Finding Rhythm for Multicultural Worship: Heartful Indwelling with God and God’s Creation

Abstract

Justice seeking is an indispensable component of multicultural worship. How can multicultural worship help the faith community worship God heartfully, indwelling with God, one another, and creation? In this article, the Tai Chi rhythm of “loosen-empty-push” will be employed as both a metaphoric and embodied way of integration and mutual indwelling in heartful worship. For example, in the rhythm of multicultural worship, we humbly recognize our brokenness and vulnerability while being receptive to God’s initiative love and grace (loosen). We continue to learn how to let go and surrender ourselves to the works of the Holy Spirit, also becoming part of a multicultural and mutually embracing body of Christ, whose entire life embodied God’s reconciling and self-giving love (empty). One of the characteristics of multicultural worship is solidarity with others including God’s creation through worshipers’ daily compassionate, justice-seeking lives (push).

1. Introduction

“Are Egyptians bad people?”

A long time ago, my then 5-year-old son asked me this from the back seat of the car. The previous Sunday, he had heard the story of the Exodus and the Red Sea in Sunday School. I remember being surprised that the Bible stories we often hear at church can stereotype people of different races or nationalities from an early age. After a while, my curious son asked, “Is God a man?”

It is not surprising that Stephen G. Ray, Jr. noticed that church children unconsciously learn, accept, and absorb privilege and discrimination as natural. According to Ray, “The scriptural imagination of most Christians past a certain age is shaped and formed by character and historical depictions that are almost exclusively white” (United Church of Christ 2016). Along with the stained glass, Sunday School materials, and many other iconographies, “the Christian faith has long been an arch defender of the privileges and prerogatives white people” (Ibid.). No wonder established music, the loaded language of ritual, and non-verbal actions in worship have also intensified the White Eurocentric norm.

My son is now 23 years old. Time has passed, and awareness of multicultural worship has been growing in faith communities, although efforts to combat systematic injustice often unconsciously echo and reinforce what they oppose. A rising question is how the faith community worships God heartfully, concurrently pursuing a “heaven on earth” community, where people indwell with a loving, reconciling, and justice-seeking God, one another, and creation.

This article is written based on my pastoral vision and experiences regarding multicultural worship. It also reflects my spiritual journey as a pastor serving in a multicultural context, a scholar-practitioner, and an immigrant living “in-between,” “in-both,” and “in-beyond” two different societies.1 I will invite readers to participate in this journey towards multicultural worship and ministry, intentionally calling them “we.” Calling them “we” is an invitation to locate themselves as members of a multicultural community while reading this article, not necessarily to agree with my views or to assimilate into the multicultural community I am proposing.

As part of multicultural worship, the contemplative dimension along with the Tai Chi rhythm will be integrated. This vital component will help worshipers find a spiritual fountain in worship while abiding in God and offering (and sharing) diverse gifts from one another in worship and beyond. During worship, we are invited to breathe in (“Let God”) and out (“Let Go”) slowly, noticing that we are a uniquely and beautifully crafted embodiment of God’s breath.

The Tai Chi rhythm of “loosen-empty-push,” a moving contemplation and a discipline of living in the moment, leads us to enter God’s presence in and through worship. This Tai Chi rhythm will also serve as outline and flow of Section 3 (Practice of Multicultural Worship) of this article. The structure of this article is as follows:

Section 2: Theology of Multicultural Worship

The terms “multicultural” and “intercultural” have been defined in various ways without reaching scholarly consensus. While using the term “multicultural,” which is an umbrella term of this Special Issue, titled Multicultural Worship: Theory and Practice, I use it as synonymous with “intercultural,” defined by the United Church of Canada (UCC hereafter). The UCC’s “intercultural” worship and ministry is the most comprehensive, relevant, and practical alternative that I have found. However, since many local churches and denominations still use the word “multicultural,” especially in the USA, I will continue to use “multicultural,” focusing more on how to apply the UCC’s “intercultural” approach to multicultural local churches, and leaving the definition of academic terminology to the scholars. According to the UCC, “multicultural” worship and ministry in the UCC’s definition celebrate cultural differences but do not address (or superficially touch) justice issues, unlike “intercultural” worship and ministry that invite people to see power differentials in the church and beyond. Replacing the UCC’s “intercultural” with “multicultural” in this article, the UCC’s intercultural vision will significantly supplement and enrich current multicultural approaches to worship and ministry.

Section 3: Practice of Multicultural Worship

Along with Wuji stance, a standing posture for preparing for Tai Chi movements, the Tai Chi rhythm and flow provide both metaphoric and embodied ways of understanding and experiencing multicultural worship, and mutual indwelling with God in and through heartful worship. For example, following the gentle flow of worship mindfully, we learn who we are and whose we are before God. When we humbly recognize our brokenness and vulnerability, while being receptive to God’s initiative love and grace (loosen and empty in the Tai Chi rhythm), we can also see our strong desire for control, privilege, and power in the church. This recognition among worshipers will lead to taking bold steps towards justice-seeking efforts and transformation. As we continue to learn how to let go and surrender ourselves to the works of the Holy Spirit, we become part of a mutually embracing body of Christ, whose entire life embodied God’s reconciling and self-giving love. One of the characteristics of multicultural worship is solidarity with others, including God’s creation through worshipers’ daily compassionate, justice-seeking lives (push, in the Tai Chi rhythm).

