How can the creative use of image

and the embodied use of space

increase engagement in corporate

Christian worship?

Neil J Barker

uploaded to www.worshipenrich.co.uk on 23

rd October 2013

(Originally submitted as a dissertation forming part of an MA course in Contemporary Worship at

King's College London under the title: How can the creative use of image and the embodied use of

space increase engagement in corporate worship?)

2

Abstract

The aim of this study has been to explore how engagement in corporate worship can be

increased through the creative use of image and embodied use of space. It argues that the

utilization of images and symbols and congregational movements, bodily actions and space

design are all legitimate and effectual means by which mediation can be achieved and,

therefore, should all be privileged as worship services are being planned. The approach

taken has been, through reviewing a wide range of relevant literature, to see how some

traditions have understood the use of these means and, also, to consider more

contemporary perspectives. The study has found that image and space have been widely

and differently used in the history of the church and that the different understandings are

related to the more general but key question of how God is mediated in corporate worship.

In addition, the way the worship space is used seems particularly important with regard to

fostering emotional connections, and images and symbols seem to engage especially with

respect to the imagination. It was also found that the concept of ‘cultural dynamism’,

which suggests including both unchanging and flexible elements to achieve a dynamic

tradition, could be helpful when developing a new culturally relevant worship practice.

These findings were used to analyse three contrasting worship events all of which seemed

to have an enduring and culturally relevant quality about them. The conclusions of this

discussion relate particularly to what churches could practically do in order to develop the

effective use of image and movement within their worship spaces. These include the need

for intentionality and commitment, for a clear decision making process, for a team of

artistic and reflective people to be identified and involved in worship planning and for a

key coordinating person with overall responsibility for putting together a particular

worship service or event.

3

Contents

Abstract 2

Contents 3

Chapter 1 – Introduction 4

Chapter 2 – Creative use of image and embodied use of space 13

Chapter 3 – Case studies and reflections 35

Chapter 4 – Conclusion 50

Bibliography 56

4

Chapter 1: Introduction

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!”1

As a worship leader I have become aware that, relative to the commitment to music

and singing in contemporary corporate worship, sometimes little creative consideration is

given regarding how image and symbol or the worship space are used in church services. I

have been reminded that these elements have had a significant place in corporate worship

in the history of the church and that, more recently, there has been a rediscovery of these

means to enrich worship. And so this discussion is approached in response to this need to

give a more thorough consideration to these elements in corporate worship with the aim of

increasing authentic engagement.

Shaping the heart and emotion

Our starting point will be to consider that heart engagement of the worshipper in

corporate worship is a key mark of the authenticity of an act of worship. ‘Bless Yaweh, I

tell myself: Every part of me, bless his transcendent name’ is Leslie Allen’s translation of

Psalm 103:1 and he contends that an ‘emotional response’ is probably implied here from

the parts of the body where emotions were thought ‘to be seated’.2 Goldingay, in

particular, understands ‘all that is within me’ to mean ‘the inner person: the emotions, the

mind, and the will’.3 This seems reasonable as Nelson’s Dictionary explains that the

Hebrew word which is translated ‘soul’ is nephesh and has no equivalent in English and

1 Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Anglicized Edition (London: Collins, 2007) Psalm 103:4.

2 Leslie C Allen, Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 101-150 (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), XXI, pp. 17,

18. 3 John Goldingay, Psalms: Volume 3 Psalms 90-150 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), p. 166.

5

suggests that nephesh refers to ‘the inner person’, that is, ‘what one is to oneself’.4 We

conclude then that, ultimately, authentic or sincere worship, according to the psalmist,

must be something which fundamentally engages our inner beings and, in particular, our

emotions. Anne Zaki recalls a lecture by James Smith in which he explained that ‘the heart

is the fulcrum of our desire, and so if something can shape our love, then it is has defined

(our) identity, because we are what we love.’ 5

As our ‘heart’s desire’ will affect our ideals,

plans, dreams and actions then we can see how it follows that our lives are shaped by what

we love and so, in this sense, ultimately we become what we desire. Smith argues that we

are confronted with many different ‘secular liturgies’, practices or forms of behaviour,

which all try and ‘shape our love by offering competing visions of what the good life is’.6

If Smith is correct, that ‘our ultimate love/desire is shaped by practices, not ideas that are

merely communicated to us’7, then this gives even more impetus to make sure that our

worship practices, including what we see and physically do in our corporate worship, are

shaping us in needed ways. We can see this understanding as an extension of the anciently

expressed principle lex orandi, lex credendi; (the law of praying is the law of believing)

and that the practice of worship both reflects and informs what is truly believed. We

understand this principle to act in at least two ways, specifically, the way that worship is

enacted expresses what is truly believed but, also, in enacting worship to express and

embody beliefs those beliefs are, effectively, deepened. The Orthodox Church understands

its ‘orthodoxy' to refer to the role of the church as not only guarding ‘right beliefs’ about

God but, also, in glorifying Him with ‘right worship’.8 This all points to the potential

power and significance of what is performed and enacted in church assemblies, and how

4 Merrill F Unger and William White Jr, eds., Nelson’s Expository Dictionary Of The Old Testament.

(Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1980), p. 388. 5 James R Krabill and others, eds., Worship and Mission for the Global Church: An Ethnodoxology

Handbook (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2013), p. 69 (in footnote). 6 Krabill and others, p. 69 (in footnote and italics mine).

7 James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation, Volume 1 of

Cultural Liturgies (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009), p. 26 (italics mine). 8 Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1985), p. 16.

6

that this even has the potential to define the worshipper’s identity. Zizioulas argues that

the bishops and ‘pastoral theologians’ of the early church, ‘approached the being of God

through the experience of the ecclesial community’ as opposed to the more ‘academic

theologians’ who were principally interested ‘in Christianity as “revelation”’.9 We do, of

course, see the need to hold these two understandings together as we reflect on how to

increase engagement in corporate worship, but especially note the importance of the

emotional and relational in characterizing a corporate worship event.

Increasing engagement

Many churches are seeking to find ways to promote the engagement of their

congregations in corporate worship services. We will explore how that, in the history of the

church, there has been an understanding of the importance of both embodied participation

and the stimulation of the imagination in corporate worship but how that, arguably, these

means have sometimes been ignored, or else have become ‘fossilized’ due to tenaciously

holding on to past practices and neglecting to make adaptations as the culture in which the

church finds itself changes. There has been a nagging awareness that the church often

projects itself as ‘a museum piece’ and as ‘a phenomenon’ which is ‘interesting, but

irrelevant’.10

This sort of awareness is being expressed even within the (Eastern) Orthodox

tradition which claims a direct continuity with the past and, which Ware argues, has not

been affected by great reformatory movements as the Western church has experienced.11

As far back as the late 1960s Harakas, a priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of

America, was advocating an ‘across-the-board development of conscious liturgical

9 John D. Zizioulas, Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church (London: Darton,Longman

& Todd Ltd, 1985), p. 16. 10

Stanley S. Harakas, ‘Orthodox Theological Approach to Modern Trends.’, St Vladimir’s Theological

Quarterly, 13 (1969), 198–211 (p. 205). 11

Ware, pp. 9, 10.

7

involvement and participation by our presently uninvolved spectator-worshippers.’12

However, with cultural patterns changing all the time, the task of finding ways to

encourage and facilitate participation would seem to be a continual on-going process. Ellis

concurs when he believes ‘that worship needs to be continually reformed, though such

work must be shaped by a theological vision which arises from within worship itself.’13

This is interesting because Ellis, whilst acknowledging the need for an ongoing

development of worship, sees that this development must relate to and spring from the

existing worship practice and the worshipping community itself.

One could argue that Protestant churches have tended to be particularly restrictive

regarding the use of image or space. For example, Barth’s primary emphasis on ‘preaching

the Word’ seems to have meant that his preferred style of church building would have been

something akin to a lecture hall so that ‘no one would confuse emotions with faith and the

message of music or paintings with the word of God’.14

However, arguably most Protestant

churches seem to have primarily sought the engagement of worshippers through both the

listening to the ‘preaching of the Word’ and through the singing of hymns and songs. We,

of course, do accept that in these two foci there is embodied participation as Ellis seeks to

show and that through the preached words and through certain songs imaginations can be

stimulated and emotions awakened.15

Boyce-Tillman, for example, sees specifically that

‘the act of singing requires an increased level of bodily engagement’.16

We note that in

‘contemporary’ Christian worship services or events there can be observed an emphatic

12

Harakas, p. 211. 13

Christopher J Ellis, Gathering: a Theology and Spirituality of Worship in Free Church Tradition (London:

SCM Press, 2004), p. viii. 14

Bernhard Lang, Sacred Games: a History of Christian Worship (New Haven and London: Yale University

Press, 1997), p. 188. 15

Ellis, p. vi. 16

June Boyce-Tillman, ‘Tune Your Music to Your Heart: Reflections for Church Music Leaders’, in

Christian Congregational Music: Performance, Identity, and Experience, ed. by Monique Marie Ingalls,

Carolyn Landau, and Tom Wagner (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2013), pp. 49–65 (pp. 51,

52).

8

privileging of congregational singing which is often singularly referred to as ‘worship’.17

Webber, in his insightful book on developing ‘Ancient-future worship’, seems also to

privilege uniquely ‘music and singing’ as the means to achieve contextualized worship

which engages.18

Of course, singing does not guarantee engagement as Adnams highlights

when he quotes one of his respondents, a middle-aged teacher, as saying; ‘there are far too

many times in church when I’m just singing […] I could even be thinking about something

completely unrelated to church’.19

And so, we are intrigued that historically other means

have been used in worship, which have intentionally involved bodily movements or the use

of images and symbols, in order that worshippers can be engaged on different levels.

Furthermore, in contemporary culture we see that images are powerfully and influentially

used and also that bodily gestures are particularly important in expressing emotion.

Aims in corporate worship

Methodist Geoffrey Wainwright who has facilitated theological dialogue between

the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church sees that the ‘whole picture

of the place of liturgy within the Trinitarian history of salvation is summarized in the

technical terms of “anamnesis”, “epiclesis”, and “prolepsis”’ which focus respectively on

of ‘“remembrance” of the past, “invocation of the Spirit” in the present, and “anticipation”

of the future’.20

Roman Catholic Kevin Irwin argues also that the ‘theology of liturgy’ can

be summarized with similarly three terms but replaces “prolepsis” with “ecclesiology” and

summarizes Christian liturgy ‘in terms of actualizing the reality of Christ’s paschal

17

Gordon Adnams, ‘“Really Worshipping”, Not “Just Singing”’, in Christian Congregational Music:

Performance, Identity, and Experience, ed. by Monique Marie Ingalls, Carolyn Landau, and Tom Wagner

(Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2013), pp. 185–200 (p. 185). 18

Robert Webber, Ancient-future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative (Grand Rapids, MI:

Baker Books, 2008), p. 168. 19

Adnams, p. 186. 20

Geoffrey Wainwright, ‘Anamnesis, Epiclesis, Prolepsis: Categories for Reading the Second Vatican

Council as “Renewal Within Tradition”’, in Vatican II: renewal within tradition, ed. by Matthew L Lamb

and Matthew Levering (New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 2008), pp. 411–438 (p. 414).

9

mystery for the Church, gathered and enlivened by the power of the Holy Spirit’.21

In

considering these three ‘strands’ Clare Watkins prefers to use the term ‘synaxis’ for the

gathering dimension of worship rather than ‘ecclesiology’.22

Pulling together these ideas

we want to suggest that all corporate worship ‘events’ could be usefully thought of as

involving four universal features, namely ‘gathering together’, ‘remembering salvation

events’, ‘invoking the Holy Spirit’ and ‘anticipating heaven’. Synaxis, anamnesis,

epiclesis, prolepsis would be four liturgical words which refer respectively to each of these

four features. These liturgical words can refer to very particular parts of the normative

liturgies, for instance of the Orthodox church, but we will be using these terms in a more

generic way. Ellis concurs when he maintains, for example, that all ‘(w)orship is

anamnetic […] not only in the anamnesis of the Eucharistic ‘Do this in memory of me’,

but in all the proclamation and remembering that goes on in worship’. 23

Likewise, all

worship is epicletic in as much as every aspect of corporate worship should flow from the

work of the Holy Spirit.24

The role of the Spirit is essential for both the creative and

mediatory aspects of worship. Moltmann argues that if we can say that ‘the chosen

dwelling place of the Father is heaven’, that ‘of the Son is earth’ (because he came to earth

and will come back to earth again and fill it with his glory) then the chosen place of the

Holy Spirit in the future will be a ‘direct bond’ joining earth and heaven and whose

creative power is active ‘in the present’.25

Dyrness maintains that Christ’s Spirit has been

given ‘to empower creation to recover its created splendour to the […] glory of the

Father’26

and we note how vital this creative presence is in all the mediating channels

21

Kevin Irwin quoted in Ellis, p. 75. 22

Clare Watkins, ‘Theology, Church and Worship (Day 3) - Slide 12’ (unpublished Course Lecture, King’s

College, University of London, 2013). 23

Ellis, p. 75. 24

Ellis, p. 75. 25

Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation – A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God (The Gifford

Lectures, 1984-1985), trans. by Margaret Taylor (Minneapolis, MN: First Fortress Press, 1993), p. 162. 26

William A. Dyrness, Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue (Baker Publishing Group,

2001), p. 79.

10

present in corporate worship if a worshipping church gathering is to be a place where

heaven touches earth and where God’s presence can be experienced.

Therefore, we will argue where these four features are present in corporate worship

then this will hopefully mean that the worship can be theologically and liturgically

comprehensive while, at the same time, having the potential to be culturally creative and

relevant. If these four features can be taken as a summary of what should be going on in a

corporate worship gathering then we can see, in particular, that images could help with the

‘remembrance of the past’ and the ‘anticipation of the future’. We can, also, imagine how

that the way that worshippers come together in the worship space will impact their sense of

gathering and, likewise, bodily movement and gestures may be used to embody the heart-

felt seeking of the action of the Holy Spirit to enliven and empower.

