In this season of Covid, I and my UK ministry colleagues created several Zoom-based, interactive prayer services and rituals where lectio visceralis played a central part.* We explored the movement from ecological and emotional lamentation toward hope; the power of connection to overcome isolation; and the movement from exclusion to welcome. Each service involved no more than a dozen people, so as to keep it truly interactive.
Preparation
Several days before the service began, those who signed up were invited to take pictures of their lived environments (home, neighborhood, etc.): two photos representing the negative side of the transformation, and two representing the positive side or theme. We collected these images and turned them into a photomontage with meditative background music.
Opening Exercise
The services themselves were structured by prayer or meditation throughout: at the opening, at the closing, and at the beginning and ending of each lectio visceralis exercise. The ritual begins with an “name game” icebreaker, where each participant states their name and makes an improvised movement (as silly or serious as they like). They offer their name and movement to the other participants, who repeat the name and the movement back to them in (relative) unison, as precisely as possible. We call this exercise “The Gift,” framing each name and movement as a gift to the group, and framing the precise repetition as an act of caring attention and grateful embrace. The Gift exercise has multiple purposes. It builds solidarity and reduces inhibitions: we are all being silly (or serious) together. It introduces the practice of close attention to bodies and to facial expressions, which will be crucial in the lectio to come. And it trains participants to show feelings and share reactions in front of the group.
Prayerful, Embodied Reflection
Then the lectio visceralis begins in earnest. We play the photomontage that was assembled beforehand, inviting participants “to watch with their eyes and to listen with their hearts.” We then invite them to create an image in response to the video (cf. Boal 2002, 174-186). We begin with an image of the theme that we are moving “from”: lamentation, isolation, etc. After a brief invocation, the facilitator guides participants step by step in creating a body sculpture, using hands, arms, face, and head (and any other body part they are inspired to use); eyes remain closed to minimize self-consciousness and self-censoring. Once the self-sculpting is complete, participants open their eyes to adjust their sculpture and fit it into the Zoom frame; then they hold it – noting the feelings or tensions in their bodies – while we take a screen shot of this composite group sculpture.
The next step is reflecting on the image we have created: “personally” (feelings or thoughts about one’s own sculpture); “objectively” (things that everyone can see: how people are holding their hands, directing their eyes, shaping their faces, etc.); and “subjectively” (memories or insights that the sculptures bring up; what the images might be “saying;” what the composite image might mean). The process ends with a closing reflection.
We then invite participants to create a second sculpture. Thinking back to the photomontage, they are guided through a similar set of steps to create and analyze an image of the theme that we want to move “towards”: hope, connection, welcome, etc. Again we use prayer or meditation, guided movement, and analysis (repeating key phrases and instructions verbatim), and we end with a closing reflection.
The third sculpture is one of transition. Participants think back to their previous two sculptures, and are guided in transforming themselves from the first to the second, with their eyes closed, in three discreet steps. They are invited to pay close attention to what they are feeling throughout the whole process of transformation: does it feel free and flowing? choppy? natural? forced?
There are no screenshots here, just an invitation to notice their own felt experience, and then a period to share what they discovered. The service ends with invocation and song.
How to Establish Critical and Creative Ritual Spaces
Our Zoom-based rituals build a sense of communion not only by using religious or spiritual language, but also by using an initial game which invited spontaneous movement in unaccustomed places (i.e., worship and online). This leads to a series of “Image Theatre” performances in which participants create, analyze, and reflect on self-sculpted images of their own lived experiences. The Image Theatre work invites participants to interpret and think critically in a shared format, while listening carefully to the Spirit moving within. Participants who may not have considered themselves eloquent or extemporaneous have space to create, to reflect, and to contribute at the levels of movement, introspection, concrete observation, and abstract interpretation. We hold the space tightly by using detailed and carefully scripted directions, and by using verbal repetition in our meditations and prayers.
* The members of Lectio East, our London-based liturgical ministry are myself (John Falcone), Molly Boot, Erin Clark, Olajumoke Grace, Keith Hebden, and Shelly-Ann Mol.