The Yale Institute of Sacred Music is pleased to announce that eight congregations from all over the US have been selected to attend the second ISM Congregations Project Summer Seminar in June, 2012. Each congregation is working on a project having to do with the theme Keeping Time/Life Passages.
For the seminar, leadership teams from the congregations gather with Yale and guest faculty on the Yale campus for five days to form a diverse ecumenical community of ministers, musicians, scholars, and other church leaders. The curriculum is shaped by the theme and designed to support the congregations’ individual projects, which build on their particular strengths in worship, music, and the arts; to expand their capacity to serve the surrounding community; and to nurture ecumenical partnerships.
2012 Congregations and Projects
Trinity Presbyterian Church
Team Members Jane Arant director of music and team leader
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Liturgical Arts Day Camp: A Model for Nurturing Children in the Experience of the Arts in Worship The hallowing of time is fundamental in the common life of the church. It also provides a wellspring of creativity for the framing of worship and the liturgical arts. For sixteen years, Trinity Presbyterian Church has had a Liturgical Arts Day Camp for elementary-aged children. Activities focus on learning and hands-on experience of the arts that take into account the following four goals: giving attention to some aspect of art in worship; placing this local experience into a larger religious or cultural context; introducing students to working artists; and providing recreation and fellowship.
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First Congregational United Church of Christ
Team Members Cheryl Cornish:pastor and team leader
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A Liturgical Calendar for Sustainable Living Over the past two years, First Congregational Church has used the images of water and earth as a liturgical focus in celebrating “A Season of Creation.” Toxins had been deposited in the groundwater and earth in the impoverished neighborhood near the church. First Congregational has used liturgy and mission to address this concern, developing rituals connecting the life-giving power of creation to outreach programs during the autumn months of 2010 and 2011.
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First United Methodist Church of Evanston
Team Members Dean Francis: senior pastor and team leader
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Embracing Traditions When is it time for a church to expand its musical and liturgical repertoire to meet and reach the increasingly diverse community that surrounds it? Can this work be done so that it marks the sacred time of past traditions, while pointing the church toward a new day? How does the church find a rhythm between the ancient, which grounds us, and the future, which beckons us? How can a church embrace these transitions and use them as a springboard for mission and outreach?
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Trinity Presbyterian Church
Team Members Lenora McCroskey: director of music and team leader
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Sabbath Keeping We live harried lives without taking the time to reflect, let alone to give thanks. We are blind to the humanity of our neighbors and ourselves. We suffer from an idolatry of occupation that confers worth on the basis of work, neglecting the unemployed, the retired, the working poor. We profess with our lips a grace that we don’t reflect in our lives.
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Lake Chelan Lutheran Church
Team Members Paul Palumbo: pastor and team leader
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Liturgy for the Visitation of the Dying Lake Chelan Lutheran Church proposes to create a liturgy for the visitation of the dying that will connect the hope of dying daily in our baptism with the dying that takes place daily in the bodies of those around us.
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Second Presbyterian Church
Team Members Paul Sanner: minister of music
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"Take Back Our Time" Initiative Our community is stressed about time. The 40-hour work week is unrealistic as competition for jobs and personal ambition normalize long hours at the office and working in evenings at home. Even children are expected to do hours of homework at night as education becomes a means of personal and national competitive advantage. Individuals are exhausted and family, civic, and church life suffer. The very pace of time favors routine over reflection.
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The Church of St. Francis Xavier
Team Members John Uehlein: director of music ministries
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The Changing Face of the Roman Rite and the Impact of Text in Music The Church of St. Francis Xavier is a faith community where music, drama, dance and symbolic gesture are an intimate part of the ordinary liturgical experience. Like other English speaking Roman Catholic Churches, St. Francis Xavier is currently involved with the implementation of the third edition of the Roman Missal.
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Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green
Team Members Walden Moore: director of music and team leader
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Shaping Current-day Worship in Changing Times The 11AM liturgy at Trinity has always been a formal liturgy, often with traditional music provided by the choir of men and boys. The 9AM liturgy, on the other hand, has historically been the “contemporary” worship service.
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2011 Congregations and Projects
The United Church of Santa Fe (UCC) Santa Fe, NM Team leader: Talitha Arnold
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Shaping a Desert Peopleexplores the ways our experience of worship in a desert landscape can deepen and expand our relationship with God, and, in the process, enable us to live in a more caring and just relationship with this part of God's creation. | read more |
Idlewild Presbyterian Church Memphis, TN Team leader: Ted Gibboney
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A Child Shall LeadThe Role of Children in the Faith Community of Idlewild Presbyterian Church comprises a yearlong study of the role of children in Idlewild Presbyterian Church, culminating in a weekend conference in spring 2012. Consideration of the role of children in a faith community will compel us to develop a community that in good measure fulfills the ideal articulated in Isaiah, that is, to grant children their rightful place. This is about how attention to children will CHANGE the church! | read more |
St. Michael’s Cathedral Boise, ID Team leader: Lucas Grubbs
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Come to the BanquetWorship, Music, and the Art of Hospitality draws inspiration from Jesus' injunction to invite to the banquet "the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind." Once a month, the parish hall is transformed into a banquet hall where fine food is shared liberally with the hungry and homeless of our community around a well-set table with time for conversation, music, and the development of bonds formed around a common meal. The congregation seeks to grow the program both in numbers served, and in the musical and artistic offerings crucial to its identity. | read more |
Central Presbyterian Church Atlanta, GA Team leader: David VanderMeer
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Arts of the SpiritConcerts, Classes, and Collaborative Worship Planning Twice each year, Central Presbyterian’s clergy, musicians, and educators convene to plan worship for the upcoming months. Three times a year, a professional artist/ensemble comes to Central under the auspices of its Arts of the Spirit education / performance / outreach series. We envision combining these two established practices to extend their reach in ways that would serve the larger community and the larger church. | read more |
Luther Place Washington, DC Project leader: Karen Brau
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14th and VermontThe Luther Place Sacred Commons The mission and purpose of the congregation converge around biblical hospitality and social justice. We are a welcoming and diverse community that practices what we call “rainbow hospitality.” Over the last year, we have been working with a group to engage our space with gardening and art, and we are advancing our vision of the land around Luther Place as a Sacred Commons. | read more |
St. Monica Catholic Community Santa Monica, CA Team leader: Dale Sieverding
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All Are WelcomeA Hospitable Community that Forms Loving Disciples to Transform the World It might be said that our Hospitality Ministry welcomes people at the doors; our Music Ministry engages the assembly and keeps people coming back; our preaching feeds the soul and inspires us to transform our world as disciples. Our project involves deepening our own ministry of hospitality, and learning ways in which we can share this important work with the wider community. | read more
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Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Chicago, IL Team leader: Craig Mueller
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Sects and the CityRenewing Worship in an Urban, Millennial Context Our project proposes to convene a worship conference in October 2011 that would focus on two aspects of our context: its urban setting and the predominance of young adults, many in the millennial generation born after 1980. According to a report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, one out of four Millennials claims no affiliation with a particular faith. Holy Trinity and several others of our neighborhood churches have bucked this trend. We believe we have something to share through this conference. | read more |
Yale
Institute of Sacred Music
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409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511
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