicated in his dancing as an expression of his true worship. In Kendrick’s lyrics, ‘So like a child in your sight I dance to see your delight’.

We are also called to be wayfarers! The early Christians were called the people of the Way, a new way of life following the example and teaching of Jesus. Jesus himself called the early disciples to follow him as he went on his way. They were called to journey with Jesus, through villages and towns, to the marketplace and lakeside. They were called to travel light, leaving much of their baggage behind, taking only what was needed for the journey.

This is such a contrast to the faith we know today which is centred around attending church. Again, we can easily become a static people, meeting behind closed doors, away from the world around us. We can become heavy with doctrine, history and tradition, loaded with responsibility for buildings and property. Even our language, our liturgy, our prayers can become heavy and static.

The acts of worship in this book start from a different place. They start with our experience of human life, using language that does not rely on religious familiarity and formulation. This worship starts with the joys and sorrows of our lives in relationship, as communities, and in the wider world. It ends with an opportunity to offer ourselves, engaging wholeheartedly with the process of becoming the good news we proclaim.

The Incarnation is a paradox, a mystery – God made one of us in the life of Jesus Christ, connecting heaven and earth. These acts of worship are incarnational: they speak of the divine, but from a perspective that is earthed, rooted and grounded in human lived experience. They are incarnational, too, because they invite us to be fully involved, participating and creating the worship, opening ourselves to allow the word to become flesh in us. Incarnational worship resists the false separation of secular and spiritual, and recognizes that we are whole people: body, mind and spirit. Worship has often engaged our mind, but incarnational worship seeks to involve our heart and gut as well!

These liturgies and reflections seek to equip church leaders to offer worship that engages and connects people. Each one begins with a practical introduction for the leader, suggesting necessary materials and preparation. They can be led by anyone, which may be particularly helpful when an authorized minister is not available.