When Did We Move Worship Inside?

“When Did We Move Worship Inside”. -Visiting The Land

In 2014 I heard the Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo, now of GreenFaith, speak at the Earth Honoring Faith Conference at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. She told a story of being part of an Inca wedding in Cuzco, Peru that has stayed with me. The indigenous Quetchua family she was staying with participated in hosting the wedding. On the first day of the celebrations over one hundred people in colorful clothing danced, played instruments, sang and brought gifts of corn and coca leaves as offerings for the Pachamana or Mother Earth and the Apus or mountain spiritual guides of the people. Dr. Astudillo said it was a beautiful, joyful gathering of rainbow colors and light celebrated in an outdoor setting with people arriving from all directions in wonderful, indigenous clothing. The family told her that on the next day there would be the religious wedding at Cuzco’s Cathedral. She asked what type of wedding they consider this outside ceremony to be and they said: “This was the civil wedding. The judge was next to the shaman. The religious wedding is tomorrow, at the Church.” Dr. Astudillo began to wonder: “When were the Windows of God’s temple shut to define a dance of love outdoors as civil and a ritual of love inside as religious?” The next day she went to the Cathedral to attend the other wedding ceremony. This time the dominant colors were white, black and gold. There were no indigenous-looking dancers or family members participating in the ceremony, only the couple and the Priest. The rest of the people sat in pews and music was from a choir no one could see accompanied by electric instruments. The Priest announced: “It is important to be married before God!” She wondered: “At what moment did God consider this couple to be married, and where did people think God was the day before?” (Story used with permission from Dr. Astudillo)

I have thought of this story many times since 2014 and wondered myself when we moved religious ceremonies inside? I thought of this again last week when I attended a worship service at “The Land”, a new start United Methodist Church in Aurora, Colorado headed by the Rev. Stephanie Price. With the support of Hope United Methodist Church and the Rocky Mountain Conference of the UMC, The Land has been getting organized over the last few years. A few visionary families and individuals have been working with Rev. Price to establish an outdoor worship venue on 9.7 acres of land in a distant, but growing suburban area in southeast Aurora. They plan a large, labyrinth-shaped donation garden, an outdoor amphitheater, a greenhouse and small bunkhouse and possibly places for animals and compost operations. They hope to have a small CSA for community members. You can check out their website. They hope to attract people from the surrounding subdivisions, perhaps people who are not enamored with traditional churches or have become alienated from traditional Christian worship. They may attract people who are part of the “nones”, (those who when surveyed respond to the question of religious affiliation by checking, “none”) a growing demographic. It is also a vision of worship more closely connected to the Earth, the soil and God’s presence in all aspects of creation: humans in touch with the humus, like Adam and Eve, the humans in the biblical story. Their names mean Adamah -earth, soil, ground and Eve- life or living. We met two weeks ago on a very blustery day in April for the monthly worship service of The Land. It was cold and the wind cut short the celebration, but the congregation was undeterred and shared guitar music and communion with a large, delicious loaf and grape juice. 

The Land is part of the slowing growing movement out of our traditional, indoor religious facilities that have dominated worship since Roman times. Not that this is a new idea, people have ventured outdoors for worship occasionally throughout the history since the Roman Era, notably St. Francis of Assisi, and his love of the natural world. But what I think is different today is the theological awareness of God as present in the natural, non-human world and a changing ethic in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic world that includes care and compassion for all life, not only human. Many people talk about feeling closer to God in nature or “on the fishing stream” or hiking path, but recently, we have seen official religious bodies moving outside. The Land is one of the first I have heard of to be funded as a “new start church”, and I commend the vision of the United Methodists to embrace this unusual effort. Touring The Land with Rev. Price and seeing her enthusiasm and persistence to establish this outdoor worship center was inspiring for me. The vision of community members laboring to grow food for those less fortunate, digging in the dirt while their children run around outside discovering nature is heartening to me. Worship under the sky on fair days, or in greenhouse when necessary makes me want to attend when I can. It fits with my theology of God as the process of creation, and humans as part and parcel of the Cosmos. 

Sure, there’s a time when moving indoors is appropriate and required, particularly if you live in Minnesota, but moving worship into temples and indoor structures has had the unfortunate effect (I think) of imbuing those structures with some kind of sacredness, as if God were present in them, and not elsewhere. It has given many religious communities an “edifice complex” to quote an old joke. We worship the edifice and give children the impression that God is only present inside these certain places. The Priest at the Inca wedding can confidently announce that the inside of the church is the only place where the wedding party can be “before God”; a ridiculous notion. There have been many theological consequences, I think, as people became fearful of nature and suspicious of those who didn’t bring their worship inside. It reinforced the idea that the people who built and decorated the structures were the only species God cared about. 

When, indeed, did we move God inside? It is high time to move outside again and save the indoor spaces for inclement weather, and lose the idea that God is somehow present in those indoor spaces and nowhere else.