My play The Amen Circle is founded on the biblical promise that where more than two people are gathered, in agreement, Jesus will be there and give them what they ask for in prayer. Seems simple enough in theory. Matthew 18: 19-20 states:
19″Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20″For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
Taking that firmly held belief and interpreting it in contemporary terms without it being cliche, is hard. So instead of creating the obvious, I chose to focus on the power of a strong community or gathering. The way I interpreted an amen circle is that it is a group that makes something happen or keeps something from happening.
In this week’s research find, I’m sharing the Ring Shout. Here is a brief description of a ring shout from Wikipedia:
Men and women moved in a circle in a counterclockwise direction, shuffling their feet, clapping, and often spontaneously singing or praying aloud. In Jamaica and Trinidad the shout was usually performed around a special second altar near the center of a church building. In the Sea Islands of Georgia and South Carolina, shouters formed a circle outdoors, around the church building itself.
In some cases, slaves retreated into the woods at night to perform shouts, often for hours at a time, with participants leaving the circle as they became exhausted. In the twentieth century someAfrican-American churchgoers in the United States performed shouts by forming a circle around the pulpit, in the space in front of the altar, or around the nave.
The spiritual power of the ring shout was community and the commitment of the people participating. The Amen Circle is about that power and community. It is about the trusted souls weary and exasperated people can depend on to help them through their troubles.
Watch this very brief documentary segment about the ring shout and its origins in the United States:
Perhaps the video and the information provided above gives you a sharper insight into maybe your own worship and praise traditions. If nothing else, you see that those traditions were rooted in purpose. That’s how I feel about The Amen Circle.