Dancing with St. Gregory of Nyssa

Anglicans are often not very imaginative when it comes to choosing patron saints for their parishes, so it is a bit of a surprise to find one named for St Gregory of Nyssa. Its being located in San Francisco might explain.

For several years now, some of us at St. Paul's Church in the West End have been celebrating the Eucharist following ideas developed at St Gregory's: we sit in the choir stalls, we discuss the sermon, we stand around the altar for the Eucharistic prayer, and we administer Communion one to another. After all this time a dozen of us thought it would be a good thing to visit St Gregory's to compare notes.

St Gregory's is a new church in an old part of town which is recovering from the demise of its shipbuilding industry. Entering the church from the street, the first thing one sees is the altar set in the middle of an empty rotunda. There is no furniture, just standing room only, but in fact ones eye is immediately taken by the spectacular icon painted on the upper walls. All around the rotunda is a double array of ninety larger-than-life figures each with left leg raised in dancing pose. It is the colourful, captivating icon of the Dancing Saints.

The icon is not only striking but also thought-provoking: Malcolm X holds hands with Queen Elizabeth I, Lady Godiva with Janani Luwum, Eleanor Roosevelt with Li Tim Oi, Pope John XXIII with Florence Nightingale, Charles Darwin with Saint Symeon, Gandhi with Saint Seraphim, not to mention Saint Paul, Saint Patrick, Martin Luther and Charles Wesley with some local San Franciscans, all led by Jesus, Lord of the Dance. Are all these really persons who have made God known to us?

When we arrived at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning we were warmly welcomed and then invited to move into another part of the church. There we sat to join in the opening hymns and canticles (singing a capella), hear the Scriptures proclaimed and expounded, and join in the prayers of the people presented by the people. We were given the opportunity to touch the gospel book as it was processed, to comment on the sermon, and to offer our personal intercessions. Then we all danced into the rotunda singing a hymn as we went along.

At the altar the priest consecrated the bread and wine while the people stood around, and then offered the Sacrament to everyone without exception. In a holy chaos we all received the Body and Blood of Christ. Finally, we sang "Let us with a gladsome mind," circling round the altar in what one parishioner later called a Greek tavern dance.