Brought to you by Rev. Jack Ditch
"Now and then we had a hope
that if we lived and were good,
God would permit us to be pirates."
--Mark Twain
Open Mic Worship, September 9th, 1:00pm
OPEN MIC WORSHIP
Sunday, September 9th, 1:00pm
@ the Channing-Murray Foundation, Urbana, IL
"Open Mic" Worship, as it has come to be called, is the practice of setting up an altar and a pulpit, and inviting any member of the congregation who so desires to stand before us and worship, preach and pray in their own fashion.
It was born of two parts commitment to the notion of a "free pulpit" from whence flows uncensored honest beliefs, and one part desire for a worship format that takes little preparation and may be repeated indefinitely. After months of working with worship leaders in the local UU community to come up with a ritual we could all agree on, only to find that the lowest common denominator left everyone slightly bored, one day I just upped and declared that everyone should show up on Sunday with their favorite readings, prayers, hymns, reflections, meditations and sermons, along with icons and decorations for the altar and whatever else inspires them. We sat and shared for an hour, and it was the most I've gotten out of a UU worship service, ever. We've repeated this several times since then, and it looks to be a monthly activity in the coming year.
The more we do it, the more I find this is the only style of worship that really moves me anymore (this side of Catholicism, at least.) It is as if the traditional "sermon sandwich" of most worship is a static website filled with the longwinded ramblings of someone who very much wants us to listen without listening in return. Whereas Open Mic is the youtube of worship, with many small snippets provided by a wide variety of people, giving everyone a chance to listen and a chance to share. This is worship to sate the short attention span and interactive expectations of the internet generation. This is worship for Pirates.
So, come on by the Channing-Murray this Sunday! Bring your own worship with you, experience the worship of others! We're even multimedia enabled, with a CD and DVD player. No holds are barred--if a track off the latest pop album is what turns you on to a higher power, then bring it by and share it. All religions and lack thereof welcome--whatever you want to preach, the pulpit is yours. Hope to see you Sunday!
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Oh, and speaking of youtube, apparently we are not the first to turn on to open mic worship...
clip of someone else's open mic worship on youtube
To those in our community who would rather "vett the acts" to keep things from getting "boring or offensive," I repeat the commentary that goes with the above clip: "Have you ever been standing there wishing that the person singing off key would stop? But you soon realize that God cares about our heart more than our talent."
That said, we're all very good singers at C-M. :-)
Jack,
Does open mic worship wind up being mostly "word" or do you also have "sacrament" (however conceived - worship and communion with the Divine through physical stuff)? Just curious! Thanks for the ongoing interesting posts here!
Does open mic worship wind up being mostly "word" or do you also have "sacrament" (however conceived - worship and communion with the Divine through physical stuff)? Just curious!
Good question. It's definitely a sacrament for me, simply in the ritual of calling others to worship and then witnessing them do so. Most of that worship does tend towards "word", distinguished from sacrament in that it is more communication of an idea than communion with the divine. But I find communion in the act of gathering to communicate; in the acts of baring our souls at the pulpit and finding the compassion to listen, there is something that transcends the sum of the parts. So I'd call it a sacrament, an "efficacious sign of grace," but I'm not talking about the content or form of each individual worshipping so much as the framework of those individuals coming together and allowing their worship to commingle.
Anyway, I don't want to make it sound like the content of open mic worship is never sacramental. I'd say the time when I sang along to "Zero Sum" by Nine Inch Nails as an example of Kyrie Eleison had some mojo flying about it, as well as several other hymns and prayers that have been offered up. If someone wanted to stand up and present a five minute Eucharistic celebration in the midst of Open Mic, I think that would fit right in.
Just keep in mind that we're pretty forgiving of the people who choose not to participate in any given participatory rite; you may stand in front of the congregation and offer baptism in Christ, but that doesn't mean anyone there will accept it. And yet, that's actually one of the things that I like about Open Mic--it affords me the opportunity to express myself spiritually even in the midst of my spiritual opposition, and calls on me to witness my opposition's worship, instead of leaving us to do our own thing hidden from one another. That, to me, is part of the sacrament, and a big part of what brings me there in the first place.
Sounds great - I hope I can be there for Open Mic someday!