Clapping of Hands in Worship

Is it wrong to clap hands when we worship? Is our worship contradictory to the instructions in Psalms 150?

This is something that has been in my thought since long, especially as we live

in the midst of different Christian groups.

I recently witnessed a glimpse of the worship of the Eritrean (Ethiopian)

Orthodox Church. They use drums,use clapping and even dance while they worship. So obviously these are not forbidden. See here:

But I feel there is a valid reason why our tradition has developed this way. Andit is good. We can always look for change, but we must be careful that our zeal for change does not make us lose something very precious.

Psalms 150 written in the Old testament times gives expression to the ecstatic

and joyous celebration of God. Its an uninhibited release of praise towards the

Almighty Yahweh.

For us Christians though, everything gets colored through the Gospels. King

David did not have the image of the Cross in mind when he wrote Psalms 150. We

read the Old testament seen in the background of Calvary.

We do not see such an unrestrained emotion in the way of worship formed in the

New Testament Church (how could they, considering they were so close to, and

were so well aware of the suffering of the Lord in Calvary), nor in the works of

Fathers of the Church. Mar Ephrem is considered the harp of the Holy Spirit, his

many poems we use in our worship and prayers. In the prayers and Liturgy, we see

an emotion of pain as we identify with the Cross, calmness and silence as we try

to understand the unimaginable love at Calvary. In the New Testament, we see

"psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" but not shouting, clapping and chaos.

This sentiment shines through even in our expressions of joy of Resurrection as

we are continuously reminded to be humble and meek, always alert and ready,not

drunk in celebrations, because the Devil is always round the corner, because our

race is not yet complete.

Since our wise and Holy Fathers sought refuge in this sentiment primarily, our

music and our songs reflect the calmness, the low key and passionate tone as

opposed to the unrestrained expressions of Psalms 150.

We read Psalms 150 in every of our Morning prayers on Sundays, yet we see the

celebrations in the Psalm looking on from the foot of the Cross. Our ecstatic

celebration is given expression in the Holy Eucharist, which the Devil fears,

all other incidents pale in comparison.

This is not because we are moving away from the Bible, this is because we are

truly embracing the music, the song, the message of the Bible, I feel. I don't

think its wrong to clap hands in worship, but I feel it will be a loss if we

don't teach our children why we don't usually do that in worship.

See a section of the Holy Eucharist in Malankara Orthodox/Jacobite Church:

Src: ICON

Glimpse of worship from the 4th Century

Etheria was a woman who travelled the Holy Land sometime in the late 4th century AD. She has written down what she saw as practices of the Early Church then existing in the Holy Land (note that this was before the birth of Islam) - especially during the Holy Week.

(Read about Etheria the Pilgrim on wikipedia or Google. Etheria's maybe the first formal writings by a woman which we have access to.)

As we scroll down to the "Veneration of the Cross" section, we see how the wood of (probably) the original Cross was venerated, bowed down upon, kissed (even bitten away! so guarded by deacons) without anyone doubting if it was idol worship.

Thus the early Church does not seem to have had issues venerating the Holy Cross, these "doubts" that are now gaining popularity among us were probably conveniently planted into our psyche during the time of the advent of Protestantism in the 15th-16th centuries. [Beware of the questions of the serpent who planted the doubt in man by an innocent question.]

(I thank Rev. Fr. Shaji P. John from Nagpur Seminary for pointing us to the work 'Pilgrimage of Egeria' during his classes in Albany, NY during the Holy Week in 2011)

Ref: Pilgrimage of Egeria"(Etheria) 


Src: ICON

The expressions of praise - Old vs New Testament

Psalms 150-3:6
"Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre.
Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and
pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals;Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let
everything that has breath praise the LORD.Praise the LORD!"

Every Sunday we read this Biblical passage. Yet, I have wondered, I neither see
trumpets, nor harp or dancing or clapping in the Holy Qurbana that follows. How
come? Are these empty words we utter?! And why no drums?! Also we may ask - Why
no electric guitar?:)

In conversation with a friend and Seminarian, the topic came up in a different
context and he mentioned "We see loud music used in the worship of the Old
Testament, but never in the New Testament times. Even the Fathers at the
Seminary do not encourage loud music" [I paraphrase]. I did not think much about
this till recently when I started thinking along these lines and the words of
the friend came back to me.

The Psalmist sees a vision of the Yahweh who is worthy of the highest praise. He
exhorts mankind to conduct the worship with all jubilation and utmost joy,
because Yahweh is the Lord who gives victory over enemies, Yahweh, our God is
the Lord Almighty who created the heaven and the earth, who has blessed Israel
his chosen nation.

That was the vision of the Lord of the Old Testament. The new Testament showed
the vision of the Lord who is also Love incarnate; the Lord who gave His only
Son to be a sacrifice on the Cross, the Lord who loves all humanity with a love
unimaginable.

It is this sacrifice that the Holy Qurbana is all about. That explains the
solemn mood as a build up to the Holy Qurbana. In our tradition, (and in most
traditions) we do not use trumpets, dancing and clapping during such solemn
occasions (for example, just to get a context, the funeral of our beloved
departed ones – which is a time of sadness because of the physical separation of
the loved one from our world, but it is also a time of joy because of our faith
that the ones who die in the Lord are closer to Christ and is full of life in
Christ, they just pass on to a better place)

Our worship is our response to our Creator. The music in the Old Testament
worship is a reflection of the revelation till that time. Yet, inspired by the
Holy Spirit, its relevance is never lost, it just finds newer meanings in the
New Testament times.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and
admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord." Col 3:16
We see three kinds of songs in the New Testament times of the Early Church –
psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. The Old Testament psalms were never
forsaken, they were used too, yet armed with the knowledge of a Lord who bore
our sins to the Cross, and of a Lord with whom we have died and risen also, the
usage would have been much mellowed and matured in the traditional sense, yet
more joyous and fullsome, having been liberated by the truth of the Cross.

Thus the New Testament Church is a paradigm shift, in a sense, from the ways of
the Old Testament – in its revelation, in its life and also in its music. The
trumpets, the dancing and the clapping have been replaced by the chiming of the
bells, the fluttering of the Marbasa, the waving of the censor, the smell of the
incense, the waving of the hands by the celebrant, the announcements by the
deacons, the shouting of the crowd in response, the folding of the hands, the
standing in rapt attention, the loud ringing of the church bells – the ecstacy
is still present, only its expression has changed.

But are we fully aware of this change? Only if we do, can we enjoy the fullness
of our worship.

On another count - rock music may be popular in the world today, but I think it
is not in line with the tune of the Church - hence we should be responsible
enough to guide the youth away from these, and into the melodious, joyous and
ecstatic, but orderly form of worship we are already custodians of.

Christ is Risen!
Mathew Samuel
Albany, NY



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