Mandorla
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 10 December 2005 05:58:26
I would like to tell about a dream I have for the church. I have shared this with my congregation several times (usually getting a “here he goes again” response”). I feel it is needed as background if you are to understand the next part of my talk on workplace spirituality.
Ian would probably be better able to explain the religious symbol of the Mandorla ...but here goes with my limited understanding.
The mandorla is a shape (see pic) formed by the coming together and overlapping of two circles. 
Mandorla is the Italian word for almond and is a religious symbol that is all but unknown today. The mandorla symbolizes the interactions and interdependence of opposing worlds or ideas and was used during medieval Christianity as a method to describe the reconciliation of the coming together of heaven and earth.
In Christian art, Christ and the Virgin Mary are often portrayed in the framework of the Mandorla. The picture of Christ within a mandorla is significant.
The understanding is that the word of God comes to us from within a mandorla. When you sit in the mandorla, a space where two opposing views come together, it is often uncomfortable but Christ is with you, and the way forward is revealed.
A present day example would be if one circle represented Justice and the other Mercy. To find a way of reconciling the opposing views they must come together and this joining is a mandorla i.e. a place where opposites can come together, in an accepting fellowship between deliberating and decision and the way forward comes to you.
So what's got me really excited about the mandorla? Well I started thinking about opposites and how we could apply mandorla thinking to them. And I remembered the dualism that we face, that is in the one circle we have our working life and in the other circle we have our church life. Most of what we do in church tends to be apart from our working life. There is a sense created that we leave our working lives at the door, come and spend some church time and then leave and go back to our everyday lives. We are at mission in many ways in our everyday lives but, mostly, this goes unrecognised in our church life.
Now, I dream of a church that operates within the mandorla and becomes a fellowship of reconciliation between our working lives and our church lives. It might feel uncomfortable at times... but remember Christ is in the mandorla, we wait on God's word, and a way forward is revealed, this may be individually or as a fellowship, but a way forward will be revealed.
I dream of a church that seeks a greater acknowledgement that we are already at mission in our workday lives and we come together to celebrate, to support each other and to recognise Jesus with us in ALL we do.