Worship Weblog
Monday, March 31, 2008
Planning Ahead: Worship in May and June 2008
Here’s an overview of the calendar for planning worship for May and June 2008. For our complete planning guide, see Planning Ahead: Worship in May and June.
Overview of May and June 2008
The Sundays during these months are May 4,11,18,25 and June 1,8,15,22,29.
Ascension Day is May 1. Pentecost is May 11. Trinity Sunday is May 18. Some churches also choose to mention or commemorate the following occasions in their worship:
June 24 (Tues.) - Birth of John the Baptist (more information)
June 29 (Sun.) - Martyrdom of Peter and Paul (more information)
Note: External links are provided for reference only, and do not necessarily imply endorsement of the content of any particular website.
Printable Calendars
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Lectionary Readings
Find the readings from the Revised Common Lectionary for these Sundays from the Vanderbilt Lectionary Project
Find resources for these readings from the Revised Common Lectionary from TextWeek.com
Monday, March 24, 2008
Easter Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Christian worshippers attend Easter Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, traditionally believed to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus, in Jerusalem, Israel, Sunday, March 23, 2008. (AP Photo/Ahikam Seri,Pool)
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Thursday, March 20, 2008
Good Friday lament
John Witvliet in Reformed Worship:
Ideally, worship on Good Friday should include a bit of all three of these elements: We should narrate Jesus’ death. We should sense the profundity of his passion. We should acknowledge the world-changing ramifications of the cross for the salvation of the world. Many typical patterns for Good Friday worship)—such as tenebrae or the stations of the cross— feature some combination of these three elements.
Even so, there may be one essential ingredient that is missing. That ingredient, I would suggest, is lament. Previous articles in this series have explored the importance of liturgical lament in times of crisis and during Advent worship (see RW 44 and 45). These articles suggest that lament is a key ingredient in worship that arises from honest, soul-searching faith. But lament finds its most natural liturgical home on Good Friday.
Related Resource
John Witvliet on Good Friday moralism
Friday, March 14, 2008
Comment’s Report on International Arts Movement Encounter
The International Arts Movement (IAM) is a non-profit arts organization founded by the Japanese-American Nihonga painter and National Council on the Arts member Makoto ("Mako") Fujimura. IAM’s mission is “to gather artists and creative catalysts to wrestle with the deep questions of art, faith and humanity in order to inspire the creative community to engage the culture that is and create the world that ought to be.” Each year, IAM holds the IAM Encounter with workshops, lectures, salons, film screenings, exhibits, and more. This year, more than ten countries and thirty-five U.S. states were represented.
At the 2008 Encounter that convened from February 28 to March 1 in Tribeca (lower Manhattan), Mako referred to a “Third Language.”
Related Resources
Interview with Mako Fujimura at Symposium 2008
Worship and the Visual Arts
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The Old Hymns - from 1891
From Chip Stam’s Worship Quote of the Week:
Sometimes we may think that we are the first generation of Christians to experience intense discussions (or arguments) over appropriate texts, instrumentation, and musical styles for corporate worship. Not so! Today’s WORSHIP QUOTE OF THE WEEK is taken from the preface of an 1891 hymnal. The author is Basil Manly Jr., one of the four founding faculty members of our seminary here in Louisville; his argument, even 117 years ago, is that we canÆt afford to lose the old hymns. Does this sound like it could have been written in 1991?
THE OLD HYMNS (1891)
For some years it has been apparent that the rage for novelties in singing, especially in our Sunday-schools has been driving out of use the old, precious, standard hymns. They are not memorized as of old. They are scarcely sung at all. They are not even contained in the undenominational song-books which in many churches have usurped the place of our hymn books.We cannot afford to lose these old hymns. They are full of the Gospel; they breathe the deepest emotions of pious hearts in the noblest strains of poetry; they have been tested and approved by successive generations of those that loved the Lord; they are the surviving fittest ones from thousands of inferior productions; they are hallowed by abundant usefulness and tenderest memories. But the young people of to-day are unfamiliar with them, and will seldom hear many of them, if the present tendency goes on unchecked.
--Basil Manly Jr. (1825-1892), from the preface of MANLY’S CHOICE: A NEW SELECTION OF APPROVED HYMNS FOR BAPTIST CHURCHES, Louisville, Kentucky: Baptist Book Concern, 1891. This rare volume, containing only the texts of the hymns, was given to me by a friend in our church. She was cleaning out the piano bench at home and thought I might appreciate it. She was right. Thank you, Stacy. A rough count shows that there are 254 hymns; 53 authored by Isaac Watts, 22 by Charles Wesley, and 16 by John Newton.
