Worship Weblog
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Benedict XVI on Worship
Media coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s election has focused mostly on his social views and has been nearly oblivious to the pope’s prodigious liturgical scholarship, which includes over two dozen books (written as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) on the Church and liturgy. At staff meeting this week, Dr. Witvliet showed us a portion of Ratzinger’s Worship in Accord with the Logos, which includes these passages:
It has been forgotten that the liturgy should be opus Dei [the work of God] in which God himself first acts and we become redeemed people precisely through his action. The group celebrates itself, and exactly for this reason it is celebrating nothing at all since it is no cause for celebration. This is why the general activity turns to boredom. Nothing happens if he is absent whom the world awaits. ...
One recognizes right liturgy by the fact that it liberates us from ordinary, everyday activity and returns to us once more the depths and the heights, silence and song. One recognizes right liturgy in that it has a cosmic, not just a group, character. It sings with the angels. It is silent with the expectant depths of the universe. And that is how it redeems the earth.
Earlier: John Witvliet on Protestants and Pope John Paul II
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Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Religion and Civic Responsibility
The latest initiative of Calvin College’s Paul Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics will explore the link between religion and civic responsibility. A news release about the Henry Institute’s latest grant has this summary and quote from director Corwin Smidt:
Smidt also wants to probe more deeply the nature of religion in relationship to civic responsibility and involvement. Prior research in this area has found religious factors to be important variables, without clearly identifying what specific facet of religion most directly contributes to civic engagement.
“Is it religious beliefs, religious commitment, religious networks or some combination of such factors?” he wonders. “Are certain religious traditions or certain types of people within a religious tradition more likely to manifest high levels of civic engagement and responsibility? No effort has yet been made to ascertain what is proposed here.”
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Excommunicate With Care
I hope this isn’t a sign with any personal significance, but I opened the Psalter Hymnal Handbook yesterday right to its commentary on the PH’s form for excommunication. A sentence printed in bold caught my eye:
The forms, as found in the first seven printings of Psalter Hymnal, should not be used.
This is because Synod 1991 revised the forms for excommunication, ruling that the cause for exclusion should not be publicly specified. The revised forms are provided in Acts of Synod 1991
The Handbook adds that the current church order “leaves open the question of whether worship is the appropriate place for such a sad and wrenching action” (as opposed to a congregational meeting).
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Monday, April 25, 2005
‘All the Wonder of Redemption’
Calvin junior Jenn Langefeld posts a stirring account at her Reflecting weblog of the Calvin College Gospel Choir‘s spring concert:
At the concert, it was like the weather broke--this was the wind and the rain, the welcoming home, the gold rings, the fatted calf. And I just ached to be dancing. I scarcely realized it as I walked over to the Fine Arts Center, but as they opened with praise and worship and as they continued worshipping, everything in me seemed to open up. All the pain of the last week (and months before), all the wonder of redemption, all the joy of knowing He loves me. Still.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
High School Worship Training ‘05
This past week, Calvin College’s Worship Apprentices and CICW hosted the second annual conference on High School Worship Training. Over 100 high school student worship leaders from around the country came to Calvin for the event.
At pizza dinner Monday night, I sat with the worship team from Lynden Christian HS in Lynden, Washington.
Museum of Reformation Opens in Geneva
From Ecumenical News International:
Geneva is known around the world as the birthplace of the Calvinist Reformation, and now the Swiss city that is sometimes called the “Protestant Rome” has an International Museum of the Reformation for pilgrims, tourists and even residents of the city.
“The museum is a place for history but above all history that is alive,” says the museum’s director, the Rev. Isabelle Graesslé.
It was inaugurated on April 15 and uses original books, manuscripts, paintings, and engravings to trace the history of the Protestant movement, initiated in the city by French theologian John Calvin in the 16th century and which has since become one of the main families of Christianity.