Image and space

Emily Brink surveys the breadth of artistic expression used in the Old Testament

noting that, along with creative sound and what is heard, it also includes creative image

and what is seen; ‘architecture, furnishing, dress and decorum’, along with creative

movement; ‘pageantry, drama and dance’.27

The World Communion of Reformed

Churches in their insightful document on Worshiping (sic) the Triune God has poetically

expressed their vision for Artistic Expression which encourages expression ‘in music and

dance, in speech and silence, in visual art and architecture.’28

Furthermore, the Lutheran

Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture calls ‘on all churches to give serious attention

to exploring the local or contextual elements of liturgy, language, posture and gesture,

hymnody and other music and musical instruments, and art and architecture for Christian

27

Krabill and others, pp. 9–12. 28

World Communion of Reformed Churches, ‘Worshiping the Triune God’ (World Communion of

Reformed Churches, 2010), sec. 1.7

<http://www.wcrc.ch//sites/default/files/Worshiping_the_Triune_God.pdf> [accessed 24 July 2013].

11

worship so that their worship may be more truly rooted in the local culture.’29

And so we

will be seeking to address the italicized items on this list in our discussions. There will be

elements in the liturgy that involve the acting out or embodying of certain narratives or

truths along with those which involve the use of artistic or symbolic images. We note here

that the Nairobi Statement affirms all these means of expression as helpful, appropriate and

valid in corporate worship.

We have sought to highlight in this introduction some of the reasons for this

discussion on use of image and space to transform engagement in corporate worship. The

chapter which follows will begin with a consideration of why at times in the history of the

church there has been hesitancy, or even suspicion, regarding the use of image in the

worship space and, in particular, how the relationship between idolatry and image has been

understood in the history of the church. We will be arguing that there is a legitimate use of

image and symbol within the worship space today and that this is in keeping with the fact

that particular images and symbols were a necessary feature in Old Testament worship.

The special images or icons used in the Orthodox Church are considered as an example of

image use in the worship space and we, also, reflect on how we ‘see’ and how that

‘gazing’ on an image is a form of bodily engagement as this often involves a particular

posture that actually assists attending to the image. We then explore how embodied

participation is important for creating a sense of community and connectedness and more

generally to enhance emotional engagement.

In chapter three we consider three different case studies from very different

contexts and observe how the principles outlined in chapter two can work out in practice.

We will note again the importance of a contextualized worship practice which relates to the

contemporary culture and also discuss how ‘dynamic traditions’ can be fostered.

29

Department for Theology and Studies of the LWF, ‘Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture:

Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities’ (Lutheran World Federation, 1996)

<http://www.worship.ca/docs/lwf_ns.html> [accessed 24 July 2013].

12

In chapter four we will seek to conclude by seeing how our discussions can help us

navigate a way forward to encourage reflection on the use of image and the way we use

space in corporate worship. We will consider a particular new initiative for understanding

how arts are used in a particular culture and how this can help a church today to develop its

corporate worship in a way which is both true to the Christian tradition but culturally

relevant. Despite the fact that there has been much discussion advocating the use of artistic

forms, such as image and symbol, in worship it is still the case that there are churches

where artistic expression is employed in a limited or random way. We will emphasize that

there needs to be intentionality and commitment to reflect on the creative use of image and

space in corporate worship and for the creation of artistic teams to foster this in individual

churches.

13

Chapter 2: Creative use of image and embodied use of space

In this chapter we will explore how both image and space have been used in the

history of church worship and, also, consider examples of current thinking and practice and

seek to understand how these different perspectives inform us in developing contemporary

corporate worship so as to enhance authentic engagement.

Image, idol and mediation

In the history of the church there have been different understandings of how images

should be used in corporate worship. In the early church there were many voices which

were hostile to ‘religious images’.30

One important subject has been the interpretation of

the Old Testament prohibition in Exodus (20:4) and Deuteronomy (5:8) ‘You shall not

make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or

that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth […]’31

. Calvin understood

this to mean that ‘the worship of images’ is forbidden ‘on any religious ground’32

but,

going further towards iconoclasm, he claimed that the only images that belong in churches

are ‘those living and symbolical ones which the Lord has consecrated by his Word’. By

this he means the Lord’s Supper and Baptism as well as ‘other rites by which our eyes

must be too intensely gripped and too sharply affected to see other images forged by

human ingenuity.’33

This then did allow the possibility of images to be displayed in church

if they could be shown apparently to constrain the mind and its imagination to focus on an

30

Robert Grigg, ‘Aniconic Worship and the Apologetic Tradition: a Note on Canon 36 of the Council of

Elvira.’, Church History, 45 (1976), 428–433 (p. 428). 31

Holy Bible. 32

John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, trans. by Henry Beveridge (London: James Clarke & Co.,

1949), I, p. 330 (italics mine). 33

John Calvin quoted in David Morgan, ‘The Protestant Struggle with the Image.’, Christian Century, 106

(1989), 308–311 (p. 308).

14

approved intended meaning. Evidently, Calvin was concerned that images might be

distractions from the ‘truth’ if the ‘truth’ was not clearly identified in them. Experience

seems to indicate, though, that even when words are used to communicate, for example by

way of a sermon, people will ‘hear’ different things based on, at least to some extent, their

own background thinking and underlying presuppositions. It is perhaps impossible to really

control the thinking and imagination of others. Going even further in the suspicion of

images Tertullian and others seem to have understood the forbiddance to include ‘making a

likeness of anything whatsoever’ and Canon 36 of the Council of Elvira of 306AD has

been interpreted as advocating a complete prohibition of any images in churches.34

35

For

our discussion it is clear we need to be able to justify an interpretation of this prohibition in

scripture which affirms that the display of visual images in church is not specifically

excluded. Childs notes that, although Obbink argued that the prohibition referred only to

images of foreign gods and not images of Yahweh, the study by von Rad of ‘the oldest

formulation of the commandment’ (Deuteronomy 27:15) confirms that the original

prohibition did directly relate to images of Yahweh.36

The final deduction here is that it is

the idol worship which encroaches ‘on a prerogative of God’ but Childs notes that the

‘how’ is not specified.37

However, Fletcher-Louis sees the key to understanding the ‘why’

of prohibiting idol creation is in the meaning of the word tselem which is translated

‘image’ in Genesis 1, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. He insists that a new understanding

must be included when seeking to find a ‘full interpretation’ of ‘being made in God’s

image’, which is that, ‘humanity is created to be the one creator God’s cult statue, his

34

Grigg, p. 429. 35

The Council of Elvira, ‘Canons of Elvira’, The Catholic University of America, 306AD

<http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/Canon%20Law/ElviraCanons.htm> [accessed 4 July 2013]. 36

Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary (Louisville, KY:

Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), p. 406. 37

Childs, p. 407.

15

idol’.38

Wright and others agree that the explanation for forbidding inanimate images of

Yahweh being created is because ‘the only legitimate image of God […] is the image of

God created in his own likeness – the living, thinking, working, speaking, breathing,

relating human being’.39

Moltmann, also concurring, sees this prohibition of images as

protecting ‘the dignity of human beings as God’s one and only image’.40

Fletcher-Louis, with this understanding of the prohibition to create inanimate

image-idols tselem, re-focuses the meaning of idolatry. This is instructive for us as we are

concerned about how to use image and symbol in order to engender authentic worship. For

Fletcher-Louis idolatry is ‘emptying our transcendence into that which cannot bear divine

immanence’41

which seems to mean that an inanimate object cannot relate to God as

human beings have been made so to do. We were made to know and experience the

immanence of God in a relationship with him and, furthermore, if we try to worship an

inanimate object it is as though we are squandering our allegiance, our ‘souls’, and our

‘otherness’ that no other creature has, with the result that absolutely nothing is gained in

return; in other words, a completely empty ‘transaction’. A further relevant insight is given

by Fletcher-Louis when he considers what happened with regard to the image of God in

humankind after ‘the fall’ in Genesis 3. He suggests that there are ‘good reasons for

thinking that humanity’s function as God’s image-idol is reconstituted in its most visible

and perfect form in Israel’s high-priesthood at Sinai’.42

In a fascinating comparison he

highlights similarities between the colourful and varied dress of the living ‘high priest’ in

God’s temple to the way ‘gods’ were dressed in the surrounding pagan religions.43

He

38

Crispin H. T. Fletcher-Louis, ‘The Image of God and the Biblical Roots of Christian Sacramentality’, in

The gestures of God: explorations in sacramentality, ed. by Geoffrey Rowell and Christine Hall (London:

Continuum, 2004), pp. 73–89 (p. 75). 39

Christopher J. H. Wright, Deuteronomy, New International Biblical Commentary (Peabody, MA:

Hendrickson Publishers, 1996), IV, p. 71. 40

Moltmann, p. 219. 41

Fletcher-Louis, ‘The Image of God and the Biblical Roots of Christian Sacramentality’, p. 76. 42

Fletcher-Louis, ‘The Image of God and the Biblical Roots of Christian Sacramentality’, p. 77. 43

Fletcher-Louis, ‘The Image of God and the Biblical Roots of Christian Sacramentality’, p. 79.

16

points out that the ‘high priest’ acted, in a certain sense, in divine ways, for example,

mediating the forgiveness of sin and ceremonially ‘creating’ light.44

So, in some ways the

‘high priest’, as a special representative of humanity, acts also as a representative of God

as his image-idol. Fletcher-Louis actually goes as far as to argue that the high priest is

‘legitimately worshipped’ because the high priest ‘uniquely and irreducibly instantiate(s)

the life of the creator God’45

In his arguments he uses a collection of Wisdom literature

first collated by Ben Sira in early second century BCE.46

Although there is a reference that

could be interpreted as the people ‘worshipping’ the high priest it is difficult to find any

direct biblical evidence or early church understanding to suggest that the Israelites actually

worshipped the high priests. Indeed in an earlier work by Fletcher-Louis he does not seem

to go so far when, commenting on the same text, he asserts that the ‘high priest actualizes

the presence of the Wisdom and so the praise he receives is that bestowed upon Her’.47

In

response, one could still argue that as true Wisdom will ultimately come from God it is

God who should ultimately be praised and this seems to be similar to the understanding of

the Orthodox Church and how it sees the role of ‘icons’ which we discuss in the next

paragraph. However, it is clear that the high priest played a vital ‘mediating’ role as an

‘image-idol’ tselem in the worship of God. Of course, ultimately an ‘image-idol’ would

come and be legitimately worshipped in the form of Jesus Christ.

44

Fletcher-Louis, ‘The Image of God and the Biblical Roots of Christian Sacramentality’, pp. 82, 83. 45

Crispin H. T. Fletcher-Louis, ‘The Cosmology of P and Theological Anthropology in the Wisdom of Jesus

Ben Sira’, in Of Scribes and Sages: Early Jewish Interpretation and Transmission of Scripture - Volume 1 -

Ancient Versions and Traditions, ed. by Craig A Evans (London: T & T Clark International, 2004), pp. 69–

113 (p. 112). 46

Fletcher-Louis, ‘The Cosmology of P and Theological Anthropology in the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira’, p.

69. 47

Crispin H. T. Fletcher-Louis, ‘The Worship of Divine Humanity as God’s Image and the Worship of

Jesus’, in The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism: Papers from the St. Andrews Conference on the

Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus, ed. by Carey C Newman, James R. Davila, and Gladys S. Lewis

(Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 1999), pp. 112–128 (p. 117).

17

Wright maintains that Israelite worship was aniconic, that is, it was ‘without idols

or images’. 48

49

However, while we concur that there was no worship of idols or images,

the high priest was, in fact, present during worship as an ‘image-idol’ and as a

representation of God who played a facilitating and mediating role in the worship of

Yaweh. There were many visual elements of the high priest and his apparel that would

have ‘spoken’ to the Israelites as they assembled for worship.50

Therefore, one could argue

that, in a particular way, Israelite worship was iconic. We can understand the development

of “icons” (images of Christ and the saints) in the East in the early centuries of church

history as fulfilling a similar type of mediating function in church worship. Ware explains

that when an Orthodox Christian ‘kisses an icon or prostrates before it’ this is not idolatry

because the ‘icon is not an idol but a symbol’.51

Here we understand him to mean that an

‘idol’ is an image that is worshipped whereas a ‘symbol’ is an image that is not

worshipped. So what is going on with these very demonstrative, even intimate movements

acted towards an icon? It is clear that both Catholic and Orthodox Christians carefully

distinguish between the worship of God and the veneration of saints.52

However, Orthodox

Christians would argue that the ‘reverence’ or ‘veneration’ shown to the images is, in fact,

directed towards the saint depicted and, likewise, that worshipful actions shown to an icon

of Christ are actually being directed to Christ himself. An icon is ‘a channel to the person

[…] represented’.53

David Morgan sees a similarity between the icon on the desktop of a

computer and that of an Eastern Orthodox icon in that they both ‘serve as an access or

48

Wright, IV, p. 71. 49

Mirriam Webster Dictionary, ‘Aniconic - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster

Dictionary’, Mirriam-Webster <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aniconic> [accessed 4 July

2013]. 50

Fletcher-Louis, ‘The Image of God and the Biblical Roots of Christian Sacramentality’, p. 84. 51

Ware, p. 40. 52

Ware, p. 40. 53

Gervais Mathew quoted in Dyrness, Visual Faith, p. 89.

