Sunday, March 6. We began the day attending Diesploot Community Church's worship service. (Diepsloot is the settlement community that I mentioned in my Feb. 25th blog post.) If you've ever spoken with someone who has gone to church in Africa or Latin America, you'll know that the services run a minimum of 3 hours and you think to yourself "How could I possibly sit there for 3 hours?" Well, you don't sit there. There was dancing and singing and shouting and music and the time seemed all too short. Everyone becomes a part of the service and no one is remotely bored. Up front was a guitar, a keyboard, a set of drums and about 8 vocalists. They rocked the place! Dancing would start up front and people would run from the congregation to join in. One person would do a series of steps and the others would join in. Mostly, they danced in a circle. The preaching was passionate and profound. They didn't just go to church, they went there, broke the alabaster jar and poured out all that was within them before God. It was all over too soon, and we headed back to Mosiaek's campus. On the way, Liz Jarocki and I were talking about the "we" cultural element that was obvious to us in the service. For instance, everyone dancing in the circle and following each others steps. We've all seen African dancing on tv, but being there live brought home the fantastic energy of it. The dancers made eye contact across the circle, smiling and urging one another on, completely engaged with each other. Liz pointed out that at many points though, an individual would step into the center of the circle and do his or her own thing.
We attended two services at Mosaiek that evening. The second service was very similar to Woodmen Valley Chapel's style, but the first service was unique to an evangelical church. Mosaiek calls itself not "Non-Denominational, but "Post-Denominational," and I really appreciated the distinction. They are culling the best practices from all Christian religions and using them to encourage a deepening of faith. The 6:00 pm service on Sundays is "Lectio Divina," and is taken from the Catholic tradition. Held in their small, traditional chapel, Lectio Divina is a chance to meditate on God's word. A passage is read from the bible and then time is given to sit there in silence, apart from the noise of the world and just think about what it is saying and letting it soak in. Sunday's passage was 1 Corithians 13's well known verses on love. Now, silence and meditation are right up my alley, so I became annoyed when a few words and the driving beat of Mumford and Sons song "Sigh No More" circled over and over in my head until I finally listened to what the words were saying: "Love that will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free..." The Africans dancing in the circle this morning popped into my mind and I knew somehow that when one of them stepped into the circle to dance their own dance, they were free to do so because of the support of the community of love around them. They were free to express who they were created to be. And I realized that this is exactly what the community of artists that I've journeyed with at Woodmen for the last 11 years has done for me. They have made me a part of a community where we all learn from one another and work together to create something of beauty. It's this circle of love, passion and encouragement that makes me feel free to step out and do my unique dance as the artist that God has created me to be. I could never be who and where I am today without that circle of love. How wonderful is that?
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