Copyright: © 1999 Paul F. Bosch.
This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit to the author and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source.

Fiorello ("Little Flower") LaGuardia was one of a kind. Wartime mayor of New York City and arguably the most colourful politician in that city's history of colourful politicians, he's best known today for reading the comic pages to kids over the radio during a newspaper strike in Gotham.

Less well-known was his parentage, his religious background, and his skill with languages -- and "body-language"! -- as a pol. Himself a devout Episcopalian, he had a Jewish mother and an Italian father. He could speak both Yiddish and Italian, and in his campaigning in New York City neighbourhoods, it is said that he was able to "turn on" one or the other, complete with appropriate body-language, depending on his audience. Those were the days!

It's that body-language that interests me, in these paragraphs. The human body speaks its own language, no question about it. And when that body is at the service of the Word in Christian worship, we had better be clear about what we are "saying" in and through our posture, our position, and our gesture. ("Oh, behave!" says the movie's Austin Powers.) And yes, we're still talking First Article here, not Second Article: see Essay 19, "To Build a Boathouse..."

Consider the matter of standing, rather than sitting, for prayer and praise (singing). I've addressed this issue before in this space in Essay 7, "Couch Potato Prayers." As I argued there, for one figure (a leader) to be standing, while others in the assembly sit, is to model the concert hall or lecture hall. It is to encourage a perception that the standing figure has something the others lack, or need: a virtuoso, performing for an audience.

Hence it should be no surprise that Christian people have stood, with their leaders, not sat, throughout the years, in Christian worship: stood for prayers, for praise, for greetings and blessings, for the exchange of liturgical responses. (In my part of the world these days, one encounters a relatively new phenomenon: The Presiding Minister enters, before the Entrance Hymn, and says to the seated people "The Lord be with you." To which the people, still seated, respond "And also with you"; thereupon the PM cites various parish notices and announcements. Marginally better, perhaps, than "Good Morning!" But isn't there a more soul- satisfying way to begin worship? See Essay 25, "Good Morning..."

Yes, there are times in worship when it's appropriate for the people to remain seated while their leaders stand: read the rubrics. But most of Christian worship is communal and corporate: the people presumably do what the Presiding Minister does; the people presumably sing what the cantor or choir sings.

As for position in the worship space -- where you stand when you're doing your thing -- I'd want worship leaders in my congregation to know, and to respect, the principle of Ritual Clarity outlined above in Essay 05: the sedilia exclusively for prayer; the ambo exclusively for reading and proclaiming the Word; the font exclusively for Baptism (and its attendant rites, such as Confession); and the Table exclusively for the Meal. By such punctiliousness are peoples' imaginations fed!

And gesture? I'd want my worship leaders to know, and to respect, and to utilise the three irreplaceable, non-negotiable gestures of worship leadership: the orans for moments of prayer, the blessing gesture for moments of benediction, and what I would call the welcome gesture (the "philoxenia gesture"?), for the initiation of liturgical responses such as the Apostolic Greeting ("The grace of our Lord...") and the Salutation ("The Lord be with you."). It's a scandal for any worship leader today to be innocent of these three lovely kinesthetic "signs." As a teacher of mine maintains, only partly in jest: "God doesn't listen to corporate prayer that's not offered from an orans posture."

No, these gestures don't come naturally. Good worship leaders will spend time and energy practising them, in front of a mirror, until they become second nature. And you don't have to apologise that Christian worship is a kind of drama, for which you must rehearse your role.

And it's not sufficient for you to content yourself with a single all-purpose gesture, or to confuse these three in their functions. Each gesture "speaks" a different "word". They're simply part of your toolbox as worship leaders; to use one for the other is to diminish -- to show contempt for! -- the body's eloquence. Would you use a pliers in place of a hammer in your workshop?

Orienting? That's the custom of worship leaders facing "eastward" or "westward," presumably to illustrate whether we're addressing God or the people. Orienting made some sense in the days before a free-standing altar: "eastward" in addressing God, "westward" when speaking to the people. I can still see, in my mind's eye, my Dad doing a little dance, there in the chancel on Sunday morning, at the Confession: facing now "east," now "west," as he attempted to act out the distinctions between so-called sacramental moments and so-called sacrificial moments in the day's liturgy.

But with today's free-standing altars, it's time to bid the dance adieu. It's not necessary, that is, nor desirable, for worship leaders to orient, when you've got a free-standing altar. Are distinctions between "sacramental" moments and "sacrificial" moments obscured thereby? Sure, and it's about time!

Kneeling for prayer? The old Anglican rule of thumb made sense, once-upon-a-time: "Stand to praise; kneel to pray; sit to receive instruction." But kneeling is a posture uncongenial to Biblical piety. We are made, after all, in the image of God. So stand, already! And we share with Christ in his auferstehung (the German for "resurrection": the "standing up again" of Christ.) So stand, already! I'll allow kneeling at moments or seasons of penitence, like Lent, and Confession. But at all other times: Stand, already!

A footnote about those physically challenged: We're all of us only temporarily "able-bodied," as a friend maintains; gravity gets us all, sooner or later! So: If, when, and while you're able, stand at worship!

A subsequent essay in this space will address other gestural possibilities. Till then, take a look at God's Children: Teaching the Lord's Prayer -- A Dance Anthem in the God's Children area of the Resources for Worship and Spirituality page at the Lift Up Your Hearts web site.