18

entry point, a portal that opens up into something greater, wider, deeper’.54

55

Orthodox

Christians believe that ‘the Incarnation has made a representational religious art possible:

God can be depicted because He became man and took flesh’.56

However, this belief has

meant that they have developed a somewhat strict tradition concerning the types of image

that can be used in worship and should be a ‘holy’ personage rather than any other type of

symbol. It is striking that the Orthodox Church forbade the use of symbols of Christ in

worship, for example, like a lamb.57

One can see that the process of using an image of a

lamb in worship compared with that of the ‘human image’ of Christ will be quite different

but why was it necessary to forbid these other images? Where did the impetus come from

for this? We have noted their understanding of Christ’s incarnation with regard to icons but

one wonders whether it was also, at least in part, due to what can be communicated when a

‘face’ is present. Moltmann sees the human face as being ‘the mirror of God’ because it is

one significant place where ‘God’s relationship to human beings is manifested and can be

recognized’.58

He goes further arguing that ‘(the) play of emotions is reflected in the face,

and a person’s “heart” is best expressed in his face’.59

Although, the faces on Orthodox

icons have been criticized for seeming ‘flat’60

and not really ‘life-like’ it is certainly

possible to see emotions being conveyed.61

Catholic ‘icons’ which have ‘faces’, for

example on the ‘stations of the cross’ will also convey emotions in a similar way. In his

book, ‘The Embodied Eye’, David Morgan understands the face depicted in an icon as the

‘common interactive boundary’ between ‘two parties’, namely the worshipper and the

54

David Morgan, The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling (Berkeley, LA:

University of California Press, 2012), p. 103. 55

Ware, p. 40. 56

Ware, p. 41. 57

Dyrness, Visual Faith, p. 36. 58

Moltmann, p. 219. 59

Moltmann, p. 219. 60

John B. Davenport, ‘G. K. Chesterton and the Eastern Church’, St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, 56

(2012), 289–316 (p. 297). 61

Robin Cormack, ‘Rediscovering the Christ Pantocrator at Daphni’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld

Institutes, 71 (2008), 55–74 (p. 58).

19

person that the icon represents. It is the face that receives ‘attention and returns it’.62

It is

the face of an icon, which has ‘both a surface and a depth’ which gives ‘a sense of

presence’.63

Morgan maintains that ‘devotees gaze upon the face of the saint in a holy

image, they do not imagine they are looking at a mask or an arbitrary sign, but at the saint

himself’. 64

Some of the significance of a face lies in the way it is a deep animate interface

between ‘the unseen domain of feeling’ of the person worshipped or reverenced and ‘the

visible world’ of the worshipper or person reverencing.65

Leaving aside the question of

how one actually gazes upon a representation of Christ ultimately any ‘gazing’ should lead

to a transforming ‘imitation of Christ’.66

Indeed the Orthodox Church expresses the goal of

its visually orientated worship in using the highly transformational term of ‘deification’.67

In contrast to the ‘Eastern view’ of the Orthodox Church, Dyrness suggests

that the ‘Western view’ of the Catholic Church followed Augustine’s understanding that

visible signs do not directly bring about ‘direct access to God’ but, in a more pedagogical

way, point to and represent spiritual reality68

. This may be part of the reason why the

Catholic Church was content to use a greater variety of visual object ‘signs’ which

‘pointed’ to different Christian truths and narratives and which did not just include

personages. However, it is well known that the Catholic church teaches that Christ is made

present, and therefore, presumably, encountered when the Eucharist is celebrated, that

traditionally Protestant churches have believed that a congregation can encounter God

speaking to them through the ‘preaching of the Word’, and as we have already noted

‘contemporary’ worship often privileges singing as a primary means to experience the

62

Morgan, The Embodied Eye, p. 89. 63

Morgan, The Embodied Eye, p. 89. 64

Morgan, The Embodied Eye, p. 89. 65

Morgan, The Embodied Eye, p. 91. 66

Gabriele Finaldi, The Image of Christ (London: National Gallery Company Limited, 2011), p. 133. 67

William A. Dyrness, ‘“Hope That Is Seen Is Not Hope”: Visual Explorations of Advent’, Interpretation, 62

(2008), 386–400 (p. 390). 68

Dyrness, Visual Faith, p. 33.

20

presence of God. So one could argue all churches have some belief in the ‘presence of

God’ being mediated in worship but different traditions seem to emphasize the efficacy

and, also, even the validity of different means of mediation.

Image, imagination and transformation

‘Seeing’ is perhaps is not as easy and as straightforward as we are inclined to think.

Stanley Hauerwas reminds us that ‘we do not see reality by just opening our eyes.’69

Iris

Murdoch urges caution when she asserts that ‘by opening our eyes, we do not necessarily

see what confronts us […] Our minds are continually active, fabricating an anxious,

usually self-preoccupied, often falsifying veil which partially conceals the world’70

We

want to argue that authentic worship should help us both to ‘see’ more clearly our world

and, also, to be transformed to fulfil our place and vocation in it. Murdoch argues that

effective love ‘is an exercise of justice and realism and really looking’ but sees keeping our

attention on the ‘real situation’ as a recurring challenge.71

Church worshippers are in the

habit of participating in corporate worship and so we need to consider the question of what

ways the corporate worship experience helps the worshipper to be ‘attentive’ to all reality;

physical, emotional and spiritual. It is clear that ‘seeing’ is potentially transformative.

Calvin, who we have noted above did not want to see unauthorized images in church

nevertheless, saw that the natural world spoke visually of the glory of God so much so that

he believed ‘on each of (God’s) works his glory is engraven in characters so bright, so

distinct, and so illustrious, that none, however dull and illiterate, can plead ignorance as

69

Stanley Hauerwas quoted in W. David O. Taylor, ‘Discipling the Eyes Through Art in Worship |

Christianity Today’, Christianity Today, 2012

<http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/channel/utilities/print.html?type=article&id=95898> [accessed 27 May

2013]. 70

Iris Murdoch quoted in Alister E. McGrath, Surprised by Meaning: Science, Faith, and How We Make

Sense of Things (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), p. 51. 71

Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good (London; New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 89.

21

their excuse’72

Calvin seems here to proclaim the power of the visual to communicate even

to those who are unable to read or who find it a challenge to process words intellectually.

We can see here a justification for deeming images to have the potential to be powerfully

transformative in a corporate worship service.

Morgan maintains that ‘seeing […] is a combination of biology and culture’.73

He

argues that there are different forms of looking to see and identifies a ‘devotional gaze’

which he understands actually as a ‘bodily engagement’ where the devotee adopts ‘a

posture of address’ and respect to the ‘saint, ancestor, or deity’.74

This ‘gazing’ is

potentially transformative because the interaction with the image can ‘position them’ in the

world in which they live by ‘configuring their relation to a past, a present, or a future,

toward other human beings; and toward such intangibles as nation, state, civilization, or

deity’.75

We might say that ‘visibility’ is the hoped for end result of ‘gazing’. 76

We see

here an articulation of what true attentiveness can achieve by ‘seeing’ things as they really

are; that is, it results in transformation. The idea of understanding in new ways, in true

ways that we have not been aware of before, seems to be very important for worship if it is

to be living and vital. David Tracy pushes this idea of pursuing new ways even further

when he insists that we have ‘need for inventions of the imagination to redescribe our

human reality in such disclosive terms that we return to the “everyday” reoriented to life's

real—if forgotten or sometimes never even imagined—possibilities.’77

Brueggemann

similarly argues that the poetic language of the psalms ‘does more than just help a person

to embrace and recognize their real situation. In dramatic and dynamic ways, the songs can

also function to evoke and form new realities that did not exist until, or apart from, the

72

Calvin, I, p. 51 (italics mine). 73

Morgan, The Embodied Eye, p. 67. 74

Morgan, The Embodied Eye, p. 74 (italics mine). 75

Morgan, The Embodied Eye, p. 69. 76

Morgan, The Embodied Eye, p. 69. 77

David Tracy quoted in Peter S. Hawkins, ‘“What Is Truth?” The Question of Art in Theological

Education.’, Theological Education, 31 (1994), 101–112 (p. 110).

22

actual singing of the song’.78

The way he understands ‘doxologies’, where ‘human reality’

can be ‘redescribed’, is very similar to how Ricoeur understands art sketches being ‘not

simply projections of the artist’s conflicts, but the sketches of the solution. Dreams look

backward to infancy, the past. The work of art goes ahead of the artist; it is a prospective

symbol of his personal synthesis and of man’s future, rather than a regressive symbol of his

unresolved conflicts.’79

Trying to understand the process that was enacted in worship in a

Malaysian context Sooi Ling Tan is helped by Brueggemann’s understanding of what is

occurring in Psalm 73 which is described as a ‘sequence of orientation-disorientation-

reorientation’.80

Tan highlights how ‘lament’ can give rise to ‘disorientation’, in particular,

when the worshipper is faced with the reality of a predicament in which they or others are

in and that ‘sanctuary’ gives rise to ‘reorientation’ or, in other words, ultimately to a time

when praise is able to be expressed.81

Whether it is by the medium of poems or of images

our imaginations need to be in operation in order that this vital process of transformation

can occur. If it is true that our imaginations need to be activated in order to fully be aware

of our situation that is, physically, relationally, emotionally and spiritually, then we can

argue that imaginations need to be engaged in corporate worship. Paul Tillich who has

carried out significant theological work on the arts believed that when art is ‘encountered’

the whole person can be engaged and that this is because artists use symbols to express

something about reality.82

Because art is about ‘opening up reality’ it can be used to further

the Christian goal of living rightly in reality. 83

Where images are seen as a potential

negative distraction then we run the risk that in limiting ‘distractions’ we would limit

imagination. But, limiting imagination in corporate worship could then limit our degree of

78

Walter Brueggemann, The Psalms and the Life of Faith, ed. by Patrick D Miller (Minneapolis, MN:

Fortress Press, 1995), p. 28. 79

Ricoeur quoted in Brueggemann, p. 159. 80

Krabill and others, p. 159. 81

Krabill and others, pp. 159–160. 82

Dyrness, Visual Faith, pp. 62, 63. 83

Dyrness, Visual Faith, p. 63.

23

transformation which we have argued needs to be seen as a key authentic result of true

worship.

David Taylor insists that ‘in worship, our emotions, bodies, and imaginations have

a vital role, and the arts serve to bring them into an intentional and intensive

participation.’84

He contends that ‘what we do week after week in corporate worship forms

us to be a certain kind of Christian’ and, therefore, encourages us to think about or analyse

how we are being trained or discipled by corporate worship experiences and suggests that

to limit corporate worship to ‘thinking’ or even ‘feeling’ does not reflect the ‘richly

multisensory worship we see from Genesis to Revelation’.85

Neil MacGregor notes that

there is a heritage of Christian artists using image to convey ‘theological intricacies’, for

example, to show that Christ suffering was ‘not just personal but cosmic’ and how his dual

human-divine nature could be pictorially represented.86

Furthermore, Halstead rightly

affirms a reciprocal relationship between image and theology with our visuals speaking

theologically and our theology speaking visually.87

One can understand expressly then that

such images, that relate stories or act as symbols or icons, have played a mediating role in

much of the history of Christian worship although, as noted above, one could argue that

within Protestant churches the use of image in worship ‘has had a troublesome history’

and that the contemporary situation reflects this.88

89

In fact, so much so that David Taylor

is burdened to ask the question ‘What if we saw the arts as essential, rather than optional,

to the Spirit's work of forming us in the image of Christ when we gather as a corporate

body?’ 90

He goes on to make the case for art to be an essential part of corporate worship.91

84

Taylor (italics mine). 85

Taylor. 86

Finaldi, p. 6. 87

Elizabeth Steele Halstead, ‘Ears That Hear and Eyes That See | Reformed Worship’, Reformedworship,

2006 <http://reformedworship.org/article/december-2006/ears-hear-and-eyes-see> [accessed 28 May 2013]. 88

Finaldi, p. 133. 89

Dyrness, Visual Faith, pp. 11, 12. 90

Taylor. 91

Taylor.

24

In other words we would benefit from the help of arts in our discipleship. But, as noted

above, the preached word, although vital, is not the only ‘channel’ through which God can

speak to us, to make us aware of new insights and to imagine things differently which will

ultimately lead to our transformation. Taylor argues that art can bring a new awareness to

us. God can communicate and speak to us in ways other than words. The Christian artist

Makoto Fujimura insists that the arts have the power to ‘awaken’ us. 92

Doug Adams

considers aspects of visual arts in worship and maintains that there is a contrast between a

priestly and prophetic focus in worship.93

By this he seems to mean contrasting a focus on

a reconciled devotional relation with God with that of a focus on practical response and

action in response to God. He maintains that the priestly focus is expressed in ‘symmetrical

art and dance where all is sustained in harmony and order’ and that the prophetic is

expressed in ‘asymmetrical art and dance development’ and disordered percussive

elements. 94

He argues that a prophetic focus is usually expressed much less in corporate

worship than a priestly one and presses for this imbalance to be addressed in the way that

arts are used.95

The Lutheran Nairobi statement is clear about the prophetic and radical role

of any expression that is contextualized when it declares that the ‘(c)ontextualization of

Christian […] worship necessarily involves challenging […] all types of oppression and

social injustice wherever they exist in earthly cultures.’96

Certainly for there to be

transformation worshippers they will need to be, at times, challenged or even shocked by

the reality of which they are made aware through the means of artistic images.

Anderson and Foley suggest that rituals in general have both a ‘comforting’ and

‘orientating’ role when they stress that ‘(r)ituals not only construct reality and make

92

Judith Hougen, ‘Art and Entertainment: A Final Word on Sentimentality with Bonus True Confession’,

Coracle Journeys, 2012 <http://judithhougen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/art-and-entertainment-final-word-

on.html> [accessed 27 May 2013]. 93

Doug Adams, ‘Criteria in Styles of Visual Arts for Liturgy.’, Worship, 54 (1980), 349–357 (p. 349). 94

Adams, p. 349. 95

Adams, p. 349. 96

Department for Theology and Studies of the LWF.

