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On the campus of Calvin University
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Taizé Vespers: A Journey of Praise and Prayer was a vesper service at the 2012 Calvin Symposium on Worship, led by Philip Chan and Yvette Lau.
Enter in Silence
Call to Worship – Psalm 100
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations. (TNIV)
Come and Fill
Words: The Community of Taizé © 1984, Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
Music: Jacques Berthier (1923-1994), ©1991 Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
Psalms of Praise – Psalm 117 and 103
Sing, Praise, and Bless the Lord
Psalms for All Seasons 117B
Bless the Lord, My Soul
Psalms for All Seasons 103C
Confession
Lord Jesus Christ
Words and Music: The Community of Taizé © 1998, Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
Silence
Remembering God’s Grace
By Your Cross
Words: The Community of Taizé © 1991, Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
Music: Jacques Berthier (1923-1994), ©1991 Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
Silence
Intercessory Prayer
Nada te turbe
Words: The Community of Taizé © 1991, Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
Music: Jacques Berthier (1923-1994), ©1991 Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
Kyrie eleison (Greek for “Lord, have mercy”) will be sung after each spoken prayer.
Kyrie
Music: Jacques Berthier (1923-1994), ©1991 Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
The Lord’s Prayer (please pray aloud in your own heart language)
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.
Benediction
Dona Nobis Pacem
Words: The Community of Taizé © 1998, Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
Music: Jacques Berthier (1923-1994), ©1991 Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
In the Lord I’ll Be Ever Thankful
Words: The Community of Taizé © 1991, Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
Music: Jacques Berthier (1923-1994), ©1991 Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Taizé Community, France, GIA Publications, Inc. exclusive North American agent.
____
Philip Chan and Yvette Lau, liturgists
Cindy de Boer, cantor
Judy Baker, keyboard
Laura Triezenberg, flute
Marie Bloem, cello
Kate MacLeod, oboe
Chan Gyu Jang, guitar
Prayer leaders
Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.
John Goldingay, an Anglican priest and the senior professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, posits the psalms are the densest material in the entire Old Testament. They expound the nature of God as the compassionate, faithful, and committed one, but also as the one who makes demands upon us. The psalms help us talk to God, even about difficult things—and when we do, we are talking to someone who is in a position to do something about it.
Sister Kathleen Harmon of the community of the Ohio province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton, invites us to be transformed by the psalms and experience them as the whole story God is revealing to us. As we keep praying and singing them, the psalms interpret us, and that’s when the transformation comes.
Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.
John Goldingay, an Anglican priest and the senior professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, posits the psalms are the densest material in the entire Old Testament. They expound the nature of God as the compassionate, faithful, and committed one, but also as the one who makes demands upon us. The psalms help us talk to God, even about difficult things—and when we do, we are talking to someone who is in a position to do something about it.
Sister Kathleen Harmon of the community of the Ohio province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton, invites us to be transformed by the psalms and experience them as the whole story God is revealing to us. As we keep praying and singing them, the psalms interpret us, and that’s when the transformation comes.
Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.
