Jeanette Outside Reading Blog 1

Going back to our very first week's discussion, dealing with kairos and chronos...I read parts of "The Study of Liturgy" (Jones, Wainwright, Yarnold). I read that in the extended form of the services for the Eastern churches (both Orthodox and Catholic), the deacon of the church announces "Kairos tou poiesai to Kyrio" to the priest, which means "it is time for God to act". Some churches at that point even lock the doors of the church, because it is said that the churches are participating in eternity to such an extent that the physical church actually rises to another dimension. I think it's awesome that the liturgy is supposed to interact with eternity to such an extent, but it’s important to be intentional with the engagement of the body during religious liturgy. Liturgies with set physical ritual, I think, are particularly good at balancing a focus on kairos and chronos. The body is in constant interaction with linear time, and so to ignore it in a religious service and focus solely on the spiritual connection with kairos is not embracing the human state fully. Hooray for balanced liturgies!