Worship

The Belhar Confession has been described appropriately as “a cry from the heart.” It is an embodiment of lament in the face of racial injustice. I have found myself lamenting lately. I lament my father who was targeted by police because of his resistance to factory farming through butchering animals in his backyard - as he did in his home country.

As I moved across the Narthex, I could see my office door. Inside was a chair I knew I could collapse in and a desk on which I could place all the music, binders, and odds and ends that had accumulated in my arms since the end of the service. Just a few more steps. A few more steps. A few more—

—“Miss Bethany!” the girl cried out and bounded across the narthex to throw her arms around me. “I prayed for you today in Sunday school!”

I have the privilege of listening to a lot of pastors and worship leaders. I hear their joys and we give thanks. I hear what breaks their heart and mine breaks too. This reflective narrative comes from listening and learning. Part of this is my own voice. But largely it’s the collective voices I’ve had the honor of walking beside. The goal in writing and sharing this was not to slander any congregation but rather to shed light on the lingering trauma that many pastors and worship leaders carry with them into their daily work.

The calendar has turned, and so it is time (in the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem ‘In Memorium CVI’) to “ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky// the flying cloud, the frosty light: the year is dying in the night”.  It’s time, to quote the same poem, to “ring out the old, ring in the new”.

Tennyson’s poem suggests that the changing of the calendar can be an opportunity for change that has less to do with personal resolutions and more to do with ‘ringing in’ a more just, humane, and peaceable world.  As he ends the poem: 

An Honest Christmas Prayer 

from one who imperfectly longs for justice.

Joyce and Katie join us again to talk about what shaping worship justly has looked like in their contexts as well as practical suggestions for ways worship leaders can shape justice and worship in their own congregations.

“1 or 2?  2 or 3? 2 or 4?”  Most of us have had the experience of sitting in a straight back chair in a darkened room with a metal ocular device pressed to our face. Whether you’re being fitted for a new prescription or just there for a routine eye exam, you know how it feels to look through this virtual reality-style contraption and decide which line up of letters looks less blurry. The end goal is always the same - give you the best vision possible so you can see clearly, and also protect the long-term health of your eyes.

Claudio Carvalhaes has sat at tables with people around the world, listening to their communal expressions of joy, lament, and doubt in worship.  From these experiences he shares ways to lead worship in solidarity with communities experiencing suffering. Claudio is the author of “Liturgies from Below” and he has a PhD. in Liturgy and Theology.

Jacqui Mignault is one of the writers behind weekly Do Justice prayers. As a pastor, she talks about what it’s like to practice bringing current events before God. If you’ve ever wondered how to acknowledge current events in worship, this is the episode for you.

Another summer of extreme heat, wildfires, drought, and flooding events around the world may have you and your church more concerned than ever about climate change. The CRCNA’s Climate Witness Project offers resources, events, and projects to help churches explore our role as people called by God to help heal a suffering earth. If your church is ready to go deeper, you might join Christians around the world this fall in observing the Season of Creation.