Singing the Psalms: A Bodily Office
The book of Psalms is the ancient prayerbook of the church, reaching to the depth of our being, singing of every facet of human emotion. In Singing the Psalms, we breath together, using our whole bodies in song and meditation. The service is paperless, the leader “lining out” the words, singing a line to be repeated by the gathered community. Congregants are able to focus their whole attention in contemplative prayer.
We Shall Prepare: A Pageant Mass
The season of Advent is a season of preparation. We can tell the Christmas story while still feeling that we are in the waiting, preparing a place for the One who is to come. This children’s mass sets the Christmas story within the season of Advent, reminding us that we aren’t quite there yet.
Come Let Us Wonder: A Godly Play-inspired Eucharist
In Come Let Us Wonder, we enter the Holy Eucharist by using our imaginations to become a part of the liturgy. With words somewhat different from the usual, we get the chance to drink from the well of our service more deeply. The language is pared down to make more room for us to engage, and we learn from each other in Holy Communion as we share our “wonderings.” It feels like a contemplative Eucharist, and it helps us connect with the body of Christ in a new way.
Food for the Journey: A Lenten Walk
Lent is a journey as we look towards Jerusalem. We take food with us, whether it is receiving manna in the wilderness, poetry on the road, or a feast in a little Danish Hamlet. Food for the Journey connects our need for physical food with our need for spiritual food as we enter this season in word, song, act, and silence.
Healing Vespers for Pulse Nightclub
In the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub shootings, the Episcopal Divinity School community gathered to mourn and heal together. In this service, we continued to grieve while receiving the embrace of God in smoke and oil. We remembered our need to resist, and we dared to rebel from the culture of queer death by reconnecting with the joy of queer love.
Hymnsings
Hymnsings are a wonderful opportunity for a congregation to get to know itself. Each person and each congregation has songs that they know forwards and backwards. These songs are written on our hearts, heartsongs that we sing even without the words in front of us. Singing songs from the rich traditions that make up our heartsongs help us to worship God from the depth of our being. Church music is filled with songs from such diverse genres as English hymns and spirituals, folk and gospel, plainsong and Taize chant, contemporary worship and contemporary liturgical music. By singing songs suggested by members of the congregation, we meet each other at a place deeper than words can say. We sing our heartsongs as a congregation, being knit together in the worship of the One who is beyond any of us.
Andrew Heintz 