25

meaning; they help us fashion the world as a habitable and hospitable place’97

but, at the

same time, they also aware that ‘(r)itual’s capacity for expressing and creating meaning

also renders it a potentially dangerous endeavour. Like the stories that frequently

accompany them, rituals can bring to light truths we would rather ignore […]’.98

We can

comprehend how different worship practices are particular forms of ritual and that those

which are both comforting or ‘devotional’ in a more priestly way, as well as those that can

challenge and disturb in a more prophetic way need to be incorporated into corporate

worship

Image and meaning

Finally, in our discussion on image in worship we need to ask whether the visual

elements of worship paint ‘an integral picture’ as we remember that Christ ‘never lost sight

of the Father’s ultimate plan during the hardest struggle he faced’ nor did he ‘lose his scars

after his resurrection and ascension’.99

How should visuals for worship be planned to

ensure an authentic mediation? Robert Webber identifies four stages of planning, namely;

‘purpose, form, style and mechanics’.100

Halstead suggests that there is a tendency to

proceed backwards which risks concentrating primarily on the presentation and the

practical installation rather than on the meaning. 101

So the most important question should

concern why we are wanting to incorporate a piece of art into corporate worship and this

focus on meaning will help move the appreciation of a piece of art ‘beyond its form and

style to our wonderment of God’.102

Maggi Dawn concurs when she advocates having two

essential ‘ground rules’ for developing a rite namely to ‘identify its purpose and direction’

97

Herbert Anderson and Edward Foley, Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals: Weaving Together the Human

and the Divine (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998), p. 20. 98

Anderson and Foley, p. 24. 99

Halstead, ‘Ears That Hear and Eyes That See | Reformed Worship’. 100

Robert Webber quoted in Halstead, ‘Ears That Hear and Eyes That See | Reformed Worship’. 101

Halstead, ‘Ears That Hear and Eyes That See | Reformed Worship’. 102

Halstead, ‘Ears That Hear and Eyes That See | Reformed Worship’ (italics mine).

26

but then in the light of that clear worship focus to ‘choose limits in terms of the elements

that are brought together to create the rite – language, music, choreography and the use of

symbol. 103

This she sees as vital for ‘giving coherence to the rite.’104

By this we

understand that there is a paramount obligation to be concerned for the meaning that is

conveyed in any worship activity. Again concurring with this focus on coherence and

meaning there seems to be a consensus that it is possible to overload the worship space

with too many different images and contemporary calls for simplicity and clarity are not

uncommon to hear. Horrigan sees this as a particular implication of the Sacrosanctum

Concilium (The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) document of Catholic Church,105

and

Richard Giles concurs when he pleads for an ‘avoidance of clutter’106

and being intentional

about what we are mediating in the worship area. Botte also maintains that history has

taught both the Catholic and Orthodox churches to be wary of the creeping in of

unintentional or ‘accidental symbolism’.107

108

However, Vostock understands the key

issue as one of how well the environment and, by implication, the images in it serve the

‘rituals’ used in corporate worship and understands that ‘noble and simple’ can be just as

inspiring as ‘highly ornate and decorative’.109

In any case, it is clear that there is a

consensus to focus on meaning in the evaluation of use of image and symbol in the

worship space.

103

Maggi Dawn, ‘The Art of Liturgy’, in The Rite stuff: ritual in contemporary Christian worship and

mission, ed. by Pete Ward (Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship, 2004), pp. 24–36 (p. 33). 104

Dawn, p. 33. 105

J Philip Horrigan, ‘Sacred Space, Temple of the Divine and Human. Part 1, Church Buildings through the

Ages’, Liturgical Ministry, 14 (2005), 8–14 (p. 14). 106

Richard Giles, Re-pitching the Tent: The Definitive Guide to Reordering Your Church (Norwich:

Canterbury Press Norwich, 2004), pp. 113–115. 107

Giles, pp. 117–119. 108

Bernard Botte, ‘On Liturgical Theology.’, St Vladimir’s Seminary Quarterly, 12 (1968), 170–173 (p. 170). 109

Richard S. Vosko, ‘A House for the Church: Structures for Public Worship in a New Millennium’,

Worship, 74 (2000), 194–212 (p. 202).

27

Space, mood and engagement

We will be arguing that worship leaders or curators must be aware of the

significance of mood and emotion in contemporary corporate worship. The importance of

emotion is echoed in the Anglican ‘Down to Earth Worship' York statement which

expounded the meaning of liturgical inculturation and pressed for, ‘A willingness in

worship to listen to culture, to incorporate what is good and to challenge what is alien to

the truth of God. It has to make contact with the deep feelings of people. It can only be

achieved through an openness to innovation and experimentation, an encouragement of

local creativity, and a readiness to reflect critically at each stage of the process - a process

which in principle is never ending’110

. In harmony with this Draper, Collins and Baker

contend that ‘post modern times elevate experience and community’111

They lament the

general situation in churches, as they see it, where emotions such as ‘grief and failure’ are

not able to be acknowledged or articulated and note that, although ritual is a feature in

postmodern society, the rituals that are enacted in the corporate worship of churches are

often ‘empty and boring’. They suggest that this is due to a complete lack of emotion in the

way that services are conducted. However, some seem to argue that lack of emotion in

services is a good thing and that true liturgy should be absent of emotional distraction.

Tucci insists that Christian ‘ceremonial must […] be impersonal in character as it must be

imperturbable in performance if the body and the mind are to be disciplined as they must

be to (show) subservience to the liturgy.’112

He concurs with others who see the learning to

perform church ceremonies with ‘the majesty of gesture’ as being like the learning of an

art form somewhere between a ‘dance and drill’ which needs to be learnt by ‘work and

110

Graham Cray, ‘(Church Music Quarterly) Making Contact with Today’s Culture | Fresh Expressions’,

Fresh Expressions, 2012 <http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/news/grahamcray/makingcontact> [accessed

18 June 2013] (italics mine). 111

Kevin & Ana Draper, Steve Collins and Jonny Baker, ‘Labyrinth - Theory - Intro’, Labyrinth, 2000

<http://www.labyrinth.org.uk/theorypage1.html> [accessed 18 June 2013]. 112

Douglass S. Tucci, ‘High Mass as Sacred Dance.’, Theology Today, 34 (1977), 58–72 (p. 68) (italics

mine).

28

rehearsal’. Admittedly this is a view from the 1970s and it certainly seems out of step with

many contemporary aspirations expressed for corporate worship. Catholic writer Scirghi

agrees with Albert Rouet in seeing that ‘an obsession with rubrics can turn the liturgical

celebration into an action divorced from its environment, making it a theater (sic) of

abstractions.’113

Scirghi understands such impeccable ceremonies to be ‘humanly dead’

because they operate without any reference to the people in the congregation at all. 114

The

congregation might as well not be there as they are effectively not important to the

proceedings. We can see that aspirationally there is a growing awareness across the

Christian traditions of the need for corporate worship to be focussed on congregational

participation. In its Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy in 1963 the Roman Catholic church

signalled a ‘full, active and conscious’ involvement of the congregation where before

participation had been limited to the ‘visual and aural’.115

Lutheran writer Gordon Lathrop

is passionate about the vision of a church assembly being a ‘gathering together of

participating persons’ even though he does not seem to detail what ‘holistic participation’

should be like in practice but rather presents more abstract ideals, such as the need to have

‘a strong center (sic) and an open door’.116

This strong centre includes the Bible,

‘communally read, sung and preached’ and the sacraments, and the ‘open door’ means for

Lathrop that the church is wholly inclusive in its welcome.117

The Methodist Worship

Book affirms that leaders of worship have a responsibility to ‘encourage and, with the help

of the Holy Sprit, to enable’ full participation although this is not stipulated or expounded

in the rubrics that follow apart from occasional references to standing or sitting.118

113

Thomas Scirghi, ‘This Blessed Mess’, in Living Beauty: The Art of Liturgy (Lanham, MD: Rowman &

Littlefield Publishers, 2008), pp. 19–33 (p. 23). 114

Scirghi, p. 23. 115

Horrigan, p. 12. 116

Gordon W. Lathrop, Holy People: A Liturgical Ecclesiology (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress,

2006), pp. 21, 93. 117

Lathrop, pp. 92, 94. 118

Methodist Conference (Great Britain), The Methodist Worship Book. (Peterborough: Methodist Publishing

House, 1999), p. vii.

29

In today’s culture use of space is privileged in today’s society.119

There is

awareness, for example, that the design of public spaces will affect how safe people feel to

utilize those spaces and appropriate design will encourage or discourage use.120

Steve

Collins agrees when he maintains that changing spaces and the objects in those spaces

‘changes what we can do, and what we think we can do’121

. If we apply this to corporate

worship we can say that space and its use can affect all our responses and, in particular,

what we feel and what we imagine.

So, why has it been so difficult to keep a focus on participation in the past and what

aspects with regard to the use of space in worship should be guarded against in the future?

We shall identify three unhelpful tendencies; over-clericalizing, over- traditionalizing, and

over-spiritualizing. Horrigan identifies an emphasis on a ‘clericalized liturgy’ and the

subsequent lack of emphasis on the engagement and attentiveness of the congregation in

the Romanesque style churches from the eighth century onwards.122

This separation of the

congregation ‘from the action’ in the worship space was completed in the Gothic era.123

With large megachurches and, perhaps larger ‘community churches’ one wonders whether

there is a danger of worshippers being further and further away ‘from the action’ so that

they could feel they do not really need to be there. Of course, the use of technology can

give a feeling of intimacy and involvement in a larger worship space but, on the other

hand, technological communication can sometimes be seen as somewhat artificial and so

be a distraction. In addition, where tradition is privileged in the worship space over

indigenous culture then participation also can be hindered. As Vosko proclaims; ‘the

traditional symbol systems used by some churches appear to have lost their grip on the

119

Collins, ‘Treating Church as a Design Problem’, in Curating Worship, ed. by Jonny Baker (London:

SPCK, 2010), pp. 21–34 (p. 29). 120

Gill Valentine, ‘Women’s Fear and the Design of Public Space’, Built Environment (1978-), 16 (1990),

288–303 (p. 301). 121

Collins, p. 25. 122

Horrigan, p. 10. 123

Horrigan, p. 11.

30

imaginations of churchgoers.’124

It is possible for symbols to become ‘stale’ or irrelevant

and, therefore, lose their power to transform. Moreover, ‘over-spiritualizing’ of worship

practices can lead to a diminishing of holistic engagement. Ellis suggests that ‘in Baptist

worship […] a tendency to spiritualize and avoid the materialist dimensions of worship has

meant that the Lord’s Supper, while important, has not been regarded as the primary

channel of divine grace which it is in some other traditions.’ 125

One could argue that it has

also led to a general down playing of the use of different senses in the worship space.

Traditional Protestant church space layouts have been driven by the primacy of the spoken

Word of God, often reflected in a central and elevated position of the pulpit, and so this has

led to a desire to eliminate anything that might distract from that focus. Hymn singing has

been also seen as a way that the ‘teaching of the Word’ can be reinforced to the

congregation, for example in John Wesley’s hymn book. He maintains in the Preface to his

1780 hymn book that it is ‘a little body of experimental and practical divinity’ and that the

chosen hymns ‘contain all the important truths of our most holy religion’.126

Ministers in

this tradition would no doubt stress that the heart as well as the mind should be engaged in

all aspects of the service but, apart from the actions of standing and sitting down in the

worship space at appropriate moments, other senses would tend not to be involved in the

service. One could also argue that individuals in such churches would be ‘confined’ in the

use of their particular worship space as conventionally one would not be expected to move

from one’s seat during the service. Although in the past people would have been

‘traditionned’ to happily endure these types of services this is, surely, less likely to be the

case in post-modern culture with its emphasis on plurality, choice and variety.

124

Richard S. Vosko, ‘Liturgical Technology, Social Media, and the Green Church’, Liturgical Ministry, 20

(2011), 87–92 (p. 87). 125

Ellis, p. 65. 126

John Wesley, ‘Wesley’s Preface to 1780 Edition of Wesley’s Hymn Book’, Isle of Man <http://www.isle-

of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/lh1844/wesleyp.htm> [accessed 12 August 2013].

31

Space and Community

Dan Kimball writing about the Emerging Church in the United States argues that a

more community or fellowship based evangelism, modelled on a ‘Celtic approach’, is what

is needed to connect with today’s post-modern generation.127

For Kimball the welcoming

into a real community, where people and relationships are valued, must precede any

presentation of the Christian message. This approach has, it seems, been one of the key

factors that has made the Alpha course so successful. Here there is an emphasis that, before

any presentation of the Christian message, there needs to be a meal beforehand in which

real relationships can be established. In addition, to consolidate the sense of community,

after the presentation, the material is openly discussed in a small group.128

Tomlin and

Millar concur when they stress that the central key element of Alpha is not the teaching but

the ‘experience it gives of church and community’.129

They emphasize the importance of

becoming part of a church’s community in order to experience, as part of this community,

what it might mean to be a Christian and the perspective that this could bring to life.130

For

our discussion we see that the emphasis on experience of community is important because

it is in community that Christianity can be fully and holistically understood as it is lived

out and embodied in Christian practice. If, as Heelas maintained, the central belief that is

common to those who find help in New Age religion is that we ‘malfunction because we

have been indoctrinated […] by mainstream society and culture’131

then Christianity must

be really ‘tried’ in order to see whether or not it ‘works’, or in other words, whether it fits

with reality as we experience it. However, there is also a belief that in order ‘get in touch

127

Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations (Grand Rapids, MI:

Zondervan, 2003), p. 285. 128

Stephen Hunt, ‘The Alpha Program: Charismatic Evangelism for the Contemporary Age’, Pneuma, 27

(2005), 65–82 (p. 71). 129

Graham Tomlin and Sandy Millar, ‘Assessing Aspects of the Theology of Alpha Courses’, International

Review of Mission, 96 (2007), 256–262 (p. 259). 130

Tomlin and Millar, p. 259. 131

Heelas quoted in Dick Houtman and Stef Aupers, ‘The Spiritual Turn and the Decline of Tradition: The

Spread of Post-Christian Spirituality in 14 Western Countries, 1981-2000’, Journal for the Scientific Study of

Religion, 46 (2007), 305–320 (p. 307).

