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Meditating on the Trinity

Our local church of Dundonald Methodist has recently started a Friday night class for those interested in sequence dancing… and it is proving a great success across the generations and with people who haven’t been involved with any previous church programmes. Perhaps it’s the high profile of TV shows like “Strictly come Dancing” and “So You Think You Can Dance” that have captured people’s imagination… In fact we have called our programme “So you think You Can’t Dance” as it is aimed at people who know they are never likely to be Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers.
Not everyone has been in favour as the Methodist church, along with some others, traditionally saw dancing as an excuse for inappropriate intimacy between the sexes, and for a long while it was actually banned on church premises. But that is no longer the case, and while I haven’t actively participated myself, I can assure anyone who is worried about it that there is nothing lascivious or lewd about what is taking place in our church halls on a Friday evening… Come along and check it out if you're worried…
But in this week running up to Trinity Sunday it reminded me again of that ancient Antiochene concept of perichoresis, where each person of the Trinity intimately permeates each other, as if the Trinity is engaged in an eternal dance with each other. Not an intense, exclusive tango that you have to "break in2 to, but a joy-filled country dance where the three "partners" dosey-doe around each other, and in which we are all invited to participate...

And with that picture in mind, let me leave you with a short meditation I wrote for Trinity Sunday last year



Symbol of threeness in perfect unity
The enduring earth, surrounding sea and boundless sky
The ever changing continuum of past, present and future
The family of Father, Mother and beloved child.

Name of the threeness; perfect trinity:
The Father of all who gives life: to strengthen you in your weakness
The Son our Saviour who gave his life: to surround you with his love
The Spirit, the breath of life: to overshadow you with perfect peace.

I bind unto myself this day
The strong name of the Trinity
By invocation of the same
Three in one and one in three
© David Campton 2009



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