Section 4: Case Study

In this section, I will present an example of virtual multicultural worship in the context of the United Methodist Church of Martha’s Vineyard, where I serve as a pastor. The Tai Chi rhythm allows us to experience gentle but powerful dynamics in worship and “worship after worship,” which means our daily lives on holy grounds. The evaluation of the liturgy will address the strengths and challenges of the sample case of multicultural worship.

2. Theology of Multicultural Worship

The terms “intercultural” and “multicultural” have different meanings, but they are sometimes interchangeably used. For example, Eunjoo Mary Kim, professor of homiletics and liturgics at the Iliff School of Theology, prefers “multiculturalism” to “interculturalism” (Kim 2017). Kim’s why is revealed in her quote of the British political theorist Bhikhu Parekh, who sees the intercultural approaches as “biased towards the majority” and the multicultural approaches as having a “pro-minority provenance and orientation” (Ibid.). Kim’s vision and preference for multiculturalism depict “a movement that aims to change the multicultural society into a better world where people who differ in race, ethnicity, culture, and religion can live peacefully with equally respected recognition of their diverse cultural identities” (Ibid., 5)

Kim’s vision is not much different from the approach that the United Church of Canada calls “intercultural.” The UCC encourages churches to become “intercultural,” in which “mutually reciprocal relationships among and between cultures” are deeply implanted and grown. In this vision of wholeness in diversity, the UCC strives to become a joyful, hospitable, justice-seeking, and life-giving church that also embraces painful, vulnerable, and uncomfortable challenges in God’s grace-filled presence (see UCC 2011a, 2012).

The UCC warns that a multicultural approach—which it describes as honoring differing cultures living side by side—often remains in tolerating and celebrating outward and superficial expressions of culture such as food, dress, music, and dance without addressing “power differentials” (UCC 2011c). Another approach, which the UCC believes is least desirable, is the “cross-cultural” approach. In cross-cultural worship and ministry, “one culture is deemed superior or inferior to another” and individual or mutual transformation rarely happens (Ibid.). In cross-cultural environments, many people still believe they value reciprocity while implicitly or explicitly saying, “This is our tradition you need to learn.” In America, this approach is easily recognized by the term “melting pot,” in which the hegemonic majority culture “welcomes” people of diverse peoples to “melt” into an idealized homogenous whole. “We worship XYZ in this church (or country).” Or, “You will be assimilated into this sooner or later.”2 Warning against a superficial path without seeking justice, the United Church of Canada views it as “multicultural” or “cross-cultural” when the church celebrates cultural differences without addressing “racial and cultural power imbalances.”3

The UCC’s vision statement for becoming an “intercultural church” is inspiring and applicable to congregations that seek multicultural/intercultural transformation:

… We strive to become an intercultural church to deepen our understandings and experiences of God and of one another. Within the United Church, a variety of cultural expressions of faith are affirmed and welcomed. Part of the vision of the intercultural church is to create a space where we can sustain our own cultural identities while also affirming those of one another.

Using the term “multicultural” as synonymous with “intercultural,” as defined by the UCC, I have found that it is helpful to replace the term “intercultural” used by the UCC with “multicultural” to see how the UCC’s perspective supplements and enriches multicultural worship and ministry in the USA, where the term “multicultural” is widely used. Replacing the UCC’s term “intercultural” with “multicultural” would result in the following summaries:

(1)

Becoming a multicultural church means to grow together not only by embracing differences but also by engaging in difficult conversations and healthy critiques of each other’s viewpoints, of opening up to listening, learning, and becoming vulnerable. “Justice seeking” addresses racism, White privilege, discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, environmental injustice, and much more with its intersectional convergence. The multicultural church affirms and encourages diverse cultural identities and leadership, avoiding pressure to assimilate into the dominant culture. Participating in God’s multicultural mission, the church will become a joyful, accepting, and life-giving body of Christ (UCC 2012, 2011a, 2016).

(2)

The Bible provides foundations for becoming a multicultural church. A story in the New Testament captures the characteristics of the multicultural church at a glance: “The Syro-Phoenician woman challenged Jesus’s own assumptions. She dared to ask Jesus, a man—and one from a different culture—to heal her daughter. Jesus allowed these kinds of encounters with the marginalized people, which helped shape and change him”. (Mark 7:24–30) (UCC 2011b, Adapted).

(3)

Jesus’ border-crossing, multicultural encounters, especially with the outcast, marginalized, and powerless, broke down human-made dividing walls, embracing all people with God’s love. The UCC states, “Jesus himself broke barriers of race, class, gender, and social norms to create a community of believers where all were welcomed.” At Pentecost, the Spirit of God enabled the female and male disciples to speak in different languages (Acts 2:1–13). From the beginning of Church history, God envisioned a multicultural, multilingual Church, where diverse gifts and common humanity are celebrated and affirmed. Becoming a multicultural church is our journey together to listen, learn, and live out God’s vision here and now as it is in heaven.4 Multicultural worship and ministry lead people to mutual transformation in which “no one is left unchanged” (UCC 2016).