32

with our real selves’ we need to move beyond our ‘socialized self’132

, in other words, we

find truth away from community. Alpha provides a model for Christian community which

allows people the freedom to explore their own questions about religious questions but

within, at least aspirationally, an accepting community to which some commitment is

given. This sort of approach seems to be an often needed pre-requisite in order for people

to come to embrace an authentic and personal Christian belief and, ultimately, to

participate in corporate worship. It can be argued, therefore, that liturgy and worship

spaces must speak of community in which conversations and discussions are encouraged to

freely take place.

If we see the way we use the worship space as crucial for engaged participation in

corporate worship then buildings must ‘speak’ to today and Thomas Merton wonders,

therefore, why a ‘church has to look as if it were left over from some other age.’133

In

addition, it is clear that if members of congregations are to be involved in services they

must have a clear un-obstructive view of the focal points in the worship space; communion

table, lectern, pulpit, platform.134

Although not always possible due to space constraints

Episcopalian Richard Giles, along with others, advocates that there should also be room for

movement within the worship space. He suggests a ‘gathering place’ outside the place of

the assembly, and two distinct places for the Word and the sacraments.135

He envisages

that the community will stand around the altar table for the time when the bread and wine

is shared and so the table will need to be in an ideally situated position.136

Also, the

assembly should be able to physically move to the area where the Word is ‘broken open’.

He sees this ‘liturgical movement’ as reflecting the ‘nomadic roots’ of God’s people who

132

Heelas quoted in Houtman and Aupers, p. 307. 133

Vosko, ‘A House for the Church: Structures for Public Worship in a New Millennium’, p. 203. 134

‘10 Simple Rules for Designing a Great Worship Space’, ChurchConstruction.com

<http://www.churchconstruction.com/article-10simplerules.php> [accessed 28 May 2013]. 135

Giles, pp. 124, 125. 136

Giles, p. 125.

33

are on a journey.137

In similar vein Vosko, a Catholic consultant for worship environments,

suggests that the structure for public worship must include; a gathering place, ‘processional

paths’ so that the congregation can move from one liturgical place to another, a water bath

allowing the possibility for baptism by immersion, a particular place for the proclamation

of the Scriptures, a place for communion where all members of the congregation are able

to gather ‘as celebrants and not as spectators.138

We note that both these specialists are

seeking to embody the aspiration of assembly participation in the design of their building

and the subsequent way space is used. Alternative Worship takes a much freer and

‘untraditionned’ approach to the arrangement of space as can be seen on Steve Collins’

‘Smallfire’ website showing the huge range of possibilities for installations that have been

created for worship. However, the churches described by Vosko and Giles and the spaces

transformed in Alternative Worship seem a far cry from the church of Judith Hougen

where the exterior of her church looks like ‘a small airport terminal’ with ‘lots of curved

chrome’ and substantial windows, and where in the interior there are folding seats filling

the sanctuary, burgundy surrounding walls and two huge screens for worship song words

either side of the stage where sometimes hangs the only symbol in the room, a wooden

cross.139

There will, of course, be issues of style that will give rise to much variety in

church building design but Halstead helpfully suggests that there is value in ‘assessing’

how particular church buildings ‘work’. She advocates trying to imagine how a first time

visitor would ‘feel’ in the worship space and what they would understand by it, but also to

consider how the different elements that make up the worship space create a visual whole,

and furthermore, if necessary, to engage a visual art teams to bring about changes in how

137

Giles, p. 121. 138

Vosko, ‘A House for the Church: Structures for Public Worship in a New Millennium’, p. 201. 139

Judith Hougen, ‘An Embodied Gospel: Thoughts on Church and the Arts’, Coracle Journeys, 2012

<http://judithhougen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/embodied-gospel-thoughts-on-church-and.html> [accessed 27

May 2013].

34

things look so that the right ‘feel’ can be created for those entering the building.140

So, we

affirm that there is a clear need for contemporary churches to carefully reflect on their

worship space and how it both contributes to the sense of community and encourages

creative participation in worship events.

140

Elizabeth Steele Halstead, ‘Showcase - Visual Arts: Architecture and Liturgical Art’, Calvin Institute of

Christian Worship, 2012 <http://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/showcase-visual-arts-

architecture-and-liturgical-art/> [accessed 28 May 2013].

35

Chapter 3: Case Studies and Reflections

In this chapter we firstly identify what we understand to be key elements in the

process of developing corporate worship, particularly with reference to use of image and

use of space. These include the priority of inculturation (or contextualization) which we

will insist needs to be privileged when reflecting on corporate worship practice. Secondly,

we reflect on how to develop ‘dynamic traditions’ and how that, by understanding what

seem to make up enduring and enriching traditions, this will help in deciding what

elements to include in a new or experimental ritual. In addition, we discuss briefly the

problematic question of how today’s corporate worship should connect with Christian

tradition. However, our main focus is the documentation of three case studies that has been

obtained from different sources. The particular cases have been chosen because they are,

arguably, good examples of culturally relevant practice involving creative use of image

and space and, also, seem to have an enduring and enriching quality about them. We will

reflect more specifically on how each of the three examples display the principles that we

have discussed so far and also how each example relates to Christian tradition.

Developing corporate worship practice

The Lutheran Nairobi Statement helpfully clarifies two main approaches to

contextualization which are relevant to our discussion on practically developing corporate

worship, namely, dynamic equivalence and creative assimilation. Dynamic equivalence

‘involves re-expressing components of Christian worship with something from a local

culture that has an equal meaning, value, and function’141

whereas creative assimilation

141

Department for Theology and Studies of the LWF.

36

‘consists of adding pertinent components of local culture’ to enrich the worship practice.142

Palshaw although writing to express concerns about ‘new directions in contextualization’

maintains that ‘careful experimentation in contextualisation need not lead us to syncretism

as long as one is aware of the dangers’.143

‘Contextualisation needs constant monitoring

and analysis’ and ongoing consideration of the question; ‘What are the people really

thinking?’144

Again, we see here an important focus on what meaning is being understood

by a particular approach. Furthermore, we want to insist on the legitimate use in corporate

worship of ‘whatever is good’ from contemporary culture.

We would like to focus on one important aspect of the work of creating new forms

for corporate worship and this is the need always to bear in mind what Brian Schrag refers

to as ‘cultural dynamism’. Jeremy Fletcher suggests that ‘ritual expression [..] because it is

repetitive […] is conservative by its very nature’ 145

Nichols also maintains that the main

characteristics of the social culture and order are ‘structure’ and ‘predictability’ and that ‘is

where we spend most of our time’.146

On the other hand Anne Zaki suggests that ‘culture

by definition is dynamic and changing, sometimes slowly and gradually, at other times

rapidly and dramatically.’147

So how can the rites of the church keep in tune with the

surrounding culture? Brian Schragg uses the term ‘cultural dynamism’ to describe how

‘healthy communities’ maintain a culture or traditions which are a mixture of elements

which are static and remain unchanged and those which are dynamic and subject to

change.148

He articulates this by identifying, within particular song genres of a culture

142

Department for Theology and Studies of the LWF. 143

Phil Palshaw, ‘Danger! New Directions in Contextualization’, EMQ, 34 (1998), 404–410 (p. 410). 144

Palshaw, p. 410. 145

Jeremy Fletcher, ‘Text, Authority and Ritual in the Church of England’, in The Rite Stuff: ritual in

contemporary Christian worship and mission, ed. by Pete Ward (Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship, 2004),

pp. 13–23 (p. 16). 146

J. Randall Nichols, ‘Worship as Anti-Structure: The Contribution of Victor Turner’, Theology Today, 41

(1985), 401–409 (p. 402). 147

Krabill and others, p. 64. 148

Brian Schrag, Creating Local Arts Together: a Manual to Help Communities Reach Their Kingdom

Goals, ed. by James R Krabill (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2013), p. 166.

37

which he has studied, these two elements. For example, there may be elements of the

rhythm which are fixed and others which can be improvised and the same for vocal parts.

He suggests that ‘without creative, malleable structures to infuse new energy into the stable

structures, the stable structures will decay and dissipate’.149

Schrag finds support for this

view of tradition from Paul Ricoeur who understands tradition to be ‘not the inert

transmission of some already dead deposit of material but the living transmission of an

innovation always capable of being reactivated by a return to the most creative moments of

poetic activity’ and that ‘a tradition is constituted by the interplay of innovation and

sedimentation’. 150

Further support for these two characteristics of structure and fluidity

positively operating as a dialectic in ‘healthy communities’ seems to come from Victor

Turner. He uses the terms ‘communitas’ and ‘liminality’ to describe the experience of

being, what we might refer to as ‘being out on a limb’, and which come from Arnold van

Gennep’s understanding of ‘rites of passage’ being ‘marked by three phases: separation,

margin or “limen” (meaning “threshold” in Latin), and aggregation.’151

Interestingly,

Turner argues that the key marks of liminality are ‘lowliness and sacredness’.152

One can

perhaps understand how the sense of being disorientated in an unknown and unsettling

situation can bring about a certain humility and the ‘sacredness’ coming from the sense of

‘otherness’ which follows from being disconnected from what is familiar and known. In

any case Turner, using ‘communitas’ for ‘liminality’ concludes that ‘in rites de passage,

men are released from structure into communitas only to return to structure revitalized by

their experience of communitas. What is certain is that no society can function adequately

149

Schrag, Creating Local Arts Together, p. 166. 150

Paul Ricoeur quoted in Brian Schrag, ‘How Artists Create Enduring Traditions’, in Resiliency and

Distinction: Beliefs, Endurance and Creativity in the Musical Arts of Continental and Diasporic Africa. A

Festschrift in Honor of Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, ed. by Kimasi L. Browne and Kidula (Richmond, CA:

MRI Press, 2013), pp. 415–44 (pp. 419, 420) (italics mine). 151

Nichols, p. 402. 152

Nichols, p. 403.

38

without this dialectic.’153

We note, in particular, this claim of revitalisation due to

experiencing something unknown, unusual or out of the ordinary, and understand that, if

this is correct, this will be an essential element for a new ‘tradition’ or ‘rite’ to embody if it

is to continue to be effective and maintain its dynamism to mediate.

We can apply the idea of ‘cultural dynamism’ not only to specific worship practices

but also to the general development of corporate worship in a church. We want to suggest

that in this process it is essential to identify components that are to remain static, for

instance, the ‘bedrock’ and characteristic of the worship practice of a particular church.

Churches could be encouraged to identify parts of the corporate worship that could be

usefully kept unchanged and, perhaps, which make the church distinctive in some way and,

at the same time, identify areas where there might be innovation and experimentation. It is

hoped that the parts of worship practice which are innovative, and which may not always

be easy to adapt to or accommodate, would none the less effect a ‘revitalisation’ of the

whole worship experience. This seems to be a similar aspiration to that which is behind the

notion ‘of stepping out of one’s comfort zone’ which has the hope that, in so doing, life as

a whole will be enriched in all its necessary routine.

How might this work in practice? Fletcher, for example, has identified how that the

new ‘order of services’ of the Church of England concentrate on specifying a framework

or ‘structure’ which remains constant rather than prescribing a compulsory and perhaps

unchanging textual context as, for example, in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. For

instance, he describes the contemporary Anglican communion service as having four major

sections – Gathering, Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Sacrament and the Dismissal.154

.

He further explains that ‘A Service of the Word’ is effectively organized around a ‘series of

headings’ and this means that ‘the responsibility for the design and enactment of worship’

153

Turner quoted in Nichols, p. 129 (italics mine). 154

Fletcher, p. 18.

39

is now the charge of ‘local worship leaders’.155

This approach may be able to address the

well-known issue of traditions or rituals defying control or modification once they become

established.156

Another example can be seen in the ‘Nairobi Statement of Worship and

Culture’ of the Lutheran church where it is articulated that the more ‘static’ elements of

worship are those which it proposes are ‘trans-cultural’, that is, true for every culture and

include some of the distinctively Christian beliefs expressed in the historic creeds of the

church and the great narratives of ‘Christ’s birth, death, resurrection, and sending of the

Spirit’.157

The more flexible parts of worship practice are those which are contextualized

and which vary from culture to culture.

Contemporary worship and Christian tradition

We perhaps should not underestimate the historic inertia that exists in some

traditions towards contextualization. Alcuin Reid reports that ‘Catholic liturgical reform

[…] may not be hurried’ and that it always ‘supervised by Ecclesiastical authority […]

taking care that liturgical tradition is never impoverished […], perhaps judiciously pruned

and carefully augmented (but not wholly reconstructed), according to the circumstances of

the Church in each age’158

But this sort of inertia also appears in the Protestant ‘free

church’ tradition as evidenced by a Baptist historian who wrote in 1952 that ‘(t)he general

pattern of church services has remained the same from the 17th

century to the present day:

scripture, prayer and sermon, interspersed with hymns.’159

And so it seems prudent to ask

how dynamic is ‘the dynamic interaction between various concerns in the life and witness

155

Fletcher, p. 18. 156

Fletcher, p. 18. 157

Department for Theology and Studies of the LWF. 158

Alcuin Reid, ‘The Nature of the Liturgical Movement and the Principles of Liturgical Reform’

(unpublished Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, London: King’s College, University of London, 2002), p. 303

<https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/2929223/270123.pdf> [accessed 25 July 2013]. 159

Ernest Payne quoted in Ellis, p. 43.

40

of a congregation’, referred to by Ellis, which shape corporate worship.160

So we need to

consider how we might negotiate effectively the interaction of culture and tradition.

