Towards Global Worship: Beyond The Headlines

How much worship gets directed beyond local or even individual needs? Does worship declare the congregation's concern for the world that God so loved? This article offers suggestions on how to go beyond merely praying for the people in the newspaper headlines towards worship that is truly global in its outlook and practice.

God chose a poor vehicle to open my eyes to God's purpose and work in a world, larger than my country's church or even my country. In vacation church school, a mission story was read. These stories were more entertainment than truth. Snakes and witch doctors haunted every corner, so did racism and cultural imperialism. But one result was that we prayed for people far from us—people whom we did not know and with whom we had no connection, except that God loved them as well as us, even if they were heathens. This summer, I worshiped at this church. Throughout the whole service, not one mention in the sermon or prayers was made of any event or person outside those directly connected to the congregation. The world was stranded outside. Even general prayers for the sick were displaced by individualized concerns. God had become a local deity big enough to take care of only those assembled and their loved ones. At another church, a pastor reinterpreted the Gospel of John. "Children," he said, "when you read 'God so loved the world 'think' God so loved me." I wondered at this reductionism. The world had been reduced to "me." Worship was reduced to an "us," no larger than the "family church." In such a climate, to have someone pray for those events mentioned in the headlines would be a big improvement. To have a preacher relate the biblical word to world events and connect both to the lives of the congregation would be extraordinary. But worship often gets only as far as the media leads. I would like to offer possibilities beyond the headlines toward worship that is truly global in its outlook and practice. Embracing the Larger Community The headlines have two major inadequacies, as a source for global worship. The first is that the news media do not present the whole world—only the part that sells advertising. Some events get almost monotonous attention, but other things are left unmentioned. How much is known about the conflicts in Mozambique, Sri Lanka, or El Salvador? How much is said about the terrifying epidemic in Peru or the total devastation of African villages by the AIDS virus? To have worship that is global means to pray for those whom the media chooses to ignore—to worship a God larger than the boundaries of our knowledge or compassion and larger than the compass of CNN. Global prayers are not bound to the compartmentalized time slots, which chain so much of our concern. A simple plan can help start the process. The World Council of Churches publishes an ecumenical prayer cycle, With All God's People. Two or three countries are named each week, so that all nations are remembered in a year. Use of the liturgical resources from these countries enrich the possibilities available for worship. Other options include prayer calendars for missionaries. To pray for a country about which one knows nothing is only a start. It poses some questions: Where is this country? How do the people live there? What role do Christians play in the culture? Church networks, particularly mission magazines, can be a source of information, so that the prayers can be as informed as possible. Every morning, the World Council of Churches begins with prayer. One day, the leader of the prayers asked us to name people we knew from the country about which we were praying. At the World Council, where people do much traveling, many names surfaced. This made our prayers more concrete and vital. These personal connections may not happen very often in local settings, but there may be more possibilities than first imagined. Someone may have a relative or friend living overseas. Increasing numbers of persons are going to mission work camps. The telephone or fax could also be exploited as a means to connect churches. Calls could be made to mission partner churches and prayers be said for these churches. Technology will certainly provide other methods. One person could be designated to do some basic research and write a petition for intercessions (a petition, not a travelogue or geography lesson). The missions committee might regularly offer prayers for missionaries and then go on to pray for those whom they serve and who serve them. To pray for the world is not difficult. To desire to include the world, or more specifically the people of the world, in our worship is more difficult. As people travel they might consciously seek other Christians, whose names and ministries they could bring back to the local congregation for prayer. In this way, the local congregation is expanded. Prayer goes beyond the big names and issues to people, but these people are not centered in one local community. They span the globe and have strange sounding names. Then, worship will have gone beyond the headlines to embrace a larger community. Receiving Gifts from Neighbors around the World There is a second reason that headlines are inadequate as a base for global worship. Most often, these headlines present the world as a problem to be solved or a mistake to be corrected. But, worship is not just about problems. Worship is meeting God and discovering God's gifts. Global worship goes beyond the headlines because in Christ we find our sisters and brothers who have great gifts to share with us. In former times, the missionaries were sent out to preach the gospel to those who had never heard about Jesus Christ. In many places, that faith has taken root; and presently, the Christian faith is shedding its cultural captivity to Western forms. People are bringing their faith to their culture and their culture to their faith. These non-Western peoples have developed ways to reach their own people. These forms from these peoples are now available to the whole church. These gifts can let us see again the markings of a vital faith. Music. One of the most vibrant gifts that demonstrates the vital faith of these cultures is music. The Presbyterian Hymnal is filled with songs from other cultures. These musical gifts are waiting to be sung. But they will not communicate the vitality of other peoples' vision, unless they are sung well. One of the first clues is to use imagination with instrumentation. For some music, the drum is the most important accompaniment. Rhythm instruments are not just for the children's choir anymore. Guitars are often a part of music from Latin America (but are part of folk American and European music). Asian music often uses a flute or recorder to support the singing of the melody. Finger cymbals can provide color to the sound. Instrumentation does not require the resources of a large church. In most every community, someone owns a snare drum. Borrow the drum and the drummer. Increasingly, synthesizers that easily produce a wide variety of sounds are available. Cultivate church musicians with enough imagination to find the sound of another culture and bring that sound into the sanctuary. There is no quicker way than in music to illustrate and to enliven global Christianity to congregations and, if done well, no better way for them to receive the gifts that world Christians have to offer. In worship, one door to the world is through sounds. A beginning point could be the singing of carols from around the world at Christmas. The Chinese hymns, no. 65, "Midnight Stars Make Bright the Sky" and no. 33, "Sheng Ye Qing, Sheng Ye Jing," could be accompanied by flute, recorder, or violin on the melody. Instead of the printed keyboard part, a drone on the tonic and dominant would provide variety. A plucked sound, similar to a harp, could be used from a synthesizer. From Malawi, there is no. 55, "That Boy-child of Mary." Have a leader sing the verses, with everyone joining on the refrain. Add light drums along with a recorder on the melody. This hymn could be sung without the book because of its simple chorus. The Hispanic carols, no. 45, "A La Ru," and no. 64, "De Tierra Lejana Venimos," could both use guitar and percussion, particularly claves and maracas. In "De Tierra Lejana Venimos," the first verse could be sung as a duet using the accompaniment as a guide for the alto part. There are other international carols as well. These simple suggestions can be expanded so that the cultural uniqueness of the songs are presented. Songs from Christians of other lands call us to a new faithfulness and a new hope, such as this song from Argentina:

