58.4 Shared Space

58.4 Shared Space

Introduction

Introduction

I have experienced many flashes of beauty in worship over the years, moments that make the hair on my arms stand up or bring tears. We all know the kind. Usually, they accompany the celebration of sacraments, a critical turn of phrase in a sermon, or a time when voices join to sing God’s praise.

Many Ways to Pray: Consenting to Shared Space as Worship

Courage to Pray: Daily Prayer in Congregational Life

It was a short time into the pandemic when I first heard the opening sentences for the morning prayer liturgy in the Book of Common Worship (BCW). A former seminary classmate invited me to join an online prayer group working to connect church musicians and pastors in that uncertain moment. I was intrigued.

Many Ways to Pray: Consenting to Shared Space as Worship

Reimagining Accessibility with Young Worshipers

Sonja Dziekciowski and I (Alexandra Jacob) work together collaboratively as part of the Families, Youth, and Children staff in our congregation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over the past four years of working together, we have sought to strengthen our commitment to accessibility in worship and faith formation for our community’s youngest worshipers.

Many Ways to Pray: Consenting to Shared Space as Worship

A Guide for Visual Literacy

Visual literacy is the ability to access and understand meaning conveyed through images. As the church struggles to reassert its relevancy following pandemic-induced changes, might artful imagery be embraced as unselfconsciously and enthusiastically as hymnody?

On Liturgy: Shared Space

On Liturgy: Shared Space

Accessibility and sustainability are words that bring to mind all kinds of images. From a liturgical perspective, accessibility can be linked to the ways that people feel welcomed to the table. Accessibility connects to the practical side of life as well, such as the ways people are able to enter your building, and beyond that be able to functionally use the building space.

On Liturgy: Shared Space

On Music: Creating Sacred Spaces

On a warm summer night, God intervened in a way that was beyond comprehension. During a time of worship, I felt God’s presence, and the fullness of God’s love became indescribable. It was not just in the words of the hymns or the warmth of the prayers but in the overwhelming sense of belonging in a space where love for God and for one another was palpable.

On Liturgy: Shared Space

On Preaching: Known, Called, and Empowered by God

One of my favorite parts of preaching, particularly as a preacher who regularly uses the Revised Common Lectionary, is that I get to return to passages over and over and discover anew their blessings and revelations, holy reminders of how God has been, is, and will be present with creation in the most intimate and enduring ways.

On Liturgy: Shared Space

On the Arts: Photography in Worship

Photography literally means “writing with light.” Photographers see; we see what others do not see, capture it in our viewfinder, and make a picture. The picture freezes time, magically preserves the moment, and though a still life, is yet alive.