Neville and Westerhoff contend that as ‘we participate in ritual, we experience

community, we reconcile and identify ourselves with our foreparents from who the ritual is

descended, and we re-establish continuity with the past and vision for the future.’161

If this

is the case, it raises the question of how much we should be connecting with the past in our

worship practices, that is, Christian tradition, and how much with the present and

contemporary culture. This has been referred to as ‘liturgical dualism’ and Ellis maintains

that the Orthodox theologian Schmemann understood the early church to inhabit this

question by ‘both worshipping in the Jewish temple and synagogue and breaking bread

[…] in their homes’162

. However, if today we consider it a good thing to maintain some

continuity with the past this seems even more problematic today because Christian

tradition has been developed in a plethora of different and, sometimes, competing

directions. Of course, as churches continue to develop around the world in different

cultures this diversity continues to grow. According to Boxsco, Massimo Faggioli has

provided a ‘useful way’ to articulate that tension between tradition and culture, at least, for

the Catholic tradition as being echoed in the two different historic traditional approaches:

‘Augustinian and Thomist’. 163

It is argued that followers of Thomist thought built ‘on

Aristotelian categories that embraced an ongoing theological-cultural evolution’ while

those of Augustinian thought built ‘on Platonic categories that separated the Church from a

sinful world’.164

And so while we can see that this tension is not new it is difficult to see

how the tension can be fully resolved, however, we wonder whether if we can in some way

160

Ellis, p. 43. 161

Gwen Kennedy Neville and John H. Westerhoff, Learning through Liturgy (New York: Seabury Press,

1978), p. 132. 162

Ellis, p. 65. 163

S. J. Mark Bosco, ‘Review of “Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning” by Massimo Faggioli’, Journal of the

American Academy of Religion, 81 (2013), 266–268 (p. 268). 164

Bosco.

41

keep the two together then we will ‘worship in the best of both worlds’.165

On balance

though, we see the need to privilege the contextualizing of corporate worship in order for

relevance and engagement to be maintained.

Case Studies

We now consider three very different examples of Christian worship and after

describing each of them in turn we will reflect on how image and space are used and how

this affects the emotion and imagination of the worshippers. We will also consider how

contextualization has been carried out and also whether we can identify what we might call

‘dynamic traditions’. Finally we will observe how the particular example connects with

Christian tradition.

The three examples are namely, a special Pentecostal Catholic Service in Leauva’a,

Samoa, the alternative worship Labyrinth which was installed for a time in St Paul’s

Cathedral, London and a form of service developed by and for African Christian believers

from a Muslim background.

Thomas Kane, who describes the special Pentecostal service sees the Catholic

Church he studies in Samoa as being more creative in the use of space within its liturgy

than his ‘home church’ in the United States. He feels that in Samoa they are less concerned

about doing the liturgy ‘correctly’ but rather on having a freedom to express the liturgy in

local ‘words, symbols, and dance’ and he is particularly impressed that they dare to

‘celebrate with the full body – reverent, holy, and festive’.166

The service begins with a

procession involving important ‘royal guardsmen’ who are in traditional ceremonial dress

165

Philip Greenslade, Worship in the Best of Both Worlds: An Exploration of the Polarities of Truthful

Worship (Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster, 2009), pp. 93–115. 166

Thomas A. Kane, ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in Samoa’, in

Christian Worship Worldwide: Expanding Horizons, Deepening Practices, ed. by Charles E. Farhadian

(Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007), pp. 156–170 (p. 160).

42

which is followed by an opening action ‘song to the Holy Spirit’.167

There then follows a

penitential ceremony involving a chief and his wife who both kneel, after which they ‘are

covered with a fine mat’, representing the whole community seeking reconciliation, which

is based on a local custom ‘for the seeking of forgiveness’.168

While the Gloria is being

sung, traditional ‘symbols of unity and peace are placed inside the sanctuary, in front of the

altar table’. 169

As the Word is solemnly brought in this is accompanied by the dancing of

the chiefs and their wives. While the Bible is held up high the church sings an action song

which stresses the importance and power of God’s Word.170

As they sing everyone uses

their hands to point ‘in rhythm with the music’ to the Bible after which they pat their heads

which symbolizes the ‘welcoming of God’s Word’. After the first reading male dancers

encircle the sanctuary area while everyone sings ‘”Holy Spirit, come, enlighten us!”” As

the gifts are brought forward the chiefly couples in traditional dress enter the sanctuary and

‘dance in the unique style of Samoa, with swaying hand gestures and shifting feet

movement’171

. ‘Flowers, fruit, vegetables, and a roasted pig along with the bread and wine

are danced down the main aisle’172

. There are further dances as the service continues and

for the Lord’s Prayer everyone holds hands and sings with ‘accompanying gestures’, the

men performing different ones from the women.173

Afterwards the roasted pig is brought to

the courtyard for the feasting which then follows. 174

In this special service we can see that there is a kaleidoscope of many different

images which are experienced. There are the special costumes, the dances, the food

produce, the Bible and the ‘fine mat’ used in the penitential ceremony. These images occur

in different places in the worship space. And there is much movement within the worship

167

Kane, ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in Samoa’, p. 157. 168

Kane, ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in Samoa’, p. 157. 169

Kane, ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in Samoa’, p. 157. 170

Kane, ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in Samoa’, p. 158. 171

Kane, ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in Samoa’, p. 158. 172

Kane, ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in Samoa’, p. 158. 173

Kane, ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in Samoa’, p. 158. 174

Kane, ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in Samoa’, p. 158.

43

space with processions and dances. Sometimes these movements are observed by part of

the congregation who are ‘spectating’ and at other times the whole congregation is

involved. However, it is not difficult to imagine that the ‘spectators’ would be moving

themselves in response to the energy of the whole event. With regard to emotion we can

perhaps appreciate the feeling of expectation that is generated by the procession at the start

of the proceedings, particularly, as it is carried out with the ambiance of local customs. The

idea to use local reconciliation symbols in the penitential rite would presumably enable the

congregation to ‘connect’ emotionally with it, as it taps into something deep within their

beings. At significant moments, such as the bringing in of the Word of God and the saying

of the Lord’s Prayer, locally styled dances and gestures are employed to help people focus

on these key events which would also aid people to be emotionally engaged in the

proceedings. As VerEecke maintains, ‘(g)esture and movement have a ministerial role

within the Liturgy’.175

Movements and gestures not only help personal engagement but

these actions communicate and ‘minister’ to others in the congregation. Dancing

traditionally styled dances evidently is something that will help people connect with each

other and make them feel at ease and ‘at home’ and finally the communal feast will further

bind everyone together and effectively compel everyone to ‘feel’ part of the event and,

more importantly, the community. These communal feasts perhaps would also reinforce in

the imagination of the congregation that they are part of this ecclesial community. The

dancing would impress on the imagination that this was an event celebrating real life and

power. The local penitential rite would speak to the imagination of the reality and strength

of the forgiveness and acceptance that is associated with the Christian faith. On reflecting

on this special festival service Kane concludes that ‘(art) and ritual can elevate and expand

our spiritual horizons. Symbols can express what the heart feels that the tongue cannot

175

Robert F. VerEecke, ‘Movement as Liturgical Medium.’, Liturgical Ministry, 6 (1997), 58–64 (p. 64).

44

articulate’176

. Using culturally meaningful symbols affects the emotions which help engage

the worshippers in what is being mediated. We note, also, that the development of this

liturgy is primarily the fruitful result of intentional work of the Samoan Cardinal Pio

Taofinu'u so we see that he would have had a good understanding of Christian tradition as

well as local customs.177

We see examples of cultural assimilation, for instance, in the way

that local dance and movements are used to enhance traditional aspects such as the

bringing in of the Bible and during the presentation of the bread and the wine. In the local

informed penitential ceremony with special ‘fine mat’ can be seen as an example of

dynamic equivalence where a local ‘rite’ has been used to re-express one element of the

traditional liturgy which has very similar meaning and function. This crafting in of local

elements is perhaps what gives the impression that what we have here is a ‘dynamic

tradition’ one that has a beautiful vibrancy and also elements which will be different each

time they are enacted, for example, the way that the congregation all dance together. With

regard to links with Christian tradition we note the use of the Lord’s Prayer, the traditional

elements of bread and wine for the Eucharist and the place of the Bible.

Steve Collins, who has created an amazing documentation of alternative worship at

<<www.smallfire.org>>, describes The Labyrinth in St. Paul’s Cathedral as a ‘major event

with long-lasting ramifications’.178

It ‘is a contemporary version of a cathedral labyrinth

which combines ancient Christian tradition with contemporary music, meditations, art,

media and activities at intervals along the path’. 179

It differs from traditional labyrinths in

that it has more ‘content’, for instance, it incorporates ‘stations’ along the journey in the

labyrinth which include ‘icons of the present’ and also participants listen ‘to a series of

176

Kane, ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in Samoa’, p. 169 (italics mine). 177

Thomas A. Kane, ‘The Dancing Church: An African and Pacific Perspective.’, Liturgical Ministry, 6

(1997), 69–75 (p. 75). 178

Jonny Baker, Curating Worship (London: SPCK, 2010), p. 26. 179

Kevin & Ana Draper, Steve Collins and Jonny Baker, ‘Labyrinth - History’, Labyrinth, 2000

<http://www.labyrinth.org.uk/historypage1.html> [accessed 12 August 2013].

45

music tracks with spoken meditations on a personal CD player’.180

It is an interactive

environment which is ‘self-evidently […] playful’. 181

According to Draper, Collins and

Baker the Labyrinth’s use of space can be considered to have three sections or stages; ‘the

inward journey – “letting go” or shedding, the middle of the labyrinth - 'centering', (and)

the outward journey - 'incarnation.'182

They claim that ‘walking a labyrinth changes

people’.183

One explanation of this is that ‘in the labyrinth […] the simple act of dropping a

stone in water to let go of pressures and concerns (seems to produce) a person freed from

pressure in and through the act itself. Or the act of walking slowly round the labyrinth with

God rather than the usual rushing alone in urban life […] is generative of a slowed down

person aware of God’s presence in life.’184

With regard to image we can understand

Alternative Worship as seeking to use culturally meaningful symbols within the worship

space to engage the worshipper. Such symbols were used at the ‘stations’. As Collins

explains Alternative Worship generally uses ideas from the contemporary art movement

which are ‘conceptual and installation-based’ where what is key is ‘the communication of

ideas […] using the stuff of everyday life – ashtrays, tights, TVs, bedding, booze.’185

This

is clearly a different form of communicating from that of the sermon and Collins argues

that as viewers ‘interact’ with this art they generate ‘their own meanings’.186

If this is the

case, then being used in this way this form of worship could be seen as an example of

‘liturgy […] a work of the people’.187

With regard to the use of space and, also, cultural

dynamism we see that on the one hand the participant is clearly directed along the path of

the labyrinth but on the other would presumably be free to walk the labyrinth at their own

180

Draper, Collins and Baker, ‘Labyrinth - History’. 181

Draper, Collins and Baker, ‘Labyrinth - History’. 182

Draper, Collins and Baker, ‘Labyrinth - Theory - Intro’. 183

Kevin & Ana Draper, Steve Collins and Jonny Baker, ‘Labyrinth - Theory - Transformation’, Labyrinth,

2000 <http://www.labyrinth.org.uk/theorypage7.html> [accessed 15 June 2013]. 184

Draper, Collins and Baker, ‘Labyrinth - Theory - Transformation’. 185

Collins, p. 21. 186

Collins, p. 22. 187

Collins, p. 22.

46

pace and, in particular, linger at the ‘stations’ until they were ready to move on. With

regard to emotions this labyrinth seems to generate a feeling of calm and, due to the

playful ambiance, also one of well-being. With regard to the initial ‘mood’ generated we

can imagine that the sight of such an unusual exhibit in St Paul’s Cathedral would have

generated a great sense of anticipation and, also perhaps, an attractive uncertainty or sense

of adventure. There would be a need to be able to trust that this novel piece was not there

to manipulate but to give something to the potential worshipper who would need to ‘risk’

walking through the paths. Presumably this trust would depend on the way that the curators

introduced and explained the use of the space and what was expected of the worshipper.

With regard to imagination we note the stimulating presence of the ‘icons of the present’

and also that, as Keegan in describing how traditional labyrinths function insists, ‘(we)

need to meander in order to let our creative thoughts, imaginations, and intuitions flow.’188

It would seem that the fact of the speed of participating not being prescribed could

encourage imaginative reflection.

We note here that, although, there is great potential for engagement in the

Labyrinth this will be clearly different from the case in Samoa. In the Samoan ritual there

would have been a shared communal meaning of the symbols being used having been

chosen intentionally by the Samoan Cardinal. Whereas, there is clearly, at least to some

degree, ‘built-in’ unintentionality to Alternative Worship that potentially could lead to

problems if ‘inappropriate’ understandings are interpreted by the symbols. However, a

general principle seems to be that in ‘most alternative worship services […] a ritual (or

symbolic act) […] really seals what has taken place and draws a service together. God

188

Leo Keegan, ‘Walking the Labyrinth: Recovering Sacred Tradition.’, Liturgical Ministry, 8 (1999), 201–

209 (p. 207).

47

seems to meet us in a special way in ritual.’189

This sealing seems to be similar to the

emotional connectedness mediated in the Samoan liturgy.

With regard to this example’s link with tradition the earliest known Christian

labyrinth is found in a fourth-century basilica in Algeria.190

There is not much historical

information on labyrinths and how they have been used but they have been seen to

‘provide the sense of sacred space that’ gives rise to ‘intuitive thought and personal insight,

[…] flow of imagination, and the healing integration of memory, body, and spirit […]’.191

We note that the Alternative Worship labyrinths have more content to provide ‘input’ for

worshippers. One might argue that we carry around with us much ‘input’ already and that a

more ‘open’ labyrinth would enable a more sustained time of processing or ‘settling’ to

enable the ‘healing integration’ of thoughts and emotions. In any case, we can understand

the Alternative Worship labyrinths as a contextualized version of an ancient tradition

where we can see mainly creative assimilation in the use of music and meditation being

provided through headphones and also the adding of ‘icons of the present’ at various

stations.

