Categories: uncategorized
Date: 05 April 2011 14:24:52
In her book Journeying Out A New Approach to Christian Mission Ann Morisy talks about the importance of Apt Liturgy. I read her discussion of it on Friday when I was heading to the Courage retreat, where Justin Lee from GCN was the speaker for the weekend.
Morisy uses Russ Parker's work on healing quite extensively within this part of her work. She explains Apt Liturgy is "A specific liturgy which aims at including people wtih little faith and Christian knowledge and often focuses on a particular distress that has arisen within a community." The specific and wider hallmarks of such liturgy she identifies (from pages 156-168) are:
1) "memories of the heart, i.e. ideas and images that can be pondered"
2) "enabling people to cope, especially when they are close to be overwhelmed by emotion"
3) "providing symbols or codes that 'waft us heavenward'"
4) using the gospel to resonate with people's struggles.
5) "A period of prayer....Within this time of prayer or quiet reflection, the priest will fashion words that acknowledge (name) private fears, sorrows and struggles, or what would otherwise be unarticulated distress"
6) "Putting people's deepest sadness and anxieties into a wider, universal context in order to empahsize that we are not alone in our struggle; it is shared by others either in the past or in other places"
7) "An acknowledgement that it may be comforting to trust that our God also shares our griefs and longs for our healing and health"
8) "Some kind of simple, symbolic act that holds together the struggle and hope that has been acknowledged during the liturgy"
9) This will involve remembering, lamenting, confessing, repenting and forgiving
10) Finally it will lead to reconciliation, grace and solidarity
Now, for Morisy this is something to connect to those outside the church. Over the weekend Justin explained that helping the church to connect with the secular world is something that LGBandT Christians might have a special role in. Having read the theory Morisy puts forward alongside hearing Justins words and reflecting on it in light of my own experience and in light of my understanding of scripture I have come up with the following which I think explains the how what Morisey is describing is exactly the gift which Justin indicated the Christian LGBand T community(ies) can offer the church. It also, I feel explains why - certainly for the time being - LGBand T people need seperate safe spaces aswell as being fully integrated into the church.
As Justin said at the weekend "even when we are fully supported we find accepting ourselves as Christian LGBand T people a last resort. We struggle in finding a place beyond just apologising for who we are".
It's the small groups in safe spaces where we can begin to develop our apt liturgy and go through the initial processes which she refers to, using Parker's work. It's where we can acknowledge our love/hate relationship with some symbols of our faith. These are symbols which on one hand are as precious to us as to any other Christian, but which have also been used to oppress or exclude either ourselves or others we care about in our community.
We are a community who know what it is to have to actively struggle for our faith and struggle to use symbols that the church has used in ways which we don't / can't understand. (That's another bit of what Justing was saying on the weekend).
For us Apt Liturgy is vital because it what God often uses to enable us to get through...and is why certain symbols can hold a special significance for us....and it is in turn a gift which we can offer back to the wider church.
This is why where possible I think, in our current climate, small groups which provide safe spaces together with fully integrated participation in the church are both vital.
If you are still with me I want to finish with two You Tube Clips...one is a Not The Nine O'Clock News clip Justin showed which is great and the final one is the song All Are Welcome By Marty Haugen which I have posted before.....and which I regard as an important piece of apt liturgy which has been / is useful in helping people move on from their experiences of the Rowan Williams character and in moving on from feeling they have to apologise for who they are or only accept themselves as a last resort.
(Note I couldn't work out how to get them inserted properly so please just follow links).