Exploring Contemporary and Alternative Worship
2003 Indianapolis, Indiana
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
Convener 2003
Lester Ruth (assistant professor of worship and liturgy at Asbury Theological Seminary in central Kentucky)
Seminar Participants 2003
Members: Chip Andrus, Eileen Crowley-Horak, Ted Gibboney, Bill Kervin, Ruth Meyers, Lester Ruth, Rebecca Slough
Visitors: Kevin Anderson, Barbara Berry-Baily, Margaret Brady, Helen Gierke, Marlea Gilbert, Brenda Grauer, Don Hustad, Sekwang Kim, Mark MacLean, Carl Stam, Sylvia Sweeney
Seminar Report 2003
This seminar group fulfilled our goal to explore a range of current alternative approaches to Christian worship. Sessions were lively and interactive with active, full participation by all. Several papers or reports were presented on subjects ranging from the current status of the curricula in undergraduate sacred music programs to the import of Karl Barth’s writings on prayer for contemporary worship, from the desire to describe “emerging worship” as a way of going beyond deadlocked traditional/contemporary worship dichotomies to the exploration by some Episcopal parishes of alternative means to foster greater participation in the Eucharist, and from an overview of the rapid growth of media technology in worship to an introduction to a local music- and art-driven Vineyard Fellowship. The review of worship media technology came in a joint session with the Liturgy and Culture Seminar group.
Papers
- Chip Andrus, “The Prospects of ‘Emerging Worship’”
- Margaret Brady, “An Investigation of the Use of Contemporary Congregational Music in Undergraduate Sacred Music Programs”
- Eileen Crowley-Horak, “Realities and Visions: A Brief Report on Multimedia in U.S. Worship Today and Preliminary Reflections on what Liturgical Media Art could Offer the Churches of Tomorrow”
- Helen Gierke, “Karl Barth and Prayer in the Contemporary Church: Faith, Obedience, and Prayer”
- Ruth Meyers, “'Full, Conscious, and Active Participation: Enacting the Eucharistic Prayer”
Other work of the seminar
As we have done in previous years, we invited a local practitioner of contemporary or alternative worship to introduce us to the worship of her congregation. This year Tara Freese, a worship leader (meaning lead musician) in the Indy Vineyard Fellowship, spent a morning with our seminar group. She showed a videotape of the worship from her Fellowship and engaged in a lively, articulate description of the method and theology of this neo-charismatic approach to worship. It was worship focused on the notions of intimacy and Presence. This Vineyard Fellowship, like most, had worship with a simple rhythm of an extended time of sung praise followed by a teaching sermon and prayer ministry time. This Fellowship was distinctive for its weekly Communion and widespread use of visual art by resident artists.