What is True Worship?  That is the question I pondered all through my seminary days and am still pondering. 

Even before that as a young adult I was intrigued by the account of Jesus saying, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24 NASB) Somehow I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that he was talking about a modern day Sunday service at a local Christian church.

Many years ago I began seeking for the truth about this saying along with the teaching, "Do you not know the your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19 NASB)  In both of these reported sayings I intuited a thread of truth that I would follow in one way or another for the rest of my life. 

Toward the end of my seminary days, the thread began to take shape. I suddenly knew, like a flash of light, on the night that I received a blessing to become a spiritual practitioner. Although I had never before that night consciously considered the ordination path, at that moment I changed directions and began the program leading to ordination with Light of Christ Community Church with the goal to experiment with alternative ways of “worship" that were closer to the idea of "truth" as in authentic and "spirit" as in the non-physical, unseen energy and force that both creates and governs physical life. 

I immediately requested authorization to begin a Study Group and when I was ordained a year or so later, the Study Group became a Church Charter. A small group of people were attracted to the work I had started and we began what I often refer to as a "grand experiment" to uncover more authentic, practical and personal forms of worship, especially for people who no longer find the traditional rituals of religious worship helpful to their spiritual development. This experiment was and is aimed at spiritually mature adults who both claim and accept personal responsibility for their own Inner Authority or God Within.

The way that seemed right to me is the way of transformation, from the inside out.  I was drawn more and more to the experiences of the mystics and an esoteric philosophy with references to the inner life and doing the inner work of spiritual transformation. Eventually, I began to study the sacramental nature of healing and bodywork and began a holistic healing practice. I also began to see the power of emergent wisdom from within the group of spiritual seekers rather than top down and the Wisdom Circle was born. 

A focus on contemporary wisdom teachings and the wisdom found in multiple world faith traditions brought a new understanding of the ancient truths that each tradition within its own culture contributes to the greater awareness of the whole and of the One God. We discovered that there is always more to learn and understand and I began to suggest we "hold our beliefs loosely" so that we can learn new truths that spirit is revealing to us. I began to see each of us as "flow through beings" that our organic bodies are receiver sites for the flow of spiritual energy and that we assimilate the energy within ourselves and then radiate it out for all who need a spiritual touch. This is just a sampling of the insights that have come to us over the past few years of being together in what I now understand as "spiritual partnership" where all are on the spiritual journey alone together.

As the Shifting of the Ages continues, a focus on spiritual evolution, inner authority, and spiritual partnership calls for a new understanding of what it means to worship. Just in the last few months, my continued search for true worship has been met with a wonderfully articulated approach and I immediately knew the author represented a powerful truth.

The following is an excerpt from the website of Original Christianity and Original Yoga (www.ocoy.org). The description of “worship” from this perspective is much closer to the reality of Jesus’s teaching on worship of God and consistent with the eastern focus on a natural psychological approach to spirituality. This meaning of worship is more consistent with spiritual life rather than religious life and unites eastern and western spirituality into a new reality for our time. The focus of spiritual worship is individual rather than general, private rather than public, contemplative rather than liturgical, and esoteric rather than exoteric. And yet, when true worshipers come together in mutual support and association, a powerful force for good is radiated out into the world.

I took the liberty of using bold on the following words that clearly articulated this deeper approach. 

Basic Beliefs of Saint Thomas Christianity

“About Worship”

An Excerpt from Chapter Three of The Christ of India by Abbot Georg Burke

". . . [T]rue worship is understood by the Saint Thomas Christians as a means of linking lower consciousness with higher consciousness, the human with the divine. In Greek it is proskuneo, and in Sanskrit, upasana. Upasana means “to draw near.” Proskuneo also means to draw near, but includes the idea of doing so with love. It is related to prosekho, which means to fix the awareness upon an object, to become conscious of something. From these three terms we gain an exact and pragmatic understanding of worship: the process of lovingly fixing our attention upon God and thereby being drawn closer into communication with him–not mere conversation or verbal exchange, but the communication to us of divine qualities and divine consciousness. In other words, true worship is an act, which accomplishes an assimilation of higher consciousness. To rightly worship God is to become god–to bring about the union of our finite being with the infinite being in so perfect a unity that we can truthfully say with Jesus: “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). Consequently, the Saint Thomas Christians consider that meditation is the most appropriate and effective worship of God."

I now have a more clearly articulated and supported understanding about true worship. Together we can begin to make it our own guiding light as we continue the grand experiment of discerning and appropriating both the attitude and the activities of true worship as both individuals and spiritual partners in a participatory and co-evolving spiritual journey.

Patsy Walker Fine

Spiritual Director, Sophia’s Well

11/26/16