Get ready for the Synodal Pokey…
My first introduction to the art of dancing was not as a teenager attending a sock hop. It was on Wednesday evenings when my siblings and I along with cousins and other kids from the parish gathered at the church hall to learn Croatian folk dances. The style of dance was called kolo, a word that means circle, for dancers would link hands or hold each other at the waist to dance often in syncopated steps in a circular line or chain. We were told that in the “old country,” the kolo was a means of socialization, the center of village social life and often the main venue for young women and men to get to know each other.
Admittedly, when I first heard the word synodality it was strange to my ears. In time I gained a better understanding as I explored various explanations. I continue to find helpful the 2018 document Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church, published by the International Theological Commission. But one day it occurred to me that my experience of kolo dancing and its many elements had much to offer for understanding synodality. Like the dance, it too offers a means of socialization, but in the life of the church. For at its core, synodality, derived from the Greek synodos, means “walking together” or “traveling the same path.” So, synodality invites the entire community to take responsibility for moving forward in unison, attentive to the Holy Spirit and to one another. Both dance and synodality require a shift from individual performance to collective harmony, transforming a group of distinct individuals into a singular, moving body.
How does the rhythm of dance mirror the spirit of synodality?
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