I just watched Dancing With God, an hour-long film about the parish of St Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco. It’s available as an MP4 download from FlimBaby (for $10).
You pretty much get to see an entire liturgy, although it’s a splice of three or four. If you were to read it in conjunction with Worship at St Gregory’s, you’d have a pretty good idea of what Sunday was like there. You’d certainly get a fuller picture than from reading liturgical geeks (such as myself) blogging gushing reviews or horrified gasps. While you *still* might not like it, the next time someone tries to pull you into a “liberal liturgy bashing”, you’ll at least have a bit more knowledge than they.
The movie does not have much history or discussion of the liturgical traditions we used. It’s not so much a documentary as an infomercial. Worship at St Gregory’s is the “Tell” and Dancing With God is the “Show”.
Although the film came out in 2000, this was the first time I’d seen the entire thing (I’d seen bits and pieces at meetings, etc). It was rather wonderful to see old friends (some no longer with us) dancing and singing. I mentioned to Mother Sarah that I thought she might get to hear me speak in the movie - and in fact that is so. I also sing, dance and pray in the movie.
