Summary

2019 Calvin Symposium on Worship | Workshop

Listen Online

Details


WORKSHOP


In June 2014 the campus of Seattle Pacific University experienced the horror of a campus shooting spree resulting in the death of one student, injury to two others, and trauma to numerous students, staff, and faculty. Hours after the shooting occurred, the Seattle Pacific community gathered to worship in response to the tragedy. This service would be first of many held by the community over the next four years. This session provides an overview of the vital theological, pastoral, educational, and practical issues for a Christian college responding in corporate worship to gun violence and communal trauma. The focus is on the role of corporate worship in healing, instruction, and public witness to the diverse community of a university comprising students, staff, faculty, and external constituents.

Recent Media Resources

Surprised by the Psalms

Anneke Kaai studied fine art and painting in the Netherlands at secular schools in the 1960s and ’70s. That experience compelled her to express her Christian faith through her art. She has painted many works based on scripture, including three series of paintings on the psalms, which she sees as a bountiful resource of imagery for the full range of human feelings in relation to God.

May 5, 2026 | 90 min video
Psalmody in Black: The Psalter as Human Expression

This workshop explores the deep connection between the psalms and the breadth of human emotion through musical settings by Black composers. Interwoven with reflections on the history and function of the Psalter, this program reveals how these timeless texts continue to speak to the spiritual, emotional, and cultural experiences of our shared humanity. 

May 1, 2026 | 90 min video
Andrew Wilkes on Doing the Work of Liberation and Justice with the Psalms as Our Guide

Pastor-scholar Andrew Wilkes shares how his worshiping community, Double Love Experience Church, prayed and sang the psalms during the troubling times of 2020. The psalms gave them language and support for praise and lament, and Wilkes asserts that lament is the evidence of faith because we are bringing our troubles to God.

April 10, 2026 | 14 min listen