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Calvin Symposium on Worship, January 24-26, 2008


renewing worship through word, music, vision, and action
Calvin Symposium on Worship WORD
Rooted in the living and Biblical Word, our Calvin Symposium sessions are a time of learning, developing and practicing the discipline and art
of proclamation. We long to promote both faithful speaking and active listening that aims to help us receive the Word in humility and trust. Preachers and scholars, worship leaders and writers, students and denominational leaders: come and join the conversation!
Calvin Symposium on Worship

MUSIC
Worship music has been a prominent focus of the Calvin Symposium on Worship since the beginning. Our music expresses the longings of our hearts, it echoes the songs that the stars sang together at creation (Job 38:7), and it, too, proclaims the gospel of Christ. Whether you play organ or guitar, drums or handbells, the Symposium is an important opportunity to refresh our ministry in music, and to consider music’s place in the theology and design of worship.

Calvin Symposium on Worship VISION
Our worship is aided by our sense of sight. We see beautiful and thought provoking expressions in fabric, sculpture, and light. And what we see is shaped by architectural contours of our worship space. On a deeper level this seeing is a window into the deeper ways that worship can give us true insight. The verse at the entrance to the Calvin College Chapel reads “in your light we see light” (Psalm 36:9). Truly, it is in worship that we can see the world most clearly, and discern how God might be leading us to serve in it.
Calvin Symposium on Worship ACTION
From ancient liturgy to innovative drama, Christians have always used expressive gestures and actions, especially the central actions of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And these actions ground us for the action that follows liturgy—for our obedient service to God in the world. Worship, then, is not only a sign of rest, it is the foundation for the work of healing,
transformation, prayer, and justice that mark our lives before God’s face.
Calvin Symposium on Worship IN ALL THESE WAYS, the Calvin Symposium on Worship seeks the integration and right ordering of all elements of worship. We concentrate on our specific interests and gifts in seminars and workshops, and experience their integration into the full mission of worship as we gather for the Symposium’s worship services. In interdisciplinary and ecumenical conversations, we ask searching questions, exchange dilemmas, encourage each other. We leave with a renewed commitment to the full ministry of the church.