The portrayal of ritual in the prologue is mostly from a negative point of view. Rituals do serve some very useful functions in society. Apart from the exercise of animal needs, humans have a need to express the spiritual side of who we are. Spirituality is one of the more difficult practices in our culture. Because spirituality doesn't connect well with intellect, nor does it "produce" anything tangible or directly saleable, we have a tough time dealing with it. The human spirit connects with where we find meaning in life, how we understand death, how we connect with infinity, how we relate to each other, the richness of our emotions, among other things. These agenda are best touched and rehearsed in ritual. Through ritual, we connect with the stories and the people that touch our spirits.
In rituals we form community. This can be as obvious as the ritual of disagreement with an umpire when the call goes against the home team or as subtle as reciting a creed that connects us with some people and differentiates us from others. Rituals around death help us to make some sense out of what doesn't make sense in the framework in which we normally operate. Rituals give us anchors in o normally operate. Rituals give us anchors in our lives, as points of contact with realities beyond ourselves and as events that occur with regularity, on which we can count. One of the easiest ways to get a Church to go into a fight is to change the time of the weekly service of worship. When people don't think they can count on things to be the same forever, their lives feel out of whack somehow. Why else would we have people sitting in the same pews for 40 years in Churches that are less than half full. Any attempt to unity a dozen struggling churches into a couple of vital ones is doomed to immediate failure.
Rituals have a function of telling us who we are and where we fit in reality. They can serve evil and destructive purposes, but also creative and vital purposes.
Dr. Bob Kimberly
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"THE" Collaborative Process |
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| (September 96 - April 97) | ||||||||
| Lies | Saints | Addictions | Handcuffs | Evolution | ||||
| Video | Rituals | Humour | Violence | Sanctity | ||||
| Page Last Updated July 4, 2000 | ||||||||
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