Making sense in worship
This act of worship was created for an outdoor event and grew out of the space that would be available and so makes use of being able to be outside and in touch with all of creation. However with imagination it could be adapted for any setting. It’s really important to use the visuals and it is vital to give it time: it needs a good hour and a half to do it justice!
I gave myself the creative challenge of not using the most obvious stories to help us engage our senses (i.e. not using a healing story for touch), and also decided not to have the gospel stories read from scripture but simply told from another perspective to encourage the need for listening (and participation at one point). The music is deliberately repeated to give a familiar feel to an act of worship that is essential unfamiliar.
The other artificially created 'familiar' strand is the poem "the Word became flesh" which winds through the worship and so doing gives a familiar reference point in each section. This is printed below in full and in its original order, along with the closing words that were originally written to go with it. There is also a vocal version of "the Word became flesh" which you can download. This was written after Christmas in 2011 and started my mind thinking about senses and incarnation and all that.
Because of the nature of the event this was created for, not everyone was there at the start, and I found that although this act of worship had an overall theme, because it was also 5 separate acts of worship in one, people were able to slip into it easily.
All the songs are attributed to the writer. Any words and stories that have no attribution are (c) Anne Sardeson “out of the box” publications 2012.
Here you will find a script for the leader(s) and also a worship sheet for the congregation. Please feel free to use this and adapt it as you wish.
making_sense_in_worship.pdf | |
File Size: | 345 kb |
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Opening:
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Closing:
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the_word_became_flesh.pdf | |
File Size: | 92 kb |
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the_word_became_flesh_-_vocal.pdf | |
File Size: | 88 kb |
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