May the God of hope go with us every day,

Filling all our lives with love and joy and peace. May the God of justice speed us on our way, Bringing light and hope to every land and race. Praying, let us work for peace, Singing, share our joy with all, Working for a world that's new, Faithful when we hear Christ's call. (Presbyterian Hymnal, no. 432)

And calls to faithfulness and hope is also in this song from Central America:

You know that I own so little,

In my boat, there's no money nor weapons, You'll only find there my nets and labor. O Lord, with Your eyes You have searched me, And, while smiling, have called out my name. Now my boat's left on the shoreline behind me, Now with You I will seek other seas. (Presbyterian Hymnal, no. 377)

Then, there is this song from Korea:

Whatever talent God has given me

I pledge to use in service and in love, Joined with my God to lift my neighbor's load, New strength and hope are given from above. (Presbyterian Hymnal, no. 410)

Christian songs from other lands also call us to greater unity, such as this song from Japan:

Many are the tongues we speak,

Scattered are the lands, Yet our hearts are one in God, One in love's demands. (Presbyterian Hymnal, no. 465)

And calls to unity issue forth from this song from Ghana:

Jesu, Jesu, fill us with Your love,

Show us how to serve the neighbors we have from You. (Presbyterian Hymnal, no. 367)

Finally, the same theme is continued in this song from the Hispanic community:

Like the grains which become one same whole loaf,

Like the notes that are woven into song, Like the droplets of water that are blended in the sea, We, as Christians, one body shall become. (Presbyterian Hymnal, no. 518)