The primary concern of multicultural worship is not about worship style, but the relationship to God and one another. Multicultural worship is living and dynamic, where renewed relationships, spiritual depth, love, justice, reconciliation, and healing are experienced, and those experiences are embodied in daily lives as a continuation of worship. Although multicultural worship styles and components cannot be prescribed, due to their openness to contextual variations, I would like to focus on vital but often neglected areas such as rhythm, contemplative silence, and bodily expressions in worship. I believe they enhance multicultural worship experiences.

Suppose we narrow the scope of the discussion for a moment to contemplative prayer. In that case, we find that worship, contemplative prayer, and life have been compartmentalized for a long time throughout the history of Christianity. Paul F. Bradshaw maintains that a “happy balance” in worship between the “cathedral prayer” engaging the whole congregation and “monastic prayer” that is essentially contemplative has not often been achieved:

Sadly, the Christian tradition in the West, both Catholic and Protestant, has tended to value one way of prayer more than the other. The meditative road of “monastic” prayer is seen as the way for the highly “spiritual” individual, and liturgical worship regarded as much inferior to it. Participation in liturgy, it has been thought, is a Christian obligation, which of course cannot be neglected, but it is private prayer that is truly beneficial.

(Bradshaw 1995)

Depending on the contexts, there are reverse cases, where contemplative components have been neglected. Some efforts to reconcile the two have persisted, as seen in the example of the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal, in which “the nucleus is clearly ‘cathedral’ in character, with more ‘monastic’ additions enclosed within brackets as an optional extension to the celebration.”5 However, in the broader span of the history of the Church in the West, the separation between worship and contemplation has become increasingly reinforced. Bradshaw suggests that both cathedral and monastic prayers have “something vital to contribute to our understanding of prayer [and worship] and to our Christian living.”6

Although contemplation, if it is considered at all, has often been viewed as optional, in recent years, the integration of worship, contemplation, and our daily life journey is no longer new or surprising (Ibid., 25). For example, Don E. Saliers invites us “not to construct a dualism of ‘inner’ experience and ‘outward’ language and ritual act.”7 Saliers also believes that “our lives and our liturgies are incomplete until we learn solidarity with others who suffer, and allow others to touch our suffering … [and where] liturgical celebration of word and sacrament and the domain of social justice are equally grounded in the self-communication of God in Jesus Christ.”8

Through worship and our daily Christian living, we are invited to deeply breathe in and out the breath of life, becoming part of the divine tapestry of new creation in each moment. Christian mindfulness and the Tai Chi rhythm of “loosen-empty-push,” which will be elaborated on in the following section, are helpful and critical to understanding and implementing flow, rhythm, kinesthetic expressions, and silence, all of which deepen the spiritual dimension of Christian worship and life. They can be beautifully integrated into multicultural worship, boosting the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

3. Practice of Multicultural Worship

In the contemporary world, the significance of Christian mindfulness and contemplative wisdom has increasingly been embraced among Christians in general.9 Since COVID-19 broke out, more people have been sitting in front of Zoom screens to practice contemplative prayers, including centering prayer, welcoming prayer, and lectio divina, finding peace and deepening their relationship with God. The Upper Room’s One-Year Online Academy for Spiritual Formation in Today’s World, starting in 2021 (Upper Room program hereafter), reflects the same trend and need. It also reflects the significance of integrating spiritual nurture and social holiness.

I was one of the participants of the year-long Upper Room program. Interestingly, I found the Wuji (to be explained further below) and the Tai Chi rhythm of “loosen-empty-push” in session themes:

• Wuji: “Meeting God in Our Longing” (February 25–27);
• Loosen: “Meeting God in Our Healing” (May 20–22);
• Empty: “Meeting God in Our Reconciling” (August 19–21);
• Push: “Meeting God in Our Justice-Seeking” (November 4–6).

The presenters’ ideas and the flow will explicitly or implicitly become the background of a case study for multicultural worship, the next section of this article. I will paraphrase some of the presenters’ wording without changing the content if possible.

3.1. Meeting God in Our Longing (Wuji, in the Tai Chi Rhythm)

Tai Chi is often used synonymously with Tai Chi Chuan. Tai Chi means “Supreme Ultimate,” and adding Chuan, “fist,” signifies Tai Chi as a martial art. Traditional Tai Chi begins with a Wuji posture, though today’s simplified Tai Chi often omits it. Wuji (無極) is a Chinese word meaning “without ultimate,” which is also described as a bottomless emptiness before the birth of Tai Chi (太極), the “Supreme Ultimate” from which the interaction of yin and yang expanded to various phenomena in the universe. Wuji is an indispensable standing posture for preparing for Tai Chi movements. For a Wuji stance, you make the feet parallel with shoulder width. The body is loosened and the arms naturally drop, making the whole body take on a lemon shape. Eyes gently look straight ahead. Imagine that there is a tall chair right behind of you. Sit lightly in a chair with your body, not with your knees. The center of gravity of your body, located 3 inches below your navel, is called Dantian. The Dantian also becomes the supporting point of your body when you practice Tai Chi. Also, imagine a string gently pulling the top of your head, making you stand tall. Stay three to five minutes in that posture. Once you get used to this pose, you can stand for 15–20 min. From this posture, Tai Chi movements begin with the rhythm of loosen-empty-push, and with the ongoing interaction of yin and yang.

