Embodied Worship: InterPlay, Spirit, Quakers

Workshop number: 
9
Peter
Buck
Joy Anna Hodges
Evan Richardson
Audience
Who may register: 
Open to All (adult & high school)
full-time attenders only
Time breakdown
Worship/worship-sharing: 
30%
Lecture: 
10%
Discussion: 
10%
Experiential Activities: 
50%
Description
Leader Experience: 

This workshop will be led by three people: Peter Buck, Joy Anna Hodges & Evan Richardson. They have led this workshop in various forms a dozen times in the last two years.

Joy Anna Hodges and Peter Buck have offered InterPlay to Nashville MM, Celo MM, and Asheville MM. They also offered a full day of InterPlay to the School of the Spirit in the Fall of 2010. With Evan Richardson they also led several workshops in which they went the opposite direction and introduced Quaker Worship to folks who already knew InterPlay and similar modalities. --- In May and December of 2010 Joy Anna, Peter and Evan led retreats lasting 4 days that combined InterPlay and extended Quaker Worship. They also led a full day at the Spring retreat of the Richmond, Va MM.

Evan Richardson has led various workshops and presentations in Quaker settings for 15 plus years. She has served as clerk of Asheville MM and has done professional facilitation for co-housing communities and organizations. She is valued as much for what she says as for the welcoming way she holds space so that all may be heard deeply. During a time of worship in the Fall of 2009 she received a leading to help Quakers deepen their worship and experience more fully the transformative Divine Presence. This workshop is a response to that on-going leading.

Peter Buck has led several workshops at the FGC Gathering. In 1997 he led a workshop based on David Oldfield’s rite of passage program “The Journey”. He offered a series of workshops for high schoolers from 2001 through 2005. Topics ranged from “Gifts and Callings” to “Loving this World?!” (This last being an attempt to be skillful regarding how we complain about what is not right in this world... so that we may sense the motion of the Spirit in our midst.)

Joy Anna Hodges has worked with teens in various church settings as she was growing up with her Methodist missionary parents in Korea, and rural Eastern Tennessee. She helped with several workshops and conferences when she went to Earlham starting in 2001. In the last five years she was the creative anchor for two well-received “ritual theater” shows put on in Asheville, NC, These made creative use of her years of InterPlay and Play-Back Theater experience.

Short Description: 

Quakers have been known to have bodies, voices, stories, songs, dances, curiosity, and a desire to celebrate life, while standing before a world in great needand listening for the guidance of the "still small voice". We'll join a respectful, playful way to be embodied (InterPlay) with Quaker worship and go deep.

Long Description: 

Embodied Worship: InterPlay, Spirit, Quakers

Leaders: Peter Buck, Joy Anna Hodges, Evan Richardson.

Quakers have been known to have: bodies, voices, stories, songs, occasional dances, curiosity, a desire to honor and celebrate life... all while standing before a world in great need... and while listening for the guidance of the "still small voice". This workshop follows a leading to bring all these things together that we may more deeply and freely experience the motions of Spirit in our midst. We wish to be open to the Spirit in as powerful, transformative, and guiding a way as was experienced by the first generations of Quakers. – The practices we will use, in the main, are InterPlay and Quaker worship. (Other approaches inform this work and will be mentioned as appropriate.)

InterPlay is a church and community-building discipline, that has several parallels to Quakerism. For 25 years the principles and practices of InterPlay have engaged the body (not just the mind) as an instrument of Spirit - through movement, voice and story. InterPlay is experiential. It involves letting go, getting out of the way for inspiration to move through us. And yet, one of the foundations of InterPlay is taking things step-by-step at an easy pace (incrementality). While doing things they have never done before, participants feel safe – and capable of taking care of themselves.
-- Importantly, InterPlay is a corporate and community experience that practices disciplined witnessing which allows individuals to have their own experience while in community. InterPlay also facilitates conversation about what an individual's experience may mean for the whole community.
-- As we respectfully and playfully move toward the possibility of, among other things, telling stories with full presence, singing spontaneous songs, and dancing of behalf of the needs of the world... we will offer times of worship and worship-sharing. We will see how Spirit expresses itself with a palette that can go beyond the spoken word. We usually find that our worship goes deeper when the body is gently more awake. (We might also have fun.)
-- We have found that Embodied Worship offers an experience of welcome to parts of our whole selves that we may have been leaving behind (body, mind, spirit) including our particular experiences of Spirit, God, Great Mystery, Universe, Goddess (however you name it). It is our experience that such a simple container, held lovingly, opens up great possibility. It also has the power to change how we minister to the world.

Things to wear, bring, read, or do:

A first request: We rely on the prayers of others, we seek to follow the leadings of the Spirit as we offer this workshop, and have seen how the Spirit can move in our midst... We ask, especially as the time draws near, that you hold us and all other participants in the light.

Wear: comfortable clothing. Clothing that allows you to move arms and legs freely is best.

Bring: We recommend yoga mats or light blankets that would allow you to stretch out comfortably on the floor if you wanted to.
We will be setting up a little altar and invite all participants to bring a small object that may symbolize an intention you are carrying into the workshop.

Wear: comfortable clothing

Read (or don’t):
"Chasing the Dance of Life: A Faith Journey" by Cynthia Winton-Henry
"What the Body Wants: From the Creators of InterPlay" by Phil Porter

Reminder: By the end of the week we’ll probably be in waters both deeper and lighter than we could have expected… and we’ll get there by steps that are gentle and respectful. We’ll always be able to take care of ourselves.

Outside the workshop: At the Gathering our participants are strongly encouraged to attend at least one meeting for worship per day. E.g., the FLGBTQC Worship in the afternoon. We have experienced the fact that InterPlay and Quaker worship can nourish each other.