Disciple: Mind, Body and Spirit

By Summerlee Walter

Volleyballs bounced across theback lawn of St. Patrick's, Mooresville, while inside the sanctuary, in the shadow of the cross, parishioners worked through a yoga flow.

On a nearby trail, people of all ages – and one service dog-in-training – walked and ran at their own pace while those on bikes ventured further out into the neighborhood. In the rear parking lot, older, more experienced skateboarders helped their younger friends roll down ramps and steer through cones, in between skating the course themselves, of course. In the main hallway, older adults worked through a set of Silver Sneakers exercises. The people of St. Patrick’s weren’t running around managing Vacation Bible School, navigating the annual church picnic or chatting up neighbors during a community outreach event — they were worshiping.

On September 21, St. Patrick’s held its first Wellness Eucharist. Worshipers arrived for the service at the normal time of 10:00 a.m. They came wearing fluorescent race tee-shirts and cross trainers, loose yoga pants and racerback tops, mirrored sunglasses perched on their heads and long-sleeved tee-shirts tied around their waists. The celebration inside the sanctuary was brief: readings, a homily, Communion and prayers. The main worship would occur a bit later as congregants filtered out to their cars to unrack bikes, apply sunscreen, retrieve helmets, stretch and organize themselves before heading out to engage in various physical activities, all enjoyed in thanksgiving to their Creator who gave them the gift of movement.

“Mind. Body. Spirit. A human being is all three,” the Rev. Mark Forbes preached during his homily. “Salvation is a journey into human holiness. We can’t ignore the body....We have a spiritual responsibility to nurture the body like the spirit and the mind.”

The Rev. Forbes originally got the idea for a Wellness Eucharist from the Rt. Rev. Robert Johnson, former Bishop of North Carolina, who ordained him. Bishop Johnson at one point held a jogging Eucharist in Atlanta, and the Rev. Forbes had been waiting for the right time to emulate Bishop Johnson’s idea.

St. Patrick’s is the perfect congregation for such an experiment. The parish recently started hosting a yoga class, and one of their life groups previously trained together for Iron Man triathlons and other races. The Wellness Eucharist was also not the first time St. Patrick’s held an active alternative Eucharist. At a previous service, parishioners put theology into action by packaging meals for Stop Hunger Now as part of the Eucharist.

Those who participated in the Wellness Eucharist activities enjoyed their time worshiping through movement and fellowship.

“I kept thinking about [today’s] Gospel reading, how the last shall be first,” Raleigh Baker joked about the laps he walked that morning. (One of the Scriptures assigned for that Sunday was the parable of the laborers in the vineyards.)

The Rev. Forbes explained that, for thousands of years, the Church discarded the body, but it’s not an area of their existence that Christians can afford to ignore.

“We let others carry the banner of mind, body and spirit,” he said of the trinitarian nature of human existence. “The YMCA, a Christian organization, has that banner. We should pick that up.”

The Rev. Forbes wasn’t the only one who felt the connections among mind and spirit.

“Swimming and running are my prayer time,” Becky Pendergast, who biked during the Wellness Eucharist, said. “With swimming especially I’m just in myself. I hear the water and my breathing, and it’s almost numbing. I can focus on prayer while I swim.”

Regardless of the activity worshipers chose, their enjoyment of the alternative style of worship was palpable. Whether they enjoyed the feeling of speed one gets while running or skateboarding, or savored the deep stretching of yoga, the people of St. Patrick’s benefitted from intentionally engaging with their bodies in ways Episcopalians normally don’t.

Summerlee Walter is the communications coordinator for the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Contact her at [email protected].