During the first session, I asked the session presenter, Amy G. Oden, about effective ways to facilitate a contemplative prayer meeting. At the time, I had been facilitating a contemplative prayer meeting through Zoom for months. One of the resources I was using was Oden’s book, Right Here Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness, along with the United Methodist Women’s Mission U resource, Finding Peace in an Anxious World (Oden 2017; James-Brown 2020). Oden answered that if facilitators authentically become mindful, longing for God and rooted in God, participants will feel it, joining it in depth—it is about me rather than them. I could immediately connect her answer to the Wuji stance, because without Wuji, Tai Chi becomes a performance of skills lacking internally mindful equanimity.

Oden’s answer was consistent with her invitation for the participants to listen to their deep longing for God, their deep “rootedness” in God. Oden shared Howard Thurman’s “Sound of the Genuine,” the 1980 commencement address at Spelman College. Thurman invited the graduates to hear the “sound of the genuine” without being deceived by external noises and impulses. Oden said that if we do not listen carefully to the “sound of the genuine,” our deep rootedness in God, we can easily spend our days being puppets manipulated by the pleasing sounds in the world.

As applied to worship, worship leaders are invited to repeatedly listen to the sound of the genuine not only during worship but in their daily routines, remembering and returning to their longing for God, and meeting God in their longings. In other words, worship preparation needs to be woven with weekday prayer life, noticing that God is present in every moment of our daily lives. A contemplative prayer once or twice a day, sometimes with a group, would deepen worship leaders’ (and participants’) rootedness in God. In this way, when people come together, standing or seated, for Sunday worship, their hearts are like the Wuji stance, being ready to enter into the presence of God. In a nutshell, “liturgy after liturgy” is applied to prayer life on weekdays, too. Even during informal greetings, rehearsals, and conversations, congregants understand that they are already engaged in worship initiated by God.

To become more receptive to God’s presence, in the beginning stage of worship, leaders may say gently, “Be still and know that I AM GOD. Be still. Be.” (Psalm 46:10), inviting people to be centered, to be aware of the presence of God as they go deeper into meeting God in worship.

3.2. Meeting God in Our Healing (Loosen, in the Tai Chi Rhythm)

You will continually follow a cyclical loosen–empty–push rhythm when you begin Tai Chi movements. “Ready-set-go” might be a more accessible term for the rhythm of loosen-empty-push. Or, you may want to call it a rhythm of potential energy-momentum-kinetic energy (that is, potential energy followed by momentum followed by kinetic energy). Many people do not notice that there is always momentum in the interactions between yin and yang. When you swim, when you hit or throw the ball in baseball, during boxing, when you lift heavy objects, or when you shovel snow, you use the rhythm of loosen-empty-push for effectiveness and protecting yourself. “Loosening” in the Tai Chi rhythm prepares and fosters a basic kinesthetic principle embedded in us from the beginning, but that needs to be noticed, practiced, and released. Likewise, worshipers need time to loosen and settle down themselves before God. As Ruth C. Duck explains, in African American preaching, there is also a flow of “Start low; go slow; go higher; strike fire. Sit down.”10

Safiyah Fosua, the second-session presenter of the Upper Room program, invited participants to recognize their fear, lamentation, suffering, and the frailty of the human condition, which she calls an “uncomfortable light.” Fosua said we live in a season of uncomfortable light, especially amid isolation caused by the pandemic, our contemporary valley of shadows.

To reflect on a deeper level, Fosua shared Walter Brueggemann’s three typologies in the psalms: psalms of orientation, psalms of disorientation, and psalms of reorientation. According to Brueggemann, we need to wear helping lenses of “orientation, disorientation, and reorientation” when we read Psalms. “Psalms of orientation” express joy, goodness, thankfulness, and the reliability of God and God’s creation. On the other hand, “Psalms of disorientation” express fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, disappointment, isolation, despair, and God’s seeming absence. They exclaim, complain, and lament, “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”

However, that is not the end of the story. People realize that God has been there with them all the time when they were lost and could not feel God’s presence. “Psalms of new (re) orientation” praise God again, becoming grateful for the new start of their life journey in God. The Psalmists confess, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise my God and my help.” “O God, create in me a clean heart, and put a new and steadfast spirit within me” (also see Brueggemann (2002)).

Fosua invited participants to reexamine themselves before God, like Moses standing in front of a bush that will not be consumed by fire, asking God who God is, and beginning to grasp who he is. In the Tai Chi metaphor, we may call it the stage of “loosening.” Praying or singing for illumination, we humbly loosen ourselves, asking God to make scripture reading and the sermon reach us as works of the Holy Spirit. We also pray to God, saying, “Let the words of our mouths, and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.”11

As Fosua implied, we, both preachers and listeners, need to recognize our lives as broken vessels, as we stand before God, being grateful for God’s waiting and calling for us with unconditional love and grace, and as we respond primarily through worship. We loosen ourselves, sitting, listening, waiting, and being open to be molded by God’s gentle touch. Through the Concerns and Prayers, we lay down our personal and communal needs, burdens, and weaknesses, and the needs of the world before God. The Peace and Offering are embodied signs of gratitude, love, and reconciliation. We loosen ourselves to embrace and are embraced by God.

