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Anabaptist Worship Network used a Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship to host a songwriting retreat. A diverse group of Anabaptist songwriters gathered for three days to collaboratively write songs, raising questions around copyright justice and remuneration.
Even when denominations try their best to compile culturally sensitive hymnals, not every congregation can or should use that hymnal. That’s why Anabaptist Worship Network works to include more people and cultures in creating new songs for use in worship.
This panel will discuss ongoing research on the practice of lamentation in the Black church tradition as a formative pedagogical tool for both theological education and the broader community. Special attention will be given to the value of embodied learning with a cohort of seminarians, religious practitioners, scholars, and faith leaders who have visited sites where massacres and atrocities against Black life have occurred.
A panel of Calvin Seminary faculty with a variety of research and ministry experiences will reflect on the practice of lament. What are the different faces of lament? What is the goal of lament? How can pastoral leaders facilitate lament? What does lament reveal about the nature of God and what it means to be human? Those attending the panel will also be able to raise questions and join the discussion.
Every Sunday, thousands of worshiping communities in the United States and all over the world rely completely or partially on contemporary praise and worship [CP&W] in corporate worship. How has CP&W evolved, what are the movement’s main trends, and how is it experienced around the world? How is CP&W shaping Christians’ understanding of God, themselves, and the world? Join us to learn from renowned scholars in the field.
This list of Ascension Day resources, including songs, reflections, visual arts, and readings, will help you plan worship for Ascension Day, traditionally celebrated 40 days after Easter. Ascension Day worship services celebrate Jesus Christ ascending into heaven after giving his disciples the Great Commission.
This list of Pentecost resources, including hymns, songs, visual arts, books, and sermon ideas, will help you plan worship for Pentecost Sunday, traditionally celebrated 50 days after Easter. Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on Jesus’ disciples, marked by a strong wind, tongues of fire, and manifested in the disciples’ speaking in foreign languages.
This list of Holy Week resources—art, music, devotions, liturgies, books, and sermons—will help you plan worship for Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Triduum, the three days that mark Jesus’ trial, death, and resurrection, from the evening of Maundy Thursday through Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter morning.
Contemporary-worship congregations are rediscovering hymns as treasuries of theological depth that express the full range of emotions and Scripture. Singing hymns together helps people connect across generations and cultures.
This list of Lenten art, music, devotions, liturgies, books, and sermons will help you plan worship for Lent and includes resources for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday.
The Handlon Tabernacle Choir began in 2016 and has grown to more than forty students from the Calvin Prison Initiative at Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan. Originally started to provide music for the program’s special events, the choir has become an opportunity for students to develop their musical skills and explore what it means to find new life in community. This presentation will include stories and reflections from members of the choir and the choir director about the impact of music in prison.
Knowing more about the hymns they are singing helps worshipers feel more connected to God and each other in the universal body of Christ that spans all times and places.
