Quote:
Originally Posted by Dagwood
Back in the days with the UC OP church, my wife was part of the "sign team." But it certainly wasn't just any ole sign language. There was about 6 or 8 ladies who signed. Songs like "Holy Thou Art God," "Worthy Is The Lamb," etc, all from IBC (I believe), Richard Smallwood's "Total Praise," Donnie McClurkin's "I Call You Holy" they signed for a number of services, even traveling to other churches. The atmosphere of worship that resulted was phenominal because they got into the worship with their signing, facial expressions, etc. It's something I definitely miss being blessed with and definitely something that was not choreographed. I'm not a fan of choreography, dowel rods, and anything else like that...
|
I'm glad that your wife was blessed to be a part of something that helped to lead others into worship and the presence of God. However, I would quibble with you a bit when you say it wasn't "choreographed."
I'm certain that the ladies practiced and that they even agreed upon which "sign" to use in cases where a there might be a couple of different ways to express something in American Sign language. Further, the fact that they were signing in the first place would serve as a kind of "filter" or even a "choreography" of their movements.
Was the audience deaf? Did the majority of people in the audiences even understand the ASL that they were observing? If not, then the whole thing really does fall into the category of a "performance," and a "choreographed" performance at that.
I'm not saying this to knock you down. As I've said before, I have enjoyed these types of performances in church. I'm just keen to observe the similarities between the things that OP people do and what "The World" or "Charismatics" do in their services. When you get right down to it, there is usually very little difference in what's going in the two realms.