3.3. Meeting God in Our Reconciling (Empty, in the Tai Chi Rhythm)

All of the above prepare us to become “multicultural” worshipers. As Jesus humbled and emptied himself, we come forward to worship with humble hearts. One of the most beautiful images to describe the multicultural worshipping community is a dream catcher, a handmade willow hoop woven to a web, which Ray Buckley, the third-session presenter of the Upper Room program, introduced. Of Lakota/Tlingit/Scot descent, Buckley said he learned Christian faith with Native American (especially Lakota) wisdom from his grandmother. The latter taught him that everybody is a sacred being, because God’s grace is deeply embedded in every human being and creature.

According to Buckley, a dream catcher is believed to drive bad dreams and fevers away, especially from children. Parents, grandparents, and neighbors make dream catchers as gifts and give them to children with fevers, as a symbol of care and support. The dream catcher also symbolizes the connection of all life. We are all the knots interconnected inside the hoop. According to Buckley and his grandmother, God is strong like the hoop. Buckley said, “The hoop is so strong, so you cannot push and pull it out of the shape of a circle. Likewise, you cannot push God out of shape. You can’t pull out God, either. We are tightly connected and surrounded by the strength of God. God’s love, grace, and power are strong. Unbroken and unbreakable.” According to Buckley’s grandmother and Lakota tradition, nothing can block or destroy our relationships with God, with fellow human beings, and with other creatures. As God-bearers, Christians are all called to be reconciled to God, others, and ourselves, living in the robust and unbreakable hoop.

If I add multicultural dynamics to this dream catcher, the Tai Chi rhythm gently and naturally bridges interrelatedness in the sacred hoop. “Emptying,” in the Tai Chi rhythm, means loosening slightly more to create momentum. This can be analogized with surrendering ourselves to God’s presence and actions that lead us to participate in what God does within and among us during worship and beyond.12 Emptying also teaches us to let go, listen, learn, and embrace instead of becoming stiff. In this beloved community of sacred hoop, common humanity and reciprocity are valued, unique and/or cross-boundary cultural identity is affirmed, heard, and respected. And diverse gifts are incorporated, providing a joyful, compassionate (sometimes “suffering with”), reconciling, and life-giving worship. Holy Communion becomes a great opportunity to reconcile broken relationships, experiencing a “dream catcher” heartfully and tangibly in the body of Christ.

3.4. Meeting God in Our Justice Seeking (Push, in the Tai Chi Rhythm)

Push is the “Go” action of the “ready-set-go” or “loosen-empty-push.” During and after worship, Christians are called to become a beloved, justice-seeking community of faith, embodying the reign of God, in which love, compassion, and justice prevail. Luther Smith, the final-session presenter of the Upper Room program, asked how seriously committed we are to offering ourselves to be in covenant relationship with God. “Can I claim myself a God-fearing or a God-loving person without committing myself to the life of justice-seeking?”

Smith said the struggle for justice, such as dismantling racism, often becomes disturbing, overwhelming, exhausting, and painful because we come to a deeper awareness of the reality—different from what we saw from a distance. In a worship setting, according to Smith, one of the barometers for justice-seeking congregations is whether the door is fully open to everyone—open to “every” one from the heart! Smith believes justice seeking is a spiritual matter; it is the journey where we can meet God. Justice seeking is also a vision for the “beloved community,” a phrase that to my ears is a synonym of the multicultural community of faith that characterizes God’s dream for us. According to Smith, God of love is waiting for us on the way to justice and compassion.

Justice seeking is challenging, but Smith still claimed that it is a work of joy, hope, faith, and love that we celebrate and have been called to walk together. With a big smile, Smith said, “Let’s become the spirit of the beloved community, the spirit of jubilee, and rejoice in it.” He reminded me of the United Methodist Baptismal Covenant in which we said yes to God’s invitation “to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.”

For Christians, worship and justice work are unbrokenly linked and circulate like a breath of life flowing into one another. The Tai Chi rhythm of loosen-empty-push also helps people understand the continuous flow and rhythm between worship and the justice-seeking engagements in the world, metaphorically and kinesthetically. Ruth A. Meyers, in her book Missional Worship, Worshipful Mission, uses the Möbius strip as a metaphor for the relations between worship and mission. Like the Möbius strip, “mission and worship flow into and out of one another” and Sending Forth rather than concluding worship invites a worshiping assembly to “participate in God’s mission, embodying God’s healing, reconciling, and saving love for the world, and proclaiming the good news of God’s reign” (Meyers 2014).

