The Following is a theological reflection on the Spirituality of the Congregation by Kathryn Racine, for the class, Protestant Spirituality at Pacific School of Religion.
In Reformed Spirituality: An Introduction for Believers, Howard Rice describes spirituality as “the pattern by which we shape our lives in response to our experience of God as a very real presence in and around us.” Rice then goes on to elucidate his point by using Gordon Wakefield’s definition of “spiritual” as describing “those attitudes, beliefs and practices which animate people’s lives and help them to reach toward super-sensible realities” (Rice, 45-46). In this paper, I will be examining the spirituality of the Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church community through the optic of these two definitions of spirituality. I will be considering how the community’s spirituality and the spirituality of the individual members are lived out through worship, leadership, and engagement with the larger community/world.
In the Yellow Pages, the advertisement for Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church states, “We are not your average Presbyterian Church.” One of the challenges of the Reformed tradition churches, according to Rice, is the tendency to be overly rational and intellectual as a mechanism for ensuring that sentimentality does not replace genuine revelation (Rice, 55). Seventh Avenue seems to have struck a successful balance between the heart and the head in its spirituality, and that may be what makes it not “average.” The community truly honors intellectual inquisitiveness, the Mystery and heart-felt experience of God, while striving to hold both head and heart in creative tension. One of the areas of church life in which this is most evident is in the worship services. The structure of the liturgy is based on a spirituality that assumes that God’s presence is real and dynamic, and the worship service is a patterned response to that assumption.
The liturgy is structured as a call and response: in the Approach in Silence, members of the community center themselves so they can be aware of God’s presence. In thankfulness for God’s presence, the Introit is sung. The Call to Worship brings attention to the fact that the community is in the presence of God and the Hymn of Praise that follows the Call to Worship is a thankful response to God’s presence. The entire liturgy follows this pattern of God’s call and presence to us, and our response to God. Through the content of the prayers, music, quotes and sermons the “attitudes and beliefs…which animate people’s lives” are revealed. This community seems to believe in a relational, immanent God, a real, dynamic Presence who longs to be in relationship with people, responds to prayer, dwells in each of us and therefore, in relationships, prayer and community, can be met. Integral to Seventh Avenue’s spirituality is the idea that each of us is created in God’s image, that each person is a dwelling place for God, and that all people are called to be authentic and are welcome in the community.
One of the most unusual ways this community “shapes [its life] in response to [its] experience of God” is through frequent communion. Most Presbyterian churches have communion monthly or quarterly, but at Seventh Avenue communion is celebrated weekly. The community gathers in a circle around the communion table and after the consecration of the elements, an elder, minister or deacon serves the elements to each person using a phrase such as, “Joe, the bread of love given for you, the cup of life for you.” After each person receives communion, the community holds hands for the charge, benediction and three-fold Amen. This practice reflects the spirituality of the community in several ways. It is a response to its experience of God as Mystery that can be encountered through the sacrament. It is a response to the belief that God intimately touches each person and gives us love, life, peace, Christ. The practice of being in a circle and holding hands reflects the belief that God is present in community and that this community is called by God to go into the world and be the body of Christ, as reflected in the charge and benediction.
Music is another important element of the service that reflects the community’s spirituality. The understanding of God as immanent, dynamic and relational can be seen in the hymns and other pieces of music that the pastor and choir director choose. For example, John Bell of the Iona community composed a simple, Taize-like song that we sing during the offertory and the words express the community’s spirituality: “Take O take me as I am, Summon out what I shall be, Set Your seal upon my heart and live in me.” The spirituality of inclusiveness is evident in the breadth of songs that we sing, from Ugandan songs of praise to jazz pieces to more traditional hymns. Rarely is a hymn or song chosen that uses imagery of God as mighty monarch or judge as one might see in a church whose spirituality is more rooted in hierarchy and patriarchy.
Interestingly, looking beyond the worship service, the Reformed tradition emphasizes leadership by consensus in a democratic fashion. At Seventh Avenue decisions about church life, worship, and social justice are made collaboratively. As I look at how beliefs and practices intersect to shape an individual or community’s spirituality I realize that Seventh Avenue’s emphasis on God’s immanence and relationality (as opposed to transcendence and power) informs how people relate to each other in committees and on staff. The work is done collaboratively. It may be more laborious, but important decisions are prayed about and the Spirit is always invited into the process. Seventh Avenue’s spirituality reflects the belief that people are to be co-creators with God and each other, and that in a through a collaborative, “power-with” rather than “power-over” way of relating, the congregation can model for the larger community what Seventh Avenue understands as God’s will for the world.
Finally, the understanding of social action through the optic of Seventh Avenue’s spirituality is fascinating. If we turn back to Howard Rice’s definition of spirituality as “the pattern by which we shape our lives in response to our experience of God as a very real presence in and around us” (Rice, 45) I realize that the Seventh Avenue community tends not to divorce social action and prayer, but probably sees them as somewhat equivalent. Social action is a form of prayer, a form of being connected with God, and prayer is a form of social action. The belief at Seventh Avenue that we are God’s partners in changing the world and that prayer really does shift energy and events contributes to the idea that prayer brings about social change. I have noticed that this church is less activist-oriented than others. Donating food and toiletries to the deacons’ ministry to the homeless, participating in dinners of dignity to people with AIDS, providing hospitality to 30-plus 12-step groups and participating in many other ministries is central to the spiritual expression of the church, but prayer for our world, our institutions, and our own brokenness as individuals is taken very seriously as a way to affect change. Seventh Avenue used to be more activist oriented, but due to burn-out and a change in the leadership of the church, I think the patterns of behavior embodied now reflect an understanding that living out of the Spirit in one’s daily life, in the professions we choose, the patterns of consumption we choose, the way we vote, the way we interact with people is at least as powerful as is taking part in specific ministries to fight specific problems.
In conclusion, Seventh Avenue’s spirituality, the way the community shapes its life in response to God’s presence, is based largely on the model of God the community holds. The understanding of God as immanent and dynamic partner and co-creator who depends on our prayer to shift us and the world toward wholeness fundamentally shapes the sacramentally oriented worship, the collaborative leadership and the prayer-based understanding of social action.