Email Link
Facebook
Twitter
DiggDream a Liturgical Dream
How far would you be willing to travel — in time or space — to experience the liturgies of your dreams? Seminarian Lindsay Lunnum invited several people who seek out opportunities to be with God to let their liturgical imaginations run wild. Their worship wish-lists follow.
THE WRITER
Sand Mountain. Snakehandling service — to see the Spirit. Because, as the elder quoted in Dennis Covington’s book on the subject, Salvation on Sand Mountain, says, “Brother, this thing is real!”
Will you watch with me? I’d like to see a vigil with a body in church. I have seen this done in homes/hospices, but nobody seems to want dead bodies in their sanctuary for a few days.
Rockin’ New Year’s Eve. Keep a church open all night for people to come in and pray for peace in an all-night New Year’s liturgy, with people taking turns chanting until morning.
Healing in the journey. Blessing and healing through pilgrimage by bringing people in procession to sites of pain and collective hurt — for example, sites of murders, or other places that street shrines have sprung up — to pray.
Sara Miles is a journalist, author of Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion, and Director of St. Gregory’s Food Pantry in San Francisco.
THE SEEKER
Peace, quiet, mystery. I’d like to observe Holy Week in Taizé, France. I was there several summers ago and discovered it to be holy and still, light and dark, with people young and old from every nation, being together in community, praying for peace. That place is amazing, and I think everyone should journey there sometime.
Hallelujah. I love good ol’ Gospel praise and worship — the kind with preaching that moves you to stand, raise up, and shout out an alleluia or two. Park Avenue Methodist in Minneapolis is one such place, but I am open to being invited anywhere.
Prophetic experience. I think I would give almost anything to have heard the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak. In reading over his sermons and speeches, I can’t pick just one that I would have gone to. I wonder who God is raising up today as a modern-day prophet?
Let’s get out there. What I’d love is for each church to get to know its neighborhood DNA, to learn about it and get a feel for what the church, in particular, can offer to the community as an authentic expression of God’s love. Maybe that’s a hip-hop or a bluegrass Mass, maybe it’s a coffee house, maybe it’s worship in the public square. The key is to hear what the needs of the people are — the ones who don’t know Jesus yet. Let’s. Get. Out. There.
Rachel Swan is a blogger, seeker, and the office coordinator for the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota.
THE VICAR
Following God. I’d go anywhere Jesus was preaching; more specifically, the Last Supper. I’d love to be part of the joy and the confusion as Jesus tied that towel around his waist and began washing dusty feet. Also, Jesus’ post-Resurrection meal on the beach — perhaps not officially a liturgy, but definitely Communion.
Prepare Ye. In the late 70s, my family’s church had a “Godspell” Eucharist that incorporated the music from the musical into the liturgy. We took it all over the diocese. What would be the 21st century equivalent? I don’t know — but I’d love to create something as powerful as that was.
A Graceful Ending. I’d like to see a pastoral liturgy for the dissolution of a marriage. It would involve acknowledgement of failure as well as intentionality for the healthy re-defining of the relationship for the future, especially if children are involved. So many times, couples whose marriages have failed slink off in shame at a time when they really need the support of their church. This would be a formal way to offer it, opening the door for more extensive and ongoing pastoral help.
The Rev. Canon Anne Mallonee is the vicar of Trinity Church-St. Paul’s Chapel.
THE ANGLO-CATHOLIC CURATE
Toronto Airport Radicals. I’d love to see the services at the Toronto Airport Church, i.e. the Toronto Blessing. This community promotes being “slain in the Spirit,” “soaking in the Spirit,” and was kicked out of the Vineyard Church for being too radical. The idea of people laughing hysterically and barking like dogs in a worship setting is pretty intriguing. Also, a church with the word “airport” in its name? Fascinating.
Holy Land, Holy Wonder. I would love to see the Easter Vigil services at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem as celebrated by the Orthodox communities there. They bring new meaning to the idea of the New Flame at Easter. Apparently, when the priest enters the tomb, he comes out with a new flame that was not kindled by human hands. Now that’s divine intervention!M
Where global warming meets God. I’d like to see a procession of the Blessed Sacrament up the entire Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile trail that runs from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington. It would be amazing to draw the Church’s imagination to environmental concerns in this way while also hallowing that amazing trail with Christ’s real presence.
The Outer Limits. Mass in the International Space Station would be, as far as I know, the first Mass in space.
The Rev. Lucas Grubbs is the curate at Christ Church in New Haven, CT. International Space Station
This article appears in the Transformation issue of Trinity News.
To receive a free subscription to the print edition of Trinity News , send your mailing address to news@trinitywallstreet.org.