4. Case Study

4.1. Liturgical Context

The United Methodist Church of Martha’s Vineyard (UMCMV) is a small, predominantly White, but still multicultural congregation. Our members are mostly older, hoping and envisioning a congregational family embracing diverse cultures and generations as the ever-hanging rainbow flag and Black Lives Matter yard sign show. I have been serving in this multicultural appointment since 2019. My wife, two Korean-American sons, and I also have added diversity. The UMCMV members and community volunteers have actively supported people in need on the island. As in our mission statement, UMCMV is invited to carry out the mission and ministry of God’s reign, especially works of compassion and justice. We humbly walk together to grow “as a healthy disciple-making congregation, in which everybody is welcomed, respected, cared about and embraced”.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the UMCMV worshiped through Zoom for over a year, from March 2020 to April 2021. Gratefully, we could worship in person (still live-streaming for a while) starting 2 May 2021. In January 2022, we decided to choose the virtual option again amid the rapid and extensive spread of COVID-19 on the island. Whether in person or virtual, the Basic Pattern of Worship of the United Methodist Church (Entrance-Proclamation and Response-Thanksgiving and Communion-Sending Forth) has been maintained as a platform for Sunday worship.

Along with the account on Christian adaptation of the ancient synagogue service, the UMBOW invites worship leaders to reflect on Luke 24:30–35, which provides a biblical reference concerning the Basic Pattern as follows:

• Entrance: The two disciples were joined by the risen Christ; so in the power of the Holy Spirit, the risen and ascended Christ joins us when we gather.
• Proclamation and Response: As the disciples poured out to him their sorrow and in so doing opened their hearts to what Jesus would say to them, so we pour out to him whatever is on our hearts and thereby open ourselves to the Word. As Jesus “opened the Scriptures” to them and caused their hearts to burn, so we hear the Scriptures opened to us and out of the burning of our hearts praise God.
• Thanksgiving and Communion: As the disciples invited Jesus to stay with them and joined the risen Christ around the table, we can do likewise. As Jesus took, blessed, broke, and gave the bread, so in the name of the risen Christ, we do these four actions with the bread and cup. As he was “made known to them in the breaking of the bread,” so the risen and ascended Christ can be known to us in Holy Communion.
• Sending Forth: As he disappeared and sent the disciples into the world with faith and joy, so he sends us forth into the world. And as those disciples found Christ when they arrived at Jerusalem later that evening, so we can find Christ with us wherever we go.13

While the Basic Pattern provides essential worship guidelines, the United Methodist Book of Worship (UMBOW) invites us to be flexible, creative, inclusive, and culturally conscious. The Tai Chi rhythm and flow help congregants understand the basic worship pattern more organically than mechanically. It allows the assembly to experience ample room for the rhythm and flow of worship, making the worship culturally conscious and inviting. Living on an island, we experience difficulties with the inconvenience of ferry transportation and a lack of resources, but there is always a sense of gratitude as we experience the beauty of God’s creation every day. During worship, worshipers often share that they are most grateful for and most feel the presence of God in nature, such as sunlight, trees, and the sound of sea waves and birdsong. We believe we are called and entrusted to take good care of God’s creation, which Diana Butler Bass calls “the embodiment of God’s breath” (Bass 2017).

4.2. A Manuscript of the Liturgy with Annotations

The following worship order and its components are for the Zoom worship brought by the pandemic, but it can also be applied to in-person worship with contextual considerations. It is contemplative and participatory worship, and the flow moves along with the basic pattern of worship in general.

Contemplative and Participatory Virtual Worship (Sample)

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C

UMH (United Methodist Hymnal) (United Methodist Church 1989) TFWS (The Faith We Sing) (United Methodist Church 2000)

1.

Entrance (Be Still/Wuchi)

In this virtual worship, we follow the rhythm and flow of “call and response” that connect worshipers with God and with one another (Hickman 2007). Worship begins when people gather together, responding to God’s initiative call. “Welcoming all” is the primary feature of multicultural worship.14 As Smith reminds us, hospitality is characteristic of loving and justice-seeking congregations. A question we need to ask ourselves is if we consciously or unconsciously send an unwelcoming message to newcomers: “You may join us, but we are still in control.”15 When selecting hymn lyrics, prayers, projected images, or any other liturgical language, worship leaders are invited to avoid inherited and nuanced words/hymn lyrics/expressions originated in cultures of slavery, sexism, chauvinism, White privilege and racism, discrimination against people with disabilities, or discrimination based on sexual orientation, etc.

Whether in person or virtual, public worship is the moment for praising and thanksgiving to God heartfully. In a way, simplified Zoom worship during the pandemic has reminded us of the simplicity of earliest Christian worship in the context of the house-church and persecution before the appearance of an imperial Christianity (White 1993). The 19th- and 20th-century efforts of the liturgical movement also invite churches to recover the simplicity as ordered in the early church: Gathering; Scripture Reading and Preaching; Eucharist; Sending Forth. These reflect the basic pattern of worship across denominations.16

In multicultural worship, we also recognize the significance of non-verbal expressions. We agree with Don E. Saliers, who said, “A certain tone and rhetoric alongside gestures in preaching, in singing, and in prayer often forms us more deeply than do words. … The key to all such gestures is that they be clear, loving, and wise, and that they graciously serve the liturgy of Jesus Christ” (Saliers 1994b). A worship leader’s multicultural sensitivity and non-anxious presence embodying energy and flow of worship are essential to worship leadership.17

In this worship, we provide room for silence, to invite worshipers to be aware of God’s presence moment by moment, in depth. After greeting one another, we share two or three culturally diverse images related to the church year or scripture reading on a PowerPoint screen. Although brief, people can gaze at those images prayerfully, like visio divina. Worshipers are also invited to be centered, listening to pre-recorded Music Voluntary through the PowerPoint. On the same screen, the following welcome message appears: “This is time and space for mindful and heartful indwelling with God. In our worship and our beloved community of faith, ‘every’ one is welcome no matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey.”

