Ritual: Acknowledging the Sacred in All Things
photograph by Cherie Westmoreland
Imagine a spiral path laid out on the ground in the middle of the gathering space – a spacious opening on a forested hill on Bowen Island. If you had been there with other children, parents, teachers, friends, and family for the school’s ‘Unfurling’ ceremony in June, you would have witnessed each of the four classes being led in silence by their respective teacher along the curving path to the centre of the spiral. You would have seen the class pause and huddle in for an unheard conversation at the centre of things. And then a sudden eruption out of the quiet and into a lively, more energetic, movement back to the beginning of the path and out into whatever came next.
You would already have heard the school principal explain how the word ‘unfurling’ is inspired by the abundance of ferns here on Bowen and the characteristic unfurling of the tender fiddlehead in early spring. You would have heard him speak eloquently about the tender unfurling of young lives through their active participation in the life of this Island Discovery School. This ritual of acknowledgement and celebration was at the heart of many other community activities that day.
My life is now long enough to hold a vivid picture of the dramatic decline in participation in Christian faith communities. I have witnessed the closing or re-purposing of numerous church buildings in all mainline Christian denominations in Canada. I am particularly alert to this remarkable change because I grew up in the ritually alive practices of the Anglican Church and, as an adult, the United Church. Engagement in organized religion became unpersuasive for my own children, even in some of the most enlivened settings of Christian community. A further generation down the path, I am in close relationship with grandchildren for whom Christianity holds a place alongside other ‘interesting’ religions.
So, on this ‘Unfurling’ day in June 2023, I was especially aware of the youngest of five grandchildren walking the spiral path so thoughtfully and as it turned out, with his anticipated departure from that school, tearfully. Where will Clark be offered participation in meaning-filled ritual that, in the fullness of his youthful body, engages him in the truth that all life is sacred: the unfurling of the fern, the unfolding of a human life?
Clark’s body is alive on the soccer field and in all the places where he can sharpen his sporting capacity. On that day of 'Unfurling' I was really aware of his body being alive within the ritual that gave expression to a very precise meaning. That’s the thing about ritual: it takes the participant into their body and into an enactment of a rite that holds both meaning and value.
In this moment, what comes to mind is the early morning dancing of the Five Rhythms in both the chapel at Rivendell Retreat and the chapel at Naramata Centre during SoulGuiding retreats in which I was privileged to participate over several years. In creating this practice, Gabrielle Roth identified a sequence of five rhythms which are five states of being that we can know at every level of consciousness and activity: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness.
We gathered day after day in the early morning in those sacred places to dance to five carefully chosen pieces of music that took our whole beings into an embodied experience of those five rhythms. That ritual practice became so valued by the participants that many of them have continued to gather in other places, often virtually, and to make the Five Rhythms practice a significant ritual experience in their journey beyond SoulGuiding.
Our yearning for meaning-filled ritual is real; our capacity to initiate and shape rituals of connection and deepening is stirring; and our willingness to engage our communities in these ways is required. May we be graced in our responses.
Tim Scorer
At the heart of Tim’s practice is spiritual accompaniment: with individuals, with spiritual companions and elders, with groups and faith communities, in contemplative retreats, and with lovers of poetry. His grounding is through active engagement with five grandchildren, gardening on a hillside on Bowen Island, participation in the life of a faith community, and deepening into the loving 57-year partnership he enjoys with Donna.
Read about Tim’s spiritual direction practice here.
