This is just a quote I found some time recently again among my books after the posts of PB appeared, referring also to the
"ritual" of holding hands during prayer (which I thought of as something rather positive...) the quote is out of the book:
Klaus Berger & Christine Nord: The new Testament & early Christian writings....I render here an own "rough" translation of
the beginning of chapter 94 of the Acta Iohannis (3rd century AC), which is the so called song of the dance:
"Before the wicked Jews, who got their law through a wicked snake, were nabbing Jesus, we were gathered together by Jesus
and He said: before I will be delivered unto those people, we shall sing unto the father a hymn and will proceed to that, which is lying before us. He called us to grab each other by the hand and to form a circle.He Himself stepped into the middle and said:
answer me with amen, then He began to sing the hymn/song "
The authors think there is some similarity to some parts of the "unknown Berlin Gospel" (papyrus Berolinensis...published first 1998), which is also part of the book further to some lines in Augustine's writings...I take that to mean, that in core this was something, some believers were "exposed" to or adhered to.
To me it sounds a bit gnostic...anyway.