Jazzing up Sunday services in Framingham

By Chris Bergeron/DAILY NEWS STAFF

GHS

Posted Sep 27, 2009 @ 01:00 AM

FRAMINGHAM —

Saxophone player Willie Sordillo believes a Miles Davis riff, walking meditation or serving waffles to other seekers can be fruitful ways to worship.

Since 2005, the longtime Framingham resident who has recorded five jazz CDs has used music to help others find God.

After laying the groundwork last year, Sordillo and four ministers of area churches founded OpenSpirit, Sunday evening worship services that use music and innovative practices to stimulate "spiritual growth and fellowship." The second season continues tonight with a 7 p.m. service at the Performing Arts Center at 140 Pearl St., Framingham.

Sordillo said, "Our theme for the fall season will be 'Ordinary Miracles."'

Past services, he said, have mixed biblical readings with other ancient scriptures, poetry, chanting, walking meditation through a portable labyrinth and the sharing of food. In the first season, Sordillo prepared waffles on a portable waffle iron and served them to participants.

In addition to Sordillo, the group's founders include the Rev. Deborah L. Clark, pastor of Edwards Church, United Church of Christ in Framingham, the Rev. Victoria Guest, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Natick, the Rev. Mark Burrows, director of the Program in Worship and the Arts at Andover Newton Theological School and the Rev. Andrea Castner Wyatt, pastor and chaplain to AseraCare Hospice of Boston. David Hunte joins in on piano and vocals.

Since September 2005, Sordillo has been musical director for a weekly jazz worship service on Thursdays at the Old South Church in Copley Square.

Sordillo believes the hour-long gatherings attract people dissatisfied by traditional services who are open to alternative approaches that incorporate music and poetry. A short inaugural season from March to July drew about 30 people to each service, he said.

"There are people looking for spiritual experiences who've been turned off by traditional worship services," said Sordillo. "And there are people who maybe have been involved in traditional worship experiences but are looking for something a little different. They want something a bit more experiential, a little less predictable."

While varying each week, OpenSpirit services bring together music, scriptural readings, dance, poetry and spoken word, the sharing of food and communion.

A member of the United Church of Christ, Sordillo emphasized, "We're not attempting to start a new church."

"We're not trying to proselytize. We're trying to reach people. It's a very unique worship service. It tends to foster going pretty deep within yourself," he said.

For Burrows, OpenSpirit's innovations are aimed to "give a twist" to conventional approaches to help participants "move beyond ourselves and worship creatively."

During the service, participants sit in a circle to replace a divisive sense of religious hierarchy with feelings of solidarity.

"People who come expect something different, perhaps something a little edgy. At OpenSpirit, we gather expecting the unexpected," he said.

A professor of the history of Christianity at Andover Newton Theological School, Burrows said services have so far attracted "a pretty wide range of people of all ages" including some who also attend "traditional" Sunday morning services.

"It's not just about young people hanging out for some kind of hip experience. There are people who are often involved in their own congregation but yearning for something else," he said.

Relaxing recently in his Berry Street home, Sordillo played with Coco, a "terrier mutt" adopted from an animal shelter. A signed and framed copy of Miles Davis "total classic" "Some Kind of Blue" hangs on the wall. A photo of his wife, librarian Jenny Allen and their teenage daughter Nina sits on a table.

Growing up in New Jersey, he began playing the saxophone at the age of 9, having been taught over the years by several acclaimed teachers including famous reed master Billy Novick.

After majoring in psychology and elementary education in college, Sordillo taught in an American Indian school in North Dakota but eventually returned to music. Sordillo's musical career carried him through several years as a folk singer-songwriter during which he released two albums and spent more than a decade with Latin ensembles and embarked on a cultural exchange tour in Nicaragua.

After serving 13 years at the Edwards Church, Clark said she joined OpenSpirit to assist "folks who, for whatever reason, don't feel traditional services provide what they need."

"We wanted to provide a location that isn't in a church so they could experience spirituality in a different way," she said.

A Framingham resident, Clark said "the most basic meaning of 'worship' is 'praise."' "We're seeking a deeper relationship with God that nourishes our spirit. And we're seeking a form of worship that deeply personal and a communal act," she said.

While past services have included readings from Jalal ad-Din Rumi and other Sufi mystics, Clark stressed OpenSpirit is based broadly on Christianity though it remains open to members of all faiths.

"For me, part of the impetus was a sense of really deep spiritual yearning in the wider community. I wanted to reach out to that yearning," she said. "Right now we don't know exactly where it's going to lead. We hope to figure that out as we move to address this yearning that's unmet. People who have come say it has mattered in their lives."

To learn more about OpenSpirit's 7 p.m. Sunday service at the Performing Arts Center of MetroWest, visit www.Comeopenspirit.org.

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