Opening Voluntary (Pre-recorded music. We sometimes begin worship singing Mark Miller’s Welcome to God’s Love.)

Holy Moment for God’s Presence (Longing and Noticing)

Be still and know that I AM GOD… Be still… Be…

(Psalm 46:10)

(UMBOW recognizes the significance of both “an outward and visible gathering of the people and an inward and spiritual gathering—a focusing of awareness that they are people gathered in the presence of the God known to us through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.”18 As the worship leader facilitates this contemplative moment, worshipers are invited to breathe in and out slowly, noticing and welcoming God’s presence. We do not attempt to call for God’s presence, because God is already present with us. A simple “Be” invites us to notice God’s presence, reminding us to be grateful for who we are and whose we are before God. 1–2 min.)

Hymn of Praise (Together) “Santo, santo, santo, mi corazón/Holy, Holy, Holy, My Heart”19

(In multicultural worship, hymns from various cultures worldwide are strongly encouraged. This week, we invite people to make a joyful noise in Spanish, Korean, and English, being reminded that we are called to become a beloved community of faith rooted in God’s unwavering and nondiscriminatory love. Hymns for this corporate praise and gratitude should generally be “familiar, upbeat, and affirming.” (United Methodist Church 1992, p. 18.)

Opening Prayer (Together)

(A worship leader may want to invite people to bring their attention to folded hands as follows: “Praying hands joined, fingers intertwined or thumb over thumb, flat against each other … For now, these hands do nothing … Pressed to each other, there is no space for holding anything. For the moment, these hands, empty and still, hold compressed the mystery of myself before the Lord who made me.20 Now I invite you to open and extend your hands. Please join with me on the opening prayer!”)

Creating and sustaining God,

In your presence there is life.

Living water springs up,

and deserts blossom where you pass.

Seeking the life that comes from you,

we have gathered before you.

Our hearts are ready, O God,

our hearts are ready.

Delight us with your presence,

and prepare us for your service in the world;

through the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen.21

[In this way, Entrance (or Wuchi) settles down and invites worshippers to meet the living God in their longing, noticing, and celebrating God’s presence “here and now.” We often save a prayer of confession and pardon for Lent, locating it either in Entrance or as a response to the Word.22]

2.

Proclamation and Response (Loosen)

Hymn for Illumination “Spirit of the Living God” (UMH 393)

Spirit of the living God,

Fall afresh on me. (x2)

Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.

Spirit of the living God,

Fall afresh on me.

(To pray for illumination, we sing a hymn for Spirit’s touching and transforming us.)

Breath Prayer

Breathing in: I listen … Breathing out: … Speak, Lord.

(This is a continuation of prayer for illumination. Before reading and listening to the Scripture, worshipers are invited to breathe together with the Holy Spirit. Breath-prayer also prepares us to listen to God’s Words more attentively.)

Scripture Reading Luke 5:1–11

(Unlike in-person worship, we invite any volunteers to read one or two verses slowly, in turn. Bible verse numbers are highlighted with background colors to minimize confusion. A time for interactive participation and mutual listening.)

Sermon “Into the Deep”

(Both preachers and participants need listening ears and hearts. Sermon preparation is a prayerful process of listening to and interacting with God’s guiding and inspiring presence. Biblical exegesis, pastoral contexts, prophetic messages, and multicultural sensitivity are vital components of sermon preparation and preaching itself. To share my experience, as a preacher who speaks English as a second language, I spend considerable time on sermon preparation, making extra efforts for clearer delivery. I believe multicultural sensitivity also invites listeners to appreciate and celebrate linguistic diversity as a gift that adds color and dimension that makes worship more joyful and enriched. Humbly listening to a sermon, as in the Tai Chi rhythm, we loosen and surrender ourselves and let the Spirit of God work in and through us.)

Hymn “Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore” (UMH 344)

(People can sing in Spanish or Korean, making a joyful noise.)

Concerns and Prayers (Together)

Psalm Prayer/Ps. 17

We rest, dear God, in the hope of your love and protection, for our help comes from you. You will not let our feet slip, you watch over us day and night, you keep us in the safety of your eternal love, Now and forevermore (Eslinger 2006).

(Continue to pray) Loving God, I am (we are) thankful that … (Complete the prayer in turn) I (We) feel your presence when… (In turn)… “Thanks be to God!” (Together) Please help… … … (Names) need your healing and comfort today. (In turn) “Lord, hear our prayer!” (Together)

Together: Thank you for your grace working through us. May we walk into new life with a deeper awareness of your presence. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who makes us whole. Amen.

