Thursday, April 24, 2008

Do WHAT?

[:: UPDATE :: See Word Wench's comment below about her experience of dance in services in SC.]

Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina declares ... get this ... Liturgical Dance Day!

I wonder what he's been smoking? (And no, it doesn't appear to be a hoax or a spoof)

How many Baptists do you know that do liturgical dance?

And outside a few Episcopalians and Catholics-of-a-certain-age, who does?

And how many South Carolina churches are liturgical to begin with?

"Spiritual art form?" Wow.

This thing is dated 2005 ... at least I'm glad it took three years to get around to the Catholic blogosphere ... perhaps that means something. :)

3 comments:

Mattheus Mei said...

Well he does attend St. Timothy's Episcopal every now and then (what I hear at least). So perhaps that explains the ultra liberal appreciation for "liturgical dancing" -- and he's not Baptist, supposedly he's presbyterian, but attending St. Tim's makes him a Episcopaterian or would it be Presbyteralian.

WordWench said...

Mark Sanford is also affiliated with Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant, a non-denominational Christian church with branches also in Columbia and Irmo. Seacoast definitely is the type of non-traditional church which embraces praise bands, liturgical dance, etc. to get its message across. The pastor does his sermons by video.
A lot of predominantly African American churches have embraced liturgical dance, including the AME church occasionally. I actually witnessed some beautiful liturgical dancing at an AME celebration I attended with a friend several years ago. It was lovely and sacred, not some of the contortions and caterwauling you see pass for "dance" in other denominations.
I know Catholics aren't into this sort of thing, but it has drawn a lot of young people into other denominations in a positive way. Sanford probably endorsed it because of that.

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

WW, thanks for the clarification. I was, of course, reacting entirely out of what I've seen in Catholic churches, which is just atrocious.

I had no idea that dance has been introduced into AME and non-denominational services.

Calling these "liturgical" is probably technically incorrect, but I guess "liturgical" is a little more solemn sounding word than "service" ("service dance" just doesn't have the analogous ring that "service music" does!), so I can understand why that word was used ...