More…
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The Most Segregated Hour
Grand Rapids Press reporter (and Calvin College alumnus) Matt Vande Bunte wrote the cover story of the 4/16 Religion section on the racial segregation of worshiping communities:
As head of a search committee formed to hire a new pastor, Brian White knew
things would get difficult at First Assembly of God.He remembers telling one candidate about the Wyoming mega-church’s desire to
become more racially diverse.The Rev. Scott Hagan stared back and asked if the church knew what it was
getting into.
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Friday, April 15, 2005
Report on Healthy Churches
From the website of the Christian Reformed Church:
The Ministries Priorities Committee Report was adopted by the Board of Trustees at its meeting in February 2005. The report was prepared by a committee of the Board in support of the denominational priority to encourage and sustain the development of healthy congregations. ...
At this time in the history the Christian Reformed Church—as in many other denominations—there is a clear awareness that congregations need to be encouraged in spiritual vitality and effective ministry. ... We invite and appreciate your response to this document as the discussion continues.
To read the report, click here.
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Saturday, April 02, 2005
Grape Juice Instead of Wine
How did grape juice replace wine at the communion table? Christian History magazine explains:
In the 19th century, temperance became “teetotalism” or “total abstinence,” moving all alcohol (wine included) into the list of forbidden beverages. Many began to question why a beverage considered dangerous to drink was still used on the Communion table.
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Pope John Paul II and Protestants
As the global church prepares for the end of John Paul II’s papacy, CICW’s John Witvliet comments on the pope’s impact on Protestants.
“First of all,” says Witvliet, “one billion of the world’s two billion Christians are Catholics. So, the death of the leader of the Catholic Church is a significant, significant thing for all Christians, including Protestants, despite disagreements they may have with Rome.” ...
The Pope moved the Catholic Church to a more conservative position on theological and worship issues, says Witvliet, renewing an emphasis on prayers to Mary and limiting the abilities of local congregations to adapt worship practices to local customs for example.
“In these areas,” says Witvliet, “Pope John Paul II backed away from the spirit of reform associated with the Second Vatican Council. Vatican II was enormously significant for Protestants, creating new avenues for Catholic-Protestant partnerships. As Catholic worship moved closer to Protestant practice, some Protestants became more open to the ritual and symbol associated with the Catholic Church. Even the recent growth of the use of symbols in the new ‘Emerging Church Movement’ among Protestants reflects these influences.”
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Welcome and Introduction: Towards Vital Worship
Every week, 100 million North Americans attend worship services. In basement apartments and vast cathedrals, in old village churches and sprawling suburban multiplexes, we join with others to pray, sing, listen to scripture and preaching, celebrate the Lord’s Supper and—depending on our particular tradition—also participate in healing rituals, testimonies, footwashing, and a host of other liturgical actions. Despite widespread skepticism about organized religion, public worship services remain one of the most common religious practices. For many, if not most Christians, “going to church” means, simply, attending a worship service. That means that worship is a key topic for Christian congregations today. Worship is also the locus of what several Christian traditions identify as the nourishing center of congregation life.
But despite this, Christian worship is often not well practiced. As Annie Dillard quips, “you’d think we’d be able to get it right after 2000 years of practice.” Indeed, on any given Sunday, the 100 million of us who wake up planning to go church have very different attitudes and hopes about the church we will attend. Some worshipers wake up with a sense of duty, but little joy. Their churches are energy-depleting. Worship is routine. Perhaps their congregation is embroiled in controversy. Perhaps it doesn’t communicate much at all. Yet, they persist in going to worship because it’s the right thing to do, because they always have, and because they hope against hope that they will experience a taste of God’s goodness despite it all. Others, however, wake up with eagerness and joy. They anticipate joining a congregation in which worship is vital and congregational life is relatively healthy. They find worship to be a source of insight, comfort, and strength. They are likely to invite others to join them. In sum, some experience worship in their churches as evocative, others as pedantic; some as vibrant, others as dreary and tedious.
Simply put, the overarching goal of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship is to help congregations make progress in moving from stagnation to renewal—from worship that is dreary to worship that is vital, from worship that is shallow to that which is profound, from worshipers who attend from duty to those who discover delight.
• For more, read our mission statement, browse our resources, and read our eight principles for a theology of worship.
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