For more information on Basil Manly, Jr., take a look at http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/m/a/n/manly_bjr.htm.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
How not to confess
Language Log looks at politicians’ rituals of repentance and identifies six steps, including:
2. Have your family, especially your wife, standing next to you. Begin with, “I want to briefly address a private matter.” “Briefly” downplays the importance of what you did. “Address” makes it formal and powerful. “Private matter” says it’s really nobody’s business but your own.
3. Admit wrong-doing in a general way. Don’t be specific because the fact has already come out and it doesn’t need to be repeated endlessly, especially by you.
4. Frame an apology without specifics. Stress your family. Say you’ve “disappointed,” but not “disgraced” or “acted illegally.” Spitzer’s went like this:
I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong. I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better. I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself.
Better to be simple and sincere: see Vertical Habits
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‘Soul Searching’ documentary
Nurturing Youth notes the release of a documentary based on Christian Smith’s Soul Searching (related earlier post), and links to the trailer.
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Monday, March 10, 2008
CICW director quoted in the Washington Post
“I definitely sense a hunger for acknowledgment of life’s mysteries and of the mystery and beauty of God,” said John Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Grand Rapids, Mich., which recently hosted a “worship renewal” conference for 1,500 people. “There’s a hunger for deeper engagement—‘Don’t just sell me a product at church, but really put me in touch with the mystery and beauty of God.’ “
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Hope Liturgical Works on liturgical art and space
From Hope Liturgical Works, as featured in Image’s Update:
The worship space should be an environment rich in meaning, depth and texture. It is a space intended to renew our yearning to be firmly in the world, but decidedly not of it. To do this, it must engage our senses and imagination, in order to point us beyond them.
The liturgical art and furnishings which inhabit these spaces are among the most challenging to design and create. They must comply with the constraints of doctrine and tradition, but still suggest the vitality of living spirit; reflect the particular theological sensibilities of the congregation, but also allow that the congregation will grow and change in its understanding of itself and of God. They must comfort us and challenge us; remind us of the past, inspire us for the future, but keep us, securely, in the present.
It is the sanctuary for what is, at once, the most public of testimonies, and the most personal and private of experiences.
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Monday, March 03, 2008
Augustine’s baptistry
From Mark Dever at blog.togetherforthegospel.org:
Evangelicals know about Augustine, but we tend to be less familiar with Ambrose. He was a fascinating figure in his own right. Born in 339AD of an aristocratic Roman family, he trained to be an upper level Roman bureaucrat. But he was elected bishop of Milan in 374, before he had even been baptized! (That’s a long story, but let me simply say that immediately upon his election, he was baptized.) He is the first figure from history that we know read silently. He baptized Augustine in this pool on Easter, 387AD. Ambrose was the same age then that I am now. So when I was there, I prayed that God would lead people to Christ through my preaching, and that I would have the joy of baptizing those this year who would be of immense use to the kingdom.
“A new life in Christ: the baptistery of San Giovanni alle Fonti (4th century).” Such was the title of one of the 28 workshops conducted during the “Pilgrimage of trust” in Milan.
The ancient baptistery, reached by way of a little staircase that descends within the façade of the cathedral, offers a unique testimony to the faith of the early Christians of Milan. The site was rediscovered only 45 years ago and includes the remains of the baptistery, in its day a building 20 meters wide and possibly two stories high, but also, just alongside it, the ruins of two churches, Santa Tecla and the Basilica Vetus, used during the same period. A very special memory is attached to the place for it was here no doubt that, during the Easter vigil in the year 387, Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan, baptized the young man Saint Augustine.
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Advice on Choosing a Research Topic for Doctoral Work in New Testament
In any case, for those of you who are in the shoes I stood in a couple of years ago (or just thinking ahead), here is some advice.
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Not Trying to Understand the Trinity
For me, the Trinity is like the internal combustion engine. Guys explain it to me and I just nod and try to look cool but I don’t really care. The Trinity works for me if I don’t look at it too closely. ...
I don’t want to dismiss the mystery. God exists in the realm of the unseen and unknowable together with particle physics and cell phone transmissions. I like it that way.
Also note:
Nick Norelli has inspired a wonderful collection of essays by bloggers on the subject of the Trinity. You can access all the articles by starting here: 2008 Trinity Blogging Summit (TOC).
Resources on the Trinity and Worship
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