The material in The Presbyterian Hymnal has one disadvantage. The songs are usually too long to attempt to sing them in their original languages. One of the breakthroughs that worship leaders for the World Council of Churches have discovered is the value of short liturgical pieces. One resource is In Spirit and Truth, the worship book from the Seventh Assembly of the World Council of Churches. There is also an audio tape of the Assembly's worship, which gives important clues about how the songs can be sung. In addition, there are a series of books gathered from regional music and worship workshops. These include African Songs of Worship, Asian Songs of Worship, Todas Los Voces, and Brazilian Songs of Worship. These are available from the World Council of Churches, 475 Riverside Dr., New York, NY 10015. One other resource deserves special attention. It is Sound the Bamboo, a comprehensive collection of Christian music available through the Asian Institute of Liturgy and Music, P.O. Box 3167, Manila 1099, Philippines. Many Christians may not be used to service music beyond the Doxology and the Gloria Patri. In the "Service for the Lord's Day" on page twelve of The Presbyterian Hymnal, there are many possibilities for including liturgical songs from other regions. A vibrant Alleluia between the second lesson and the Gospel can set the Gospel apart as a special hearing. The parts of the Eucharist can be sung. Intercessions can be undergirded by interspersing Kyrie eleison. The Taizé community from France has many responses, which can bear meditative repetition. Two examples are no. 567, Gloria, Gloria, and no. 599, Jesus Remember Me. The Iona community from Scotland also creates these. Christian composers all over the world are making use of these forms. This can be a simple and exciting way to bring global gifts into worship. Bodily Movement. Musically, there is one thing still lacking. To receive the musical gifts to the fullest, we as Christians need to become free enough to move our bodies in worship. Africans in particular have discovered the freedom to praise God with their whole selves—their feet as well as their voices. I was taught to sit still in church. Africans are teaching us that our praise is less than full until we praise God with everything that we are and that includes shoulders, knees, and hips. This takes a good leader. The best method is to invite an African musician to church, but few still have this opportunity. People can learn to move. I usually invite persons first to move their feet up and down to the beat. Then, I invite them to swing their arms or clap their hands. I try to do this in the context of prayer for the first time. A good starting song is Wa Wa Emimimo from Nigeria. I ask people to wave the Spirit down, along with moving their feet. The next step is to turn this motion into prayer. This is difficult for those of us used to silence and stillness as the mode of prayer. But for some, this becomes a new opportunity to experience connection with God. Visual Arts. The visual arts are another way to bring global gifts to worship. Third world shops carry items appropriate for worship: materials for stoles, sculpture, bells, paintings, and crafts. Again, tourists can be encouraged to seek products that could be used for the praise of God from the countries they visit. Including in Worship the World that God So Loved The world can enter our worship through actions which enable other cultures to pray. For instance, Asians put great emphasis on light. They often have a lamp at the center of worship. They may approach the light and place their hands in its heat and then rub their face. This is a way of symbolically putting the light of Christ inside. Some Orthodox traditions sprinkle water as a special sign of blessing. A service of blessing the water will be included in a book of worship services, available in 1992, from the Canberra Assembly and other World Council meetings. A variety of instruments can call a congregation to worship: a conch shell from the Pacific, drums from Africa, a sitar from India. These ideas are not complex, but they bring to worship the variety that God has given us. In stewardship campaigns, we ask people to look at the way they spend their money as an indication of their values and their faith. Might we look at our prayers and our music to get a sense of our deepest liturgical goals? How much of our worship gets directed beyond local or even individual needs? Does our worship declare our concern for the world that God so loved? Have we lost faith that God is active in the world? Although the Berlin wall has crumbled and the Soviet coup has failed, have we lost the ability to see God at work in the large strokes of history, so we pray for individual boons, where the miracles are easier to handle and less threatened by continual ambiguity? Bringing the world into our worship also brings in all the hungry, the destitute, and the refugees searching for safety. It brings in the abused women and children. It includes the people that the headlines exclude.