Our final case example is delineated in the ‘Arrangements for the Church’ for

believers from a Muslim background in a West African country.192

They describe

appropriate arrangements for worship in church as including; mats to be laid on the floor,

shoes to be left outside, men to sit on one side, women on the other and on entering the

church, one may say “You, O God, are great and worthy of praise! You only are to be

worshipped!”.193

There is also a section entitled ‘Worship in Prayer’194

and here there is a

liturgy based around a number of bible verses which are said in different positions, namely,

189

Draper, Collins and Baker, ‘Labyrinth - Theory - Transformation’. 190

Keegan, p. 203. 191

Keegan, p. 205. 192

Gomđinåe Iisaa, ‘A Way to Worship for Believers in Jesus the Messiah’ (Gomđinåe Iisaa, P.O.B. 86,

Banjul, Gambia, 2001). 193

Gomđinåe Iisaa, p. 9. 194

Gomđinåe Iisaa, pp. 4, 5.

48

bowing down, kneeling, sitting up on the feet, standing up. These ‘arrangements’ in the

worship space were drawn up by two ministers from a Muslim background in order to help

believers from a similar Muslim background to feel ‘at home’ in a church service as

opposed to feeling like an alien when attending a typical exuberant and loud African

church service.

In this service we see how the use of space and visual image are closely entwined.

The visual image of how the worshippers gather, how shoes are not seen in the worship

area, or male and female are separated, how bodies move as different prayers are said

would all speak to a worshipper in this setting. Of course, not only will they be observing

the assembly but they themselves as individual worshippers will be participating in all

these actions and, therefore, will be embodying their understanding about how God should

be approached reverently. The emotion or mood generated is assumed to be one of

reverence to God rather than exuberant celebration. We can appreciate how that customs

that would be so familiar as taking off one’s shoes for worship would help former Muslim

worshippers ‘feel at home’, as would the scene-setting arrangements such as floor mats and

separation of male and female worshippers.

With regard to imagination the service would seem to emphasize the need for

humility before God and this manner of worship would enforce this within the imagination

of the worshippers. Worship would be reinforced as being something very important and

the worship setting would probably communicate that God is not only near, but that he is

also ‘other’ or transcendent. We can see examples of both creative assimilation, where for

instance, mats are added to the worship area and dynamic equivalence, where prayer

positions are included which are similar to those used by Muslims in their prayers and

which have been adopted to embody appropriate reverence towards God in worship. With

regard to links with Christian tradition we see that prayer and Bible reading are privileged

49

and we see that the African Christian tradition of exuberant worship and dance is excluded.

This church shares the traditional symbols of bread and wine every time it gathers for

worship. With regard to cultural dynamism the service is based on set prayers and fixed

actions which reflect the Muslim form of praying so it is not easy to see on the evidence

we have if there are any dynamic or changing parts of worship practice but may be having

varying elements may not be so important in this particular cultural context.

In our three case study examples we have seen how that because of the intentional

contextualized use of image and space, which affects both emotions and imaginations, this

gives rise to a holistic participation and engagement.

50

Chapter 4: Conclusion

Our aim has not been to argue for the downplaying of the importance of ‘the Word’

or congregational singing in corporate worship. We have noted that currently in

contemporary worship congregational singing is uniquely and specifically referred to as

‘worship’ and that ‘sung worship’ for many is a key component in any worship event and

many testify to it mediating very meaningful experiences which are identified with the

presence of God.195

196

But we have been looking at ways to enrich worship further and

thereby to primarily increase the number and likelihood of worshippers being engaged but

which could also help to create a more accessible event for those from outside of the

church who might be present as observers. We have suggested that cultural relevance must

be privileged over tradition. People need to be able to connect with the expressions

employed. As Maggi Dawn argues ‘Christian rite […] needs not only to be authentically

Christian in terms of maintaining historical and doctrinal continuity. It also needs to allow

worshippers to express their worship in ways that seem ‘real’ to them.’197

We need to hold carefully together the interaction of the human and divine parts of

worship. It would seem that God’s role is a primary one, but as we have seen he often uses

intermediaries, agencies or means in order for an encounter to be ‘actualized’. The primary

role of God is affirmed by Von Allmen when he maintains that even though the Spirit is

‘invoked’ in corporate worship the worshippers ‘do not control the actualization of His

presence’198

and also by Ward when he says that ‘(t)he Church cannot summon the divine

presence’ and insists that ‘(m)ediation becomes a transforming encounter as it is made so

195

James H. S. Steven, Worship in the Spirit: Charismatic Worship in the Church of England (Carlisle:

Paternoster Press, 2002), pp. 127, 128. 196

Franklin M. Segler and C. Randall Bradley, Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice, 3rd Edition

(Nashville, TN: B & H Pub. Group, 2006), pp. 106–109. 197

Dawn, p. 29 (italics mine). 198

Jean-Jacques von Allmen, Worship: Its Theology and Practice., trans. by Harold Knight and W. Fletcher

Fleet (London: Lutterworth Press, 1965), p. 29 (italics mine).

51

by the Spirit of God’.199

But both these authors also seem to affirm emphatically that

meditative action or agency can bring about an encounter with God. For example, in

talking about gesture, von Allmen argues that ‘(it) does not merely express an encounter

but brings it about.200

Similarly, in discussing the example using the contemplative ‘Jesus

Prayer’, Ward explains that ‘this discipline […] mediates the divine presence’.201

We

conclude then, while maintaining that the salvic meditation of Jesus Christ and

‘actualizing’ role of the Spirit are fundamental to a worship encounter, on the human side

there are different means of mediation which can be employed in order to bring about such

an encounter.

We have identified the need to think about emotion and imagination when wanting

to increase engagement. Both these seem to be necessary to create meaningful, sustainable

and vital worship events. We have seen that participants need to connect ‘emotionally’

with what is being enacted. This seems to need some sort of relational dimension and

might include the way that the leader addresses the gathered worshippers or how he

involves them in the ceremony. We have noted that if the leader carries out his part of the

ceremony with no emotion and no attempt at relating the congregation then this will

probably mean that the congregation will become disengaged. The facial expression of

both leader and congregation will mediate emotion which will either be that which draws

people in or repels people away. In addition, we have focussed on imagination as being

something necessary to affect in worship. One can understand that where the imagination

is being stimulated in fresh ways then there will be no place for boredom. When boredom

occurs in corporate worship then engagement is lost. Imagination is needed both to

understand the Christian narrative in fresh ways, but also to imagine new and sometimes

199

Pete Ward, Participation and Mediation: A Practical Theology for the Liquid Church (London: SCM

Press, 2008), p. 112 (italics mine). 200

von Allmen, p. 95 (italics mine). 201

Ward, p. 117.

52

dangerous ways about how this Christian story might be lived out in our own story. Of

course, both emotion and imagination will be elements in congregational singing and also

in the ‘preaching of the Word’ but, we have sought to argue that emotional and imaginative

engagement in worship services can be enhanced when image and space are used in

considered and committed ways. Dawn further insists that any development of worship

expression or rite must ‘create the context for people to meet God’202

and we have argued

that both the use of image and space can help in this creation. We have seen this as we

have considered the use of image and symbol in the history of the church and also in

contemporary reflections on the use of image and space, and in examining three case

studies we have shown how image and space are able to play an important role in three

very different worship contexts.

It is clear, as with any creative change and development, that individual churches

need to be intentional and committed to develop the use of image and space in corporate

worship. Artistic and reflective people will need to be brought together to engage in

contributing to the worship planning. Someone with overall coordinating responsibility

will need to be identified who will negotiate with necessary leaders regarding the overall

shape of any worship event and also ensure that different contributions for a service are

completed and then brought together. This coordinating role would be similar to one

described by Jonny Baker as a curator. He has produced a helpful suggestion list of things

to consider for someone attempting this sort of role based on his practical experience of

planning ‘Alternative Worship’ services at Grace Church.203

They include the following;

facilitating the planning meetings, reflecting on the emerging direction and content

between meetings, ‘distilling’ the service order, allocating tasks, distributing ‘service

202

Dawn, p. 32. 203

Jonny Baker, ‘Worship Curation [1]: Opening up a Series of Reflections’, jonnybaker, 2009

<http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/jonnybaker/2009/05/worship-curation-1-opening-up-a-series-of-

reflections.html> [accessed 3 May 2013].

53

order’ to those involved, confirming that people are executing their tasks and have the

necessary resources and support to complete them, checking that the service is advertised,

collecting service material afterwards for publishing on the church website or other

communication channel and, lastly, collecting feedback about the service and reporting this

back to the planning team. We need to give more thought to the involvement of artistic

individuals in the development of new worship resources or practices. Even though we

have examined three different examples of worship events we did not find out about the

process by which these events came into being. How long did it take to devise each one

and who was involved? What was the decision-making process? And these questions raise

the more general one of how can churches develop corporate worship which reflects the

local culture. Brian Schrag has brought together different experiences of music and arts

‘missionaries’ to formulate an approach which facilitates the ‘creating of local arts

together’.204

This procedure has been developed from the work of ‘music missionaries’

seeking to facilitate indigenous Christian groups to compose their own music using local

musical forms and instruments often based on scriptural texts. But in doing this work the

missionaries found that often music was directly linked with dance and movement and

costume and arts in a wider sense, hence the development of this more comprehensive

method. It can be used outside of a Christian context but the goals can be clearly focussed

on Christian ‘kingdom goals’ and can be easily adapted to developing art forms which can

be used within corporate worship. This process has been primarily developed for

missionaries working in a foreign country and who will be working cross-culturally to

encourage local Christians to create artistic expressions sometimes collaborating with

artists outside of the church. However, in the United Kingdom this sort of approach could

have application where a church is seeking to reach out to a local community with its own

204

Schrag, Creating Local Arts Together.

54

particular culture. This process could employ artistic people within a church who could be

encouraged to work to develop appropriately artistic worship. But, also it could

conceivably be used to help and facilitate, in a wider sense, a congregation to connect more

meaningfully with the culture around them and to find out those elements which are in tune

with ‘kingdom values’ and so to develop ceremonies or images or other expressions for use

within corporate worship. The approach has seven main stages and each can be carried out

to different degrees as is necessary or possible within any time and personnel constraints.

These stages can be summarized briefly in the following way; meet a community and its

arts and carry out initial research into how the community functions and how it uses its

arts; specify kingdom goals and decide what is the overall aim of the project; select effects,

content, genre, and events and then carry out more in depth study of these; analyze an

event containing the chosen genre and find something that is both achievable and

appropriate for the goal; spark creativity which might involve some sort of focussed

workshop; improve new works and evaluate what has been produced; integrate and

celebrate for continuity which might include some sort of concert or special service where

the new creations can be celebrated. This cycle can then be repeated again and again as

needed.205

In addition to finding out about arts in the community it could be valuable to find

out what worship practices are in operation in other churches in the wider community. This

could be a very educational and informative process, where churches try to understand

what other churches are seeking to do with their worship practices and why, which could

inform further discussion for developing worship in a particular church. Sometimes

churches are unnecessarily isolated from one another, which can breed suspicion and

misunderstanding, when in fact some interaction could be mutually beneficial. Of course,

205

Schrag, Creating Local Arts Together.

55

there is also the question of what to do when there is more than one culture represented in a

church community which is not an uncommon situation for some churches in the United

Kingdom. Ian Collinge has suggested different models for future exploration in developing

worship music within multi-cultural corporate worship.206

In particular the two models that

are the more integrative are namely; ‘Integrated music: Unity with blended diversity’

where church musicians sing songs of different styles, and ‘Innovative fusion: Unity with

creative diversity’ where church musicians create new music together combining different

styles. Collinge has particularly focussed on music but we suggest that worship practice

involving image and space could fall into these two categories so that either, worship

practices each inspired by a different culture could be included in a service or, worship

practices could be developed that combine two or more cultures.

Although we see growing consensus of the need for participation of the

congregation and a sense of community in corporate worship there seems to be no

consensus for how this might be achieved in practice. Even though church denominations

have groups and associated websites promoting the development of creative resources to

bring this about, there is no formal commitment or understanding for these to be used in

local congregations. 207

208

In summarizing then, in order to increase engagement in corporate worship, we see

a continuing need for the intentional and creative development of authentic ways to use

image and space, along with other means of expression, and so enrich what is mediated in

contemporary corporate worship.

Word Count: 14955

206

Krabill and others, pp. 438–442. 207

The Methodist Church in Britain, ‘Prayer and Worship | Creative Arts’, The Methodist Church in Britain,

2012 <http://www.methodist.org.uk/prayer-and-worship/creative-arts> [accessed 11 June 2013]. 208

Mennonite Arts Weekend, ‘Mennonite Arts Weekend’, Mennonite Arts Weekend, 2013

<http://mennoniteartsweekend.org/about_us.html> [accessed 11 June 2013].