(After praying Psalm Prayer together, we invite worshipers to complete the prayers for joys and concerns. When praying for joy, all say, “Thanks be to God!” When praying for concerns, all say, “Lord, hear our prayers.” After the moment of silence, worshipers close the prayer together. As Kathy Black reminds us, people from non-European backgrounds may feel “great embarrassment” concerning openly sharing joys and concerns.23 Some people from other cultures may feel uncomfortable and even invisible, unseen depending on the situations. This cultural difference needs to be addressed and respected in a multicultural worship context.)

Peace “Peace of Christ be with you!”

(Worshipers are invited to offer the peace of Christ with signs of reconciliation, love, and blessing with smiles and waving hands. It is worth noting that the passing of the peace is not expected in many cultural contexts (see Black 1998). The location of peace immediately before the offering evokes Matthew 5:23-24.24)

Offering “As forgiven and reconciled people, let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God.”

[People are invited to participate in online giving. Its placement between the Peace and the Holy Communion prepares people for the following acts of Thanksgiving (with/without Communion). According to Melva Wilson Costen, in many African American worship, offerings and other worship components are accompanied by various keyboard and percussion instruments and exuberant singing (Costen [1993] 2007). Multicultural worshipers are open to keep learning from one another.]

Offering Hymn “When We Are Living/Pues Si Vivimos” (UMH 356. Verse 1-2)

(Since our offering is a response to the gift of God’s grace, this is the time of “paying prayerful attention in the present moment to God’s abundant life,” bringing worshipers into a deeper relationship with God and one another. In God’s gracious and loving presence, we open our hands, loosening our stiffness, making a joyful noise!)

3.

Thanksgiving and Communion (Empty)

“Taken, Blessed, Broken, and Given”

(We touch and taste God’s visible and tangible love when receiving the bread and wine. Cultural variety of the vessels and elements is encouraged. Not only at the altar table, but also with the long tradition of the ‘Community Supper of the UMCMV’ (Take Out Supper during the pandemic), the Holy Communion feeds us to embody the lifegiving flow of “taken, blessed, broken, and given” of Christ’s Body. Holy Communion nourishes and connects us to God’s beloved people and creation.

Anamnesis, a Greek word for remembrance, means not only remembering the past but also means ‘experience anew’ or ‘representing the past so that we experience the living presence of Christ here and now. When Jesus said, “remember me,” it was also his promise that he would be ever-present among us when we celebrate Holy Communion. At the same time, we hope and foretaste God’s future for us as we partake of the Lord’s Table: we are waiting, longing, and seeking the coming of the ultimate, glorious reign of God, “until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.”25 God’s past and future permeate our present. Our memories and hopes are always experienced in the NOW moment as we chew and drink bread and wine mindfully and heartfully.

In Eucharist, we encounter and experience the self-surrendering and self-emptying (kenotic) love of Jesus Christ, who challenges us to live as the body of Christ, the “bread connections.”26 Although we are all weak and broken, God the incarnate is strong enough to hold us in the unbreakable hoop (as we learned from Ray and his grandmother), in the beloved circle of community.)

4.

Sending Forth (Push)

[This brief part of worship becomes “Push” in the Tai Chi metaphor, a bridge between the sanctuary (including a shared Zoom space) and God’s creation on earth. As we answer yes to God’s call, God will continue to encourage us to “move, live and grow” in God.27]

Hymn of Sending Forth “The Summons” (TFWS 2130)

Dismissal with Blessing

[A dismissal (literally meaning a “forth-sending”) invites us to continue our mission in the world as God’s beloved, compassionate, and justice-seeking community. We are called to live out the reign of God “on earth as in heaven” with God’s blessing and empowering presence. The terms like “prelude” and “postlude” are avoided, because they signal that worship happens between those “starts” and “ends.”]

4.3. Evaluation of the Liturgy with Its Benefits and Challenges

The unprecedented pandemic introduces various limitations to engage in a more contemplative and participatory worship. One of the most challenging parts is missing a tangible sense of community felt in hand shaking, hugging, and coffee hour. Zoom worship can also be distracting for some people. Virtual worship may either help or distract in nurturing each individual’s willingness, patience, and loving spirit to understand and experience multicultural worship and ministry, depending on the congregational context. Not the ideal scenario, but we desire to become a “responsible, hospitable, and ‘care-full’ congregation” even while worshipping virtually at least for a while. We also want virtual worship to be a time and space for heartful indwelling with God and one another, including God’s creation in our hearts and surrounding us.

Incorporating the Tai Chi rhythm and flow, with mindful breathing moments, can help the gathered people of God experience the sense of God’s presence in every “present” moment of worship. Watering the seeds of multicultural worship and ministry requires listening hearts and a spirit of mutual respect. This contemplative, participatory, and multicultural worship also invites us to embrace all creation, enhancing our intrinsic connection to God’s web of life. Breathing together with the Spirit of God in worship, we are sent to become the embodied breath of God to the world and God’s creation. In this way, we become aware that we are beautifully and multiculturally woven together in God’s circle of the hoop.