It was during the Medieval Period that the first church dramas began to appear. As Richard Courtney, famous drama teacher and theatre scholar, pointed out that the Mass itself of course has the seeds of drama – chanted dialogue and a theme of action, but not the essential quality of impersonation.
Impersonation began with the trope sung during the night before Easter. A trope was an extra chant written to accompany church music on special occasions. In the Mass, the trope had been sung by the choir. When repositioned, it became a separate little scene performed at Matins on Easter morning; much like a tiny opera, three people impersonated the Marys and one the angel before an improvised sepulchre.
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Over the past couple of decades the “praise band” has become more and more popular in churches. In the past, the only way the average church member participated in the music was singing the hymns with everyone else or singing in the choir. Either way they were singing with a larger group, so if they weren’t very good at singing, it didn’t matter. With the advent of the praise band, that changed and the result has sometimes been pretty bad. So, what do you do when someone who isn’t very good wants to be a part of the band?
Exposed:
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Most of us have surely heard the church building on the corner referred to as “the house of God.” Have you ever heard the Word “Ichabod”? Other than the first name of the schoolmaster character in Washington Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” – the word “Ichabod” was originally mentioned in Scripture. “Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel! “because the ark of God had been captured,” (1Sam. 4:21). The original meaning of Ichabod is this: “the glory has departed”.
Logic tells us that the word “has departed” denotes simply that there used to be glory, and now there isn’t. The term originated in reference to what many refer to as “the Shekinah (SHE’KEE’NA) glory” which is the manifestation of the glory of God in the temple at Jerusalem – the place where God resided. This “Shekinah” was displayed in several ways in Scripture including the burning bush, the bright light when the angels announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds, etc. The Shekinah was only present when the Ark of the Covenant was in its proper place, in the Holy of Holies. Historically, whenever the Ark was NOT in the temple, the temple was said to be “Ichabod.” The real substance and meaning of the temple was missing. It was merely an empty habitation at that point because the essence – the glory of God – was gone.
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