The Dancing Church

A professor of International Christian Missions at a Protestant University recommended this video to me. I was thrilled to see this. The video quality is poor, but the voice over by Fr. Thomas Kane who has made the study of liturgical practice his passion, was exciting. I think God is dancing with these parishes from Africa. I wish we here in the U.S. were more like these parishes. God bless them as he undoubtedly is.  

Shortly after watching this video I read a news report of how Christian congregations (Protestant and Catholic) in certain parts of Africa are being persecuted by gangs, kidnapping whole congregations and killing many. The irony of dancing one minute and sacrifice the next is staggering.  

Pray for all Christians. The murderous enemy of truth is real. 

The Dance Project

Although not part of formal worship, there is dancing in the American Church. This is ironic to Pam and I since we were raised in the Free Methodist Church where dancing was counted as a grave sin, unless it was The Sugar Plum Fairy ballet performed by others. 

Recently, however,  Pam and I chaperoned a masquerade swing dance for Christian Home High Schoolers from S.E. Michigan. It as the annual Dance Project staged at a ballroom in Howell, Michigan. About 300 teens and a few adults like us attended. It was a lot of fun. We drove three of our teen grand daughters, who brought three other friends in our van along (including two boys). One of our grand daughters (Annaliese) had invited others that drove themselves. Annaliese walked away with the prize of the night with a hand crafted mask. 

(L) Stan & Pam looking for violators but not very hard.
(R) Annaliese Nelson invited the most people and won a beautiful mask.

The organizers of this now 13-year tradition had very strict rules about behavior that we, as chaperones, were suppose to watch out for. We were instructed that if after our warnings their behavior was not adjusted we could report them for removal. But Pam and I saw nothing untoward all night long. It was good clean fun by all. I mean, how do you dance lewdly to Denver and the Mile High Orchestra's swing version of "Victory in Jesus."   This is the piece the D.J. played at the end of the dance. I shot video of it, but since the kids in it were minors and I don't have permission to make it public there is this from YouTube. Enjoy. (We did!)

Pam wearing Annaliese's prize.