At the darkest moment, Winter Solstice, of this year that has been strange and challenging to many of us, let’s celebrate the turn towards lighter times by gathering in silence and dance in a sacred virtual space that we create together !
In Quaker’s silent Meeting for Worship we gather to just sit together in God’s presence and listen to the whispers of the Spirit in our hearts. Sometimes these whispers inspire us to minister to others, vocally or in some other form.
God’s Spirit can speak to us in so many ways. It can be thoughts and words or it can be images, sensations, feelings, colours, sounds, movement…
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In Ecstatic Dance we surrender to our body and let it move us…The rational mind quiets down and gives way to the music and the dance that arises naturally.. so the Spirit can move us in this way, too!
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Let’s celebrate World Quaker Day by this experiment to combine Silent Meeting for Worship with dance!
We’ll meet at Zoom and gather for our Meeting for Worship in Silence for a short moment, then continue by dancing to a shared playlist for 1-1,5 h, then continue the Worship in the Silence again for a bit longer.
You are welcome to share in any language and anyone can help out by translating each other’s words when needed, and when there’s no translation we can try to feel and listen to the Divine behind the message even if our brain doesn’t understand the words.
Warmly welcome!
IMPORTANT:
The guidelines for Ecstatic dance, adapted to online setting:
THE DANCE FLOOR IS A NON-VERBAL SPACE
We join together to create a safe and sacred space for movement. Eliminating talking on the dance floor allows us to move out of our heads and into our bodies, hearts, and souls. We leave behind the words and worries of the day and connect with spirit and one another in new ways.
THE DANCE FLOOR IS A PLACE OF RESPECT AND SAFETY
Ecstatic Dance has been created as a safe container, whether we’re dancing alone or with others.
This is not a performance, so we can just relax to the move as we feel like, no matter how it looks like… Even your breath and spontaneous sounds can be part of the flowing movement!
You can choose whether you keep the video camera open during the dance or not. Keep your microphone muted.
If you feel like making contact with another dancers, you can non-verbally invite them, and they’ll decide for themselves whether or not they’ll follow your invitation to enjoy a moment of shared dance. If somebody offers you a shared dance and you are not interested, you can simply give them a bow with hands at your heart to say, “no thank you”.
IN PREPARATION FOR THIS ONLINE MEETING FOR WORSHIP, it is a good idea to test your loudspeakers in advance, silence your mobile phone, notify other people sharing the house with you that now you’re going to dedicate a couple of hours for silence and dance, and dont’ wish to be interrupted by words nor audience. If they’d like to join your company, invite them to the Ecstatic dance floor, too!
More:
About Silent Meeting for Worship: https://quaker.org/legacy/evanston/QUAKER/MeetingForWorship.htm
About Ecstatic Dance: https://www.ecstaticdance.com/about/
This event will take place via Zoom, and the link to it is found here: EcstaticZoomLink
The playlist will be shared at the Zoom chat during the event.
Organizer: Aino/ Finland Yearly Meeting