Exploring Contemporary and Alternative Worship
Convener
The Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards
Director of Worship Resources
The United Methodist Church
worship@gbod.org
Mission Statement
The members of and visitors to this seminar track developments in “contemporary” worship (seeker services, praise-and-worship services, convergence worship, and “traditional” services that “blend” in elements from these other kinds of services). They research particular faith communities’ worship, as well as the general trends in worship and music styles, liturgical art, architecture, and seminary education for those preparing to become worship leaders in these worship settings, Protestant and Catholic. During the last four years, the members and visitors have also addressed “alternative worship” as it has developed in locally specific ways in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, US and Korea and other locations. In this movement, young leaders have rejected “contemporary” worship options and have re-claimed worship traditions previously rejected in some Protestant traditions (e.g., weekly eucharist; multi-sensory worship with chant, candles, incense, ritual gesture and posture, flexible seating arrangements, meditation, labyrinths), as well as electronic media and technology and elements of popular culture. Most recently the seminar has been looking at worship in the Emerging Church movement, of which the alternative worship approach is just one facet.
2010 Academy Meeting Agenda
Friday, January 8
10:30-Noon
David Hogue, “This Is Your Brain on Worship:
Neuroscientific Commentary on Lester Ruth's ‘A Rose by Any Other Name:
Attempts at Classifying North American Protestant Worship’"
1:30- 3 pm
Marcia McFee, "How Worship Moves Us: Kinesiological
Commentary on Lester Ruth's ‘A Rose by Any Other Name: Attempts at
Classifying North American Protestant Worship’"
3:30-5 pm
Crawford Murphy, "Of Money and Monuments: Impacts of
the Economic Crisis on Decisions about Architecture and Worship
Facilities in Alternative/Contemporary Worshiping Communities"
Saturday, January 9
10:30- Noon
Margaret Brady, "How Multi-Cultural Sharing Alters
Worship: Findings from a Fifteen Year Case Study of a Bi-lingual and
Bi-Cultural Episcopal Church in Chicago"
1:30- 3 pm
Susan Blain, "Sing! Prayer and Praise: Developing
Expansive Language for Contemporary Praise Music."
2009 Academy Meeting Agenda
In 2009, we will continue to look at seminary training in worship leadership. There will bean updateon the Seminary Chapel Project and synopsis of several worship courses being taught by seminar members and visitors.
We will look at the "Open SourceLiturgy Project" that was introduced last year. There is now a completion of Phase I (Core Development) and the launch of Phase II (liturgical development).
We will also review the "Let Us Pray, Really" project that considers the use of prayer in multiple worship settings.
With our significant representation from Korea, we look forward to visitors sharing about worship practice and education there.
We also look forward to hearing case studies from our members and visitors.
2008 Academy Meeting Agenda
- General topics of current alternative worship practice in the US, Canada and New Zealand, including case studies.
- The connection between historical movements in times of worship change and current worship movements; “Early Methodism and the Emerging Missional Church: Worship, Missiology and Institution in Symbiosis.”
- Current training programs for future ministers and their institutional worship services.
- Creating arts events for both liturgical and evangelical use; “The Psalms Project.”
- Methodology for evaluating worship; a presentation from New Zealand: “An Examination of the Appropriate Methodology for Looking at Contemporary and Alternative worship, Comparing and Contrasting Insights from Systematic Theology and Contextual Theology.”
Number of participants: 22-25
Papers Online
2004
Lester Ruth
"A Rose By Any Other Name: Attempts at Classifying North American Protestant
Worship"
Previous Seminar Report
See seminar reports from annual meetings dating back to 2002: