worship and the arts in multicultural ministry

Worship and the Arts in Multicultural Ministry

Ethnic Ministries SummitBoston, MA

April 16, 2010

Leonardo Espinosaleonardo.espinosa@bc.edu

1Saturday, April 17, 2010

In this seminar we will consider the imperatives of worship, as well as the challenges that multicultural/multiethnic settings pose to the worship ministry of the church. We will pay attention on how memory/ies and creativity contribute to shape the identity of the local church as a diverse worshiping body, and will discuss practical ways in which the arts can foster a deep spirituality, support discipleship, and enhance the expressions of worship of the church.

2Saturday, April 17, 2010

Worship

• process & outcome of our union with God

• response to God’s revelation

• our life in Christ is authentic “worship in spirit and truth”

• Life is Worship, Life is Liturgy

• cf. John 4:24; Romans 12:1

3Saturday, April 17, 2010

“Imperatives” of Worship

• Creational & Cosmic

• Dialogic

• Trinitarian

• Inculturated

• Multiethnic

• Missional

• Holistic

• Reconciling

• Restorative

• Resistive

• Eschatological

4Saturday, April 17, 2010

Multiethnic/Multicultural Imperative• Acts 2, “new wine” - multiethnic revolution

• Revelation 7:9-17, a multitude from every nation

• Galatians 3:28, one in Christ

• Ephesians 2:11-22; 4:1-6, common citizenship, one body, one household, unity of the Spirit

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What is at stake?

• our identity as a local body of worshipers

• our identity as part of the global body of Christ, and the Kingdom of God

• our integrity- missional; obedience to “the two most important commandments,” Mk 12:28-31 [we must be in a process of “constant conversion” (openness, transformation, acceptance)]

6Saturday, April 17, 2010

Key Questions

• Are we really multicultural? What is the difference between Multicultural and Multiethnic?

• Are we called to build an integrated multicultural/multiethnic ministry?

• Are we ready to commit and compromise?

7Saturday, April 17, 2010

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

• John 4:17-30

• invitation to transcend differences

• ethnicity

• styles, places

• social, economic, cultural, gender...

8Saturday, April 17, 2010

Postcolonial Theory as an Interface

• Investigation of the relationship between colonizers and the colonized

• Euro-American against the “colored”

• From Geo-political to Liturgical Imperialism - Religious Systems & Worship Practices have also been colonized

9Saturday, April 17, 2010

Werner Sallman

10Saturday, April 17, 2010

Challenge

• to see “the other” as ourselves

• recognize the value of the cultural elements of “the other”

• demythologize/demystify those cultural elements if they are religious traits

• deal with the tensions posed by the “pagan”

• spiritually discern the (potentially) profane

11Saturday, April 17, 2010

Tensions

• Borders vs. Borderlands

• Syncretism vs. Hybridity

• Center vs. Periphery

• Sacred vs. Profane

12Saturday, April 17, 2010

Tools/Movements

• spirituality and creativity as BRIDGES

• centrality of Biblical Narratives

• recovery of Little Traditions

• formation of Hybrid Practices

• use of the Arts and Creativity as Spiritual Disciplines

13Saturday, April 17, 2010

Tools

• Arts

• tendency to unmask colonial dynamics and ideological tensions

• private/public quality- trans/formative power

• power of persuasion- reassertion and transmission of particular identities and their value

14Saturday, April 17, 2010

Art is not a mirror that one approaches to reflect reality, but a hammer to transform it.

-Karl Marx (Bertolt Brecht?)

...the artistic semblance has the advantage that in itself it points beyond itself, and refers us away from itself to something spiritual which it is meant to bring before the mind’s eye.

-G. W. F. Hegel

15Saturday, April 17, 2010

Art is in the subjunctive.

-William and Aida Spencer

...it shows reality and being not only as “is/am/are” but also as “could,” “would,” “should”...

16Saturday, April 17, 2010

Strategies-Widening

• the perspectives of discourse, representation, imagination

• art forms addressed

• theological perspectives

17Saturday, April 17, 2010

Strategies- Re-theorize

• beauty

• articulate new working perspectives (performance, spirituality, interactivity)

• meaning of inspiration & creation

• cross-pollination, foster the unexpected

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