Unity News

May, 2005

The Languages of Worship Experienced

A true story by Connie Whilden

On a cold Wednesday night, in February, 2005, a small Hispanic congregation gathered together for their regular middle of the week service.   They came casual, some in their work clothes and some in the jeans and T-shirts they had quickly changed into at home.   They came with their families.   They brought their mothers and their children, and one young woman assisted an older woman out of her car and escorted her out of the night air.   It was not a large group.   Roughly twenty-five men and women shuffled for their chairs and took their seats.   By all reasoning, it was just another normal Wednesday night as the band took their instruments and began to enter into their time of praise and worship before the Lord.

Their building is small, and looks to have been a house renovated behind the Episcopal Church. It may have formerly been used as a church rectory.   These two congregations share a parking lot, but the building is also shared with a third group that meets on Saturday evenings and other times that do not interfere with the assembling of the Hispanic group.

Their praises rose before the Lord with declarations of “Santo! Santo! Santo!” when in the back of their church, a group of men and woman entered.   They looked very different.   Most of them had skin that was lighter, and only two spoke any Spanish.   Most of the men wore long beards that looked as if they had not been trimmed in quite awhile.   They carried with them traditional ram's horn shofars, the Biblical trumpet used to call the tribes to assembly and to blow at times of war, and long Yemenite shofars made from the horn of the African Kudu.   Long tassels they call tzitzit dangled from the corners of their clothing. . Instead of pronouncing the Spanish form of “Jesus” with the “H,” they proclaimed “Yeshua.”   Many of them were draped in Hebraic prayer shawls, and one of their men wore a Jewish skullcap.

They stood at the back of the sanctuary and lifted their hands as the music played.   As the unfamiliar words rose to a familiar tune, they joined in, singing each in his own language.   The Hispanic congregants stood in their places respectfully before the Lord, with gentle claps of the hands.   Meanwhile, at the back, individuals began to dance.   The shofars began to blow.   Men and women twirled in celebration before the Lord with their prayer shawls billowing out around them.    And then, an unexpected unity began to take hold between these two completely different groups!

The praise and worship team began to sing in English as well as in Spanish.   The Hispanic congregants stood, and pushed their chairs to the walls to create a large open space in the middle of the room, as an invitation for the very different group.   The men and women with the beards and prayer shawls came to the center and formed a large circle for traditional Hebraic dance.   The musicians struck their first notes again, this time in familiar chords to the dancers.   They played a common Messianic worship song, “Praise Adonai, from the rising of the sun to the ends of every day” singing in Spanish as the dancers worshipped in their own way!   The pastor's wife jumped into the circle, and was able to quickly pick up the dance steps.   Outside of the circle, men and women continued to worship, each in their own way.   After two Davidic dance songs, the two vastly different congregations came together and marched around the building, some in quiet prayer, some with shouts of praise, some walking, some dancing, and several continually blowing the shofar!   At the end of marching, the horn players came forward and blew.   The gentleman wearing the skullcap explained the tradition as his words were translated into Spanish for the understanding of all.

What began as a normal Wednesday night turned into a great celebration of praise before the Lord!   Men came together in prayer and in words of encouragement for one another.   The Hispanic church prayed fervently over their Messianic brothers and sisters, and then the Messianic congregants stepped forward and prayed over and blessed the first group.   As the two groups mixed and mingled together, bound together in unity despite every obstacle saying they should not have even been in the same room together, the Spirit of the Lord descended.   There was healing, both physical and emotional—not at the hands of any particular leader or personality, but at the hands of a unified community of believers indwelled by the Spirit of God.

At the same time, on the same night, various congregations across the rest of the city fought within their walls, arguing over what kinds of songs to sing in worship and remembering the days long past when their worship was vibrant.   What must God think?

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