The worship of the church I serve is bound to inherited forms rooted in the early church and largely shaped by the musical heritage and prayers of the English tradition. The Book of Common Prayer is a rightly cherished sacred resource for biblical, orderly and beautiful worship. And not unlike other worship expressions, it is bodily. Newcomers to the Anglican tradition will often comment (if not complain) about the amount of standing and kneeling that accompanies our liturgies. Yet physicality in worship is not unique to our tradition. Nor is it unimportant or somehow esoteric. And other streams of the Christian faith embody worship in different ways and through different media. 

 

In this short reflection, Brian Walsh offers a useful reminder that Christianity is about the transformation of the entire self, including our bodies. Disembodied spirituality (either of the purely mystical or Gnostic variety) or an overly rationalized faith (similar to Enlightenment Deism) do not justice to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in Christ. Our worship life ought rightly to express this reality. 

 

Walsh is one of the more discerning cultural theologians in the church today and serves on the faculty at Wycliffe College at the University of the Toronto. His reflection may be found at his website here: http://empireremixed.com/2010/01/18/mlk/