An interesting service I attended this afternoon

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Every year, my church puts on a commemoration of David Oakerhater, a Cheyenne who was one of the first Native American deacons in the Episcopal Church, and the local Native American community is invited, including the members of one parish that was established (or reorganized, I'm not sure which) as a parish focused on the rather large population of Ojibwe and Lakota people in the Twin Cities.

While a basic Episcopal Eucharist, the service had some interesting touches. The normal processional occurred with four drummers drumming and chanting and led by a young girl doing a shawl dance. Before the Collect for the Day came an invocation of the spirits of the four directions.

Hymns were sung with verses alternating in Ojibwe, Lakota, and English, with the words printed out in the bulletin. About half a dozen Native American clergy were present.

Instead of incense, they used smoke from a bowl containing a burning sprig of what looked like cedar and took it among the congregation. As the bowl approached, people held out their arms and fanned the smoke towards themselves.

As a whole, the more Creation-centered variants of the liturgy and prayers were used. I saw one of the women in the congregation doing the Lord's Prayer in Indian sign language, which I recognized because a Navaho family who attended my church in Portland used to do the same for special occasions.

The recessional was the processional in reverse, again accompanied by drums and led by the dancer.

Afterwards was a dinner consisting of foods now common among Native Americans, including fry bread, wild rice, a squash casserole, a bean and corn casserole, and buffalo chili. I sat at a round table with a member of my EFM class, an African-American woman, and a Native American couple from northern Minnesota. The Native American couple were talking about how they were trying to deal with racial issues in their community, since the town played up the Indian aspect of its heritage for tourists but in fact, there was a lot of discrimination in hiring and other aspects of life.

I can think of a few people I know who would be driven crazy by what they would condemn as syncretism, but I found the whole experience fascinating.

[RevCheesehead]

1. What some would call syncretism,

I call the beauty of God's diversity. O8)

Sounds like a wonderful service!

[StoryTeller]

2. I bet it was really fascinating!

As far as syncretism goes--that has much more to do with letting one's culture or another religion influence your actual theology in a way that distorts or perverts the faith than it does with incorporating specific cultural elements into your expression of worship. Most of us have a certain amount of syncretism in our belief system without really even realizing it, so it's always good for a person to examine the purity of their own faith before accusing anyone else of syncretism. ;)

My husband is quite interested in Native American history and culture, so he would have loved to attend this service. I'll have to show him your description when he gets home today. Thank you for sharing it!