Worship Ministries

Music Makes Community
May 15 – 17, 2013
Waycross Conference Center, Morgantown, IN

You are invited to attend Music That Makes Community, a three-day event with workshops in song leadership and participatory liturgy at the beautiful Waycross Camp and Conference Center in Central Indiana. From May 15-17, 2013, an diverse group of skilled musicians and liturgists will come together in the scenic woods of Brown County to lead participants in a practice of singing together that is grounded in welcome and generosity. Learning together by ear and by heart frees us to sing without fear and supports full engagement of the heart, mind and body in liturgy. We hope you will join us to recharge and invigorate your work and your spirit with three dynamic days of singing, worship and spirited learning with some of the best musicians (and people) you’ll ever meet. To find out more, email Rachel Pollak, MMC Program Director, at rachel@allsaintscompany.org with any questions, or to inquire about scholarships being made available by our generous donors to Indiana congregations with operating budgets under $250,000. We hope you will join us!

Several people from the Eastern Synod (including me!) participated last year in a workshop at St Peter’s Lutheran Church, Kitchener, and found it was very formative. I even wrote a piece of music! Check out All Saints Company website for more information on this and other All Saints events.

A day-long worship conference entitled “Re-discovering liturgy in a Post-Christendom culture” will focus on Emergent Church vs. Liturgical Tradition, and  also the Challenge of the Lectionary.  This event will take place on April 27 at  St. John’s Anglican Church, Mississauga. A variety of workshops, refreshments, and lunch are included. Click here for more information Re-discovering Liturgy

This event is hosted and planned by Liturgy Canada, an organization of Lutheran and Anglican clergy and laity committed to the ongoing renewal of worship and mission in the church.  Since 1995, Liturgy Canada has published annual and semi-annual newsletters for a membership of over 300 Canadians across Canada.  Since 2011, we have been offering day-long workshops in Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto for parish worship teams.  These workshops are co-sponsored by the Kanata Centre for Worship and Global Song, and the Renison Institute of Ministry.  The Liturgy Canada website is www.liturgy.ca

Primary Contact Person:  Marilyn Malton, registrar for this event.  Marilyn’s office is at Renison University College, University of Waterloo; 519-884-4404 x28628; mmalton@uwaterloo.ca

Website:  http://uwaterlo.ca/institute-ministry/rediscovering-liturgy

Liturgy Canada’s first one-day liturgical conference, called Rediscovering Liturgy, took place last autumn in Waterloo at Renison College, and 70 people — mostly parish teams — participated.  All indications are that we should do this again; so two more conferences are planned for this autumn: one in the Toronto area, on Saturday, October 20, from 10 am to 4 pm; the other in Waterloo, on Saturday, November 3, from 10 am to 4 pm.  At the Waterloo event we expect some previous participants will be ‘coming back for more’; in Toronto, participants will likely all be coming for a first experience.  Mark your calendar now; details will follow soon.

These conferences provide practical formation in all liturgical ministries, including greeters, readers, prayer leaders, communion ministers, presiders, etc.  This is not a ‘how it should be done’ kind of event.  Rather, we spend time considering the nature of what we do in worship and why we do it, learning some of the unexplored lessons from our authorized rites but looking beyond them as well.  We look at different ways to bring integrity and new life to the different elements of the liturgy.  We are a pilgrim people, and our liturgy is a work in progress.

Register Now!! There are still a few spots left!

Music that Makes Community, a project of All Saints Company (www.allsaintscompany.org) in San Francisco, is coming to Kitchener from August 20 – 22 this summer. This is jointly sponsored by St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Kitchener and the Anglican Diocese of Niagara. There is an early bird rate which expires on June 25 and the event needs 30 registrations by that date in order to happen. This event is PARTICULARLY suited to smaller congregations with limited musical resources. There are also group rates available. Maximum registration is 80 people. Attached are a flyer for the event  xix_ontario_flyer and an article written by Dr. Peter Nikiforuk, Director of Music at St Peter’s which was published in Organ Canada  Music that Makes Community comes to Southern Ontario. Please feel free to contact Peter Nikiforuk (pniki@stpeterskw.ca) with any questions or queries.

The North American Hymn Society will gather for its annual conference in Winnipeg at the University of Manitoba this summer, July 15 – 19,  under the title: “The Meeting Place: Sharing Our Songs”.

Theologian Dr. Andrew Fullerton will examine the intersection of music, theology and the church. Rev. Stan McKay will reflect on the history of covenant relationships between First Nations people and settlers and the relationship between gospel and culture.  Alice Parker will explore the dynamics of text and melody, looking at the way the combination of tune and text changes both, yet adds up to a new unity that honors both.

The organizers write,

As always our sessions take place in an environment of sung faith and ecumenical hospitality. Every day includes a hymn festival and some occasion for corporate prayer.

Registration and information, Hymn Society Conference . Remember, there is an early-bird discount if you register before June 1st.

Improving Your Serve is the title of this year’s Summer Institute of Church Music held in Whitby, Ontario, from Sunday, July 1 to Friday, July 6. The conference brochure reads,

Changes in our society have caused our churches to re-evaluate their offerings to their communities and how best to serve their needs. So, too, we as church musicians must be looking at how we can evolve to meet the new demands while still being true to the music and to our calling. This year’s sessions will be focusing on relationships—with our congregations, with our choristers, and with our clergy and committees—and how to build and maintain those relationships within a pastoral and theological perspective.

For more information, see  Summer Institute of Church Music .