Voices of Service

Jim Ellison

Volunteers Exploring Vocation Coordinator

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August 17, 2010

Dancing with the Saints

Dancing. The whole world seems crazy about dancing. All over the place people are talking about “Dancing with the Stars” or “So You Think You Can Dance”. It makes me quite uncomfortable.

I was never much for dancing. As an adolescent, I remember the feelings of betrayal, when my closest friends, those who at one time hung with me at the side of the room at the school dances and would run out of the room when there would be a “lady’s choice” announced, reached the point when they gave up their spot on the wall and started dancing!

Some of those feelings changed on Pentecost Day this past May. On that feast day, I visited St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco, made famous by Sara Miles excellent book, Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion. On that day, I was greeted outside the church and warmly welcomed, and when I stepped into the worship space inside, into the table area to be exact, I was surrounded by saints, dancing saints. Right there, on three levels as I remember, on the walls were painted saints, some modern, some from long ago, and all were illustrated with one leg up in the air, dancing it would seem.

Worship that Pentecost Day started most festively with what seemed like dozens of Indian umbrellas in the processional as we processed into the worship area for the readings. In that area, sitting much like in a Benedictine monastery face to face with others, we listened to the lesson from Acts read in a variety of tongues. Then it happened! After that, it was time for dancing. Everyone danced back into the table area where the lively Christ would be broken and shared at the very same table where during the week Christ is shared by food that is distributed to those in need. We danced a simple step, even for me: hand on shoulder of the one in front, accompanied by song and drum, a couple of steps forward, a small step back. I was dancing! All were happy! We then shared that meal, Christ came to me by way of the hands of a 10-year-old boy. After all had been completed, there was one last dance. This time, the steps were a bit more complicated:  one way, then back, step forward, then back, all while singing the closing song. This dance even had a kick step! It was so much harder for me, but the woman to my right smiled, perhaps somewhat amused, but so very welcoming. It was that kick step which really got my attention. It was the same step illustrated on all three levels by the saints around us. We were dancing with the saints!

Volunteers serving in the Bay area, anyone else, go visit St. Gregory’s. There is much to learn about ministry there. Better yet, they welcome non-dancers, with incredible hospitality. Even more, you get to dance with the saints.