Worship Weblog

Report #2 from St. Olaf conference

Posted by CICW

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Report on last month’s Conference on Worship, Theology and the Arts from student Nicole Veenkamp:

I see a white-robed procession gliding to the front of the chapel as evening sunlight streams through colored glass. The images in the glass tell the story of God’s people, beginning with creation and ending with the end of time. At the front of the chapel are bare, dry branches which through the course of a week are transformed into a stable and a star. I hear the organ trumpeting out a mighty fanfare that reverberates through the echoing chapel. The cantor’s voice pierces through silence, singing a phrase on a single pitch. Children’s voices float gently in the air, blended in perfect unison, and the hand bells dance as music flows smoothly from one musician to the next. I taste the sharp bite of communion wine and hear the voice proclaiming to me the good news—”The blood of Christ shed for you.”

These are but a few of the memories I take with me from worship at the Conference on Worship, Theology and the Arts held at St. Olaf College July 19 – July 23. The style of the worship services at the conference were very different than what I am used to, but it was beautiful. It was worship that was deeply grounded in the past, respecting and honoring the traditions of church past. At the same time it was worship that looked to the future, viewing it in light of the past. This worship reminded us that the God we worship today is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well as the God of our parents, us, and generations yet to come.

I learned a lot during my week at St. Olaf’s. In addition to worship, there was a two-hour in depth session in the morning, and there were choir rehearsals, reading sessions, and additional sessions and workshops in the afternoons. By the end of the week I had attended sessions on organ-playing, the use of ethnic hand percussion, the complexities of church copyright laws, bringing unity in the midst of diversity of worship styles, and more! Some of what I have learned I have already been able to use and apply. Other sessions have planted new ideas in the back of my mind or fed existing ideas and questions.

One of the sessions that really spoke to me was a session led by Martin Marty. Marty was one of several speakers who spoke on the theme for the week —”The News and the Good News.”" Within his session he addressed the challenge of presenting the Good News that Jesus Christ is the risen Lord within an ever-changing culture. Where do we find Christ in midst of all of everything that we read in our papers and on the internet? Who is Christ Jesus today? His answer – the good news comes in a way that surprises us. We find Christ in the word, the sacrament, and the body of believers. We experience Christ in a way that is both intimately personal and deeply communal—Christ whose blood was shed for me… Christ whose body was broken for you… Christ who died so that WE might have life.

In Marty’s session, someone pointed out that often we get so accustomed and conditioned to hearing this good news that it no longer surprises us. The wondrous insanity of it no longer causes our hearts to leap in joyous celebration. Sometimes it takes hearing the same good news from another angle to open our eyes to the mystery and beauty of God’s story. Then, it takes us by surprise and we realize as if for the first time how good the news we have to share really is!

At St. Olaf’s, as the organ thundered majestically and the voices of the congregation echoed through the stone walls of the chapel, I had the blessing of worshipping God in a new way. Through the preaching of the word, and fellowship of believers, and the sacrament of communion and I was reminded again of the great diversity with which the church worships God and the wondrous mystery of the good news that we share.

Tags: branches, Children’s voices, fanfare, Lord's Supper, music, St Olaf conference 2010, wine