56

Bibliography

‘10 Simple Rules for Designing a Great Worship Space’, ChurchConstruction.com

<http://www.churchconstruction.com/article-10simplerules.php> [accessed 28 May

2013]

Adams, Doug, ‘Criteria in Styles of Visual Arts for Liturgy.’, Worship, 54 (1980), 349–

357

Adnams, Gordon, ‘“Really Worshipping”, Not “Just Singing”’, in Christian

Congregational Music: Performance, Identity, and Experience, ed. by Monique

Marie Ingalls, Carolyn Landau, and Tom Wagner (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate

Publishing Limited, 2013), pp. 185–200

Allen, Leslie C, Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 101-150 (Waco, TX: Word Books,

1983), XXI

Von Allmen, Jean-Jacques, Worship: Its Theology and Practice., trans. by Harold Knight

and W. Fletcher Fleet (London: Lutterworth Press, 1965)

Anderson, Herbert, and Edward Foley, Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals: Weaving

Together the Human and the Divine (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998)

Baker, Jonny, Curating Worship (London: SPCK, 2010)

---, ‘Worship Curation [1]: Opening up a Series of Reflections’, jonnybaker, 2009

<http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/jonnybaker/2009/05/worship-curation-1-opening-up-

a-series-of-reflections.html> [accessed 3 May 2013]

Bosco, S. J. Mark, ‘Review of “Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning” by Massimo Faggioli’,

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 81 (2013), 266–268

<doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs089>

Botte, Bernard, ‘On Liturgical Theology.’, St Vladimir’s Seminary Quarterly, 12 (1968),

170–173

Boyce-Tillman, June, ‘Tune Your Music to Your Heart: Reflections for Church Music

Leaders’, in Christian Congregational Music: Performance, Identity, and

Experience, ed. by Monique Marie Ingalls, Carolyn Landau, and Tom Wagner

(Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2013), pp. 49–65

Brueggemann, Walter, The Psalms and the Life of Faith, ed. by Patrick D Miller

(Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995)

Calvin, John, Institutes of Christian Religion, trans. by Henry Beveridge (London: James

Clarke & Co., 1949), I

Childs, Brevard S., The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary (Louisville,

KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004)

Collins, ‘Treating Church as a Design Problem’, in Curating Worship, ed. by Jonny Baker

(London: SPCK, 2010), pp. 21–34

57

Cormack, Robin, ‘Rediscovering the Christ Pantocrator at Daphni’, Journal of the

Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 71 (2008), 55–74

Cray, Graham, ‘(Church Music Quarterly) Making Contact with Today’s Culture | Fresh

Expressions’, Fresh Expressions, 2012

<http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/news/grahamcray/makingcontact> [accessed

18 June 2013]

Davenport, John B., ‘G. K. Chesterton and the Eastern Church’, St Vladimir’s Theological

Quarterly, 56 (2012), 289–316

Dawn, Maggi, ‘The Art of Liturgy’, in The Rite stuff: ritual in contemporary Christian

worship and mission, ed. by Pete Ward (Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship, 2004),

pp. 24–36

Department for Theology and Studies of the LWF, ‘Nairobi Statement on Worship and

Culture: Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities’ (Lutheran World Federation,

1996) <http://www.worship.ca/docs/lwf_ns.html> [accessed 24 July 2013]

Draper, Kevin & Ana, Steve Collins, and Jonny Baker, ‘Labyrinth - History’, Labyrinth,

2000 <http://www.labyrinth.org.uk/historypage1.html> [accessed 12 August 2013]

---, ‘Labyrinth - Theory - Intro’, Labyrinth, 2000

<http://www.labyrinth.org.uk/theorypage1.html> [accessed 18 June 2013]

---, ‘Labyrinth - Theory - Transformation’, Labyrinth, 2000

<http://www.labyrinth.org.uk/theorypage7.html> [accessed 15 June 2013]

Dyrness, William A., ‘“Hope That Is Seen Is Not Hope”: Visual Explorations of Advent’,

Interpretation, 62 (2008), 386–400

---, Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue (Baker Publishing Group, 2001)

Ellis, Christopher J, Gathering: a Theology and Spirituality of Worship in Free Church

Tradition (London: SCM Press, 2004)

Finaldi, Gabriele, The Image of Christ (London: National Gallery Company Limited, 2011)

Fletcher, Jeremy, ‘Text, Authority and Ritual in the Church of England’, in The Rite Stuff:

ritual in contemporary Christian worship and mission, ed. by Pete Ward (Oxford:

Bible Reading Fellowship, 2004), pp. 13–23

Fletcher-Louis, Crispin H. T., ‘The Cosmology of P and Theological Anthropology in the

Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira’, in Of Scribes and Sages: Early Jewish Interpretation

and Transmission of Scripture - Volume 1 - Ancient Versions and Traditions, ed. by

Craig A Evans (London: T & T Clark International, 2004), pp. 69–113

---, ‘The Image of God and the Biblical Roots of Christian Sacramentality’, in The gestures

of God: explorations in sacramentality, ed. by Geoffrey Rowell and Christine Hall

(London: Continuum, 2004), pp. 73–89

58

---, ‘The Worship of Divine Humanity as God’s Image and the Worship of Jesus’, in The

Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism: Papers from the St. Andrews

Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus, ed. by Carey C

Newman, James R. Davila, and Gladys S. Lewis (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 1999),

pp. 112–128

Giles, Richard, Re-pitching the Tent: The Definitive Guide to Reordering Your Church

(Norwich: Canterbury Press Norwich, 2004)

Goldingay, John, Psalms: Volume 3 Psalms 90-150 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,

2006)

Gomđinåe Iisaa, ‘A Way to Worship for Believers in Jesus the Messiah’ (Gomđinåe Iisaa,

P.O.B. 86, Banjul, Gambia, 2001)

Greenslade, Philip, Worship in the Best of Both Worlds: An Exploration of the Polarities of

Truthful Worship (Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster, 2009)

Grigg, Robert, ‘Aniconic Worship and the Apologetic Tradition: a Note on Canon 36 of

the Council of Elvira.’, Church History, 45 (1976), 428–433

Halstead, Elizabeth Steele, ‘Ears That Hear and Eyes That See | Reformed Worship’,

Reformedworship, 2006 <http://reformedworship.org/article/december-2006/ears-

hear-and-eyes-see> [accessed 28 May 2013]

---, ‘Showcase - Visual Arts: Architecture and Liturgical Art’, Calvin Institute of Christian

Worship, 2012 <http://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/showcase-

visual-arts-architecture-and-liturgical-art/> [accessed 28 May 2013]

Harakas, Stanley S., ‘Orthodox Theological Approach to Modern Trends.’, St Vladimir’s

Theological Quarterly, 13 (1969), 198–211

Hawkins, Peter S., ‘“What Is Truth?” The Question of Art in Theological Education.’,

Theological Education, 31 (1994), 101–112

Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Anglicized Edition (London: Collins, 2007)

Horrigan, J Philip, ‘Sacred Space, Temple of the Divine and Human. Part 1, Church

Buildings through the Ages’, Liturgical Ministry, 14 (2005), 8–14

Hougen, Judith, ‘An Embodied Gospel: Thoughts on Church and the Arts’, Coracle

Journeys, 2012 <http://judithhougen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/embodied-gospel-

thoughts-on-church-and.html> [accessed 27 May 2013]

---, ‘Art and Entertainment: A Final Word on Sentimentality with Bonus True Confession’,

Coracle Journeys, 2012 <http://judithhougen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/art-and-

entertainment-final-word-on.html> [accessed 27 May 2013]

Houtman, Dick, and Stef Aupers, ‘The Spiritual Turn and the Decline of Tradition: The

Spread of Post-Christian Spirituality in 14 Western Countries, 1981-2000’, Journal

for the Scientific Study of Religion, 46 (2007), 305–320

59

Hunt, Stephen, ‘The Alpha Program: Charismatic Evangelism for the Contemporary Age’,

Pneuma, 27 (2005), 65–82

Kane, Thomas A., ‘Celebrating Pentecost in Leauva’a: Worship, Symbols, and Dance in

Samoa’, in Christian Worship Worldwide: Expanding Horizons, Deepening

Practices, ed. by Charles E. Farhadian (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans

Publishing, 2007), pp. 156–170

---, ‘The Dancing Church: An African and Pacific Perspective.’, Liturgical Ministry, 6

(1997), 69–75

Keegan, Leo, ‘Walking the Labyrinth: Recovering Sacred Tradition.’, Liturgical Ministry,

8 (1999), 201–209

Kimball, Dan, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations (Grand

Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003)

Krabill, James R, Frank Fortunato, Robin P Harris, and Brian Schrag, eds., Worship and

Mission for the Global Church: An Ethnodoxology Handbook (Pasadena, CA:

William Carey Library, 2013)

Lang, Bernhard, Sacred Games: a History of Christian Worship (New Haven and London:

Yale University Press, 1997)

Lathrop, Gordon W., Holy People: A Liturgical Ecclesiology (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg

Fortress, 2006)

McGrath, Alister E., Surprised by Meaning: Science, Faith, and How We Make Sense of

Things (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011)

Mennonite Arts Weekend, ‘Mennonite Arts Weekend’, Mennonite Arts Weekend, 2013

<http://mennoniteartsweekend.org/about_us.html> [accessed 11 June 2013]

Methodist Conference (Great Britain), The Methodist Worship Book. (Peterborough:

Methodist Publishing House, 1999)

Mirriam Webster Dictionary, ‘Aniconic - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-

Webster Dictionary’, Mirriam-Webster <http://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/aniconic> [accessed 4 July 2013]

Moltmann, Jürgen, God in Creation – A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God

(The Gifford Lectures, 1984-1985), trans. by Margaret Taylor (Minneapolis, MN:

First Fortress Press, 1993)

Morgan, David, The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of

Feeling (Berkeley, LA: University of California Press, 2012)

---, ‘The Protestant Struggle with the Image.’, Christian Century, 106 (1989), 308–311

Murdoch, Iris, The Sovereignty of Good (London; New York: Routledge, 2001)

60

Neville, Gwen Kennedy, and John H. Westerhoff, Learning through Liturgy (New York:

Seabury Press, 1978)

Nichols, J. Randall, ‘Worship as Anti-Structure: The Contribution of Victor Turner’,

Theology Today, 41 (1985), 401–409

Palshaw, Phil, ‘Danger! New Directions in Contextualization’, EMQ, 34 (1998), 404–410

Reid, Alcuin, ‘The Nature of the Liturgical Movement and the Principles of Liturgical

Reform’ (unpublished Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, London: King’s College,

University of London, 2002)

<https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/2929223/270123.pdf> [accessed 25 July

2013]

Schrag, Brian, Creating Local Arts Together: a Manual to Help Communities Reach Their

Kingdom Goals, ed. by James R Krabill (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library,

2013)

---, ‘How Artists Create Enduring Traditions’, in Resiliency and Distinction: Beliefs,

Endurance and Creativity in the Musical Arts of Continental and Diasporic Africa.

A Festschrift in Honor of Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, ed. by Kimasi L. Browne and

Kidula (Richmond, CA: MRI Press, 2013), pp. 415–44

Scirghi, Thomas, ‘This Blessed Mess’, in Living Beauty: The Art of Liturgy (Lanham, MD:

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008), pp. 19–33

Segler, Franklin M., and C. Randall Bradley, Christian Worship: Its Theology and

Practice, 3rd Edition (Nashville, TN: B & H Pub. Group, 2006)

Smith, James K. A., Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation,

Volume 1 of Cultural Liturgies (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009)

Steven, James H. S., Worship in the Spirit: Charismatic Worship in the Church of England

(Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2002)

Taylor, W. David O., ‘Discipling the Eyes Through Art in Worship | Christianity Today’,

Christianity Today, 2012

<http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/channel/utilities/print.html?type=article&id=

95898> [accessed 27 May 2013]

The Council of Elvira, ‘Canons of Elvira’, The Catholic University of America, 306AD

<http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/Canon%20Law/ElviraCanons.htm> [accessed 4

July 2013]

The Methodist Church in Britain, ‘Prayer and Worship | Creative Arts’, The Methodist

Church in Britain, 2012 <http://www.methodist.org.uk/prayer-and-

worship/creative-arts> [accessed 11 June 2013]

Tomlin, Graham, and Sandy Millar, ‘Assessing Aspects of the Theology of Alpha

Courses’, International Review of Mission, 96 (2007), 256–262

Tucci, Douglass S., ‘High Mass as Sacred Dance.’, Theology Today, 34 (1977), 58–72

61

Unger, Merrill F, and William White Jr, eds., Nelson’s Expository Dictionary Of The Old

Testament. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1980)

Valentine, Gill, ‘Women’s Fear and the Design of Public Space’, Built Environment (1978-

), 16 (1990), 288–303

VerEecke, Robert F., ‘Movement as Liturgical Medium.’, Liturgical Ministry, 6 (1997),

58–64

Vosko, Richard S., ‘A House for the Church: Structures for Public Worship in a New

Millennium’, Worship, 74 (2000), 194–212

---, ‘Liturgical Technology, Social Media, and the Green Church’, Liturgical Ministry, 20

(2011), 87–92

Wainwright, Geoffrey, ‘Anamnesis, Epiclesis, Prolepsis: Categories for Reading the

Second Vatican Council as “Renewal Within Tradition”’, in Vatican II: renewal

within tradition, ed. by Matthew L Lamb and Matthew Levering (New York, NY:

Oxford Univ. Press, 2008), pp. 411–438

Ward, Pete, Participation and Mediation: A Practical Theology for the Liquid Church

(London: SCM Press, 2008)

Ware, Timothy, The Orthodox Church (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1985)

Watkins, Clare, ‘Theology, Church and Worship (Day 3) - Slide 12’ (unpublished Course

Lecture, King’s College, University of London, 2013)

Webber, Robert, Ancient-future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative

(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2008)

Wesley, John, ‘Wesley’s Preface to 1780 Edition of Wesley’s Hymn Book’, Isle of Man

<http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/lh1844/wesleyp.htm>

[accessed 12 August 2013]

World Communion of Reformed Churches, ‘Worshiping the Triune God’ (World

Communion of Reformed Churches, 2010)

<http://www.wcrc.ch//sites/default/files/Worshiping_the_Triune_God.pdf>

[accessed 24 July 2013]

Wright, Christopher J. H., Deuteronomy, New International Biblical Commentary

(Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996), IV

Zizioulas, John D., Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church (London:

Darton,Longman & Todd Ltd, 1985)