1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
A worship service from the 2021 online Calvin Symposium on Worship.
Order of Worship and Copyrights:
Opening Song: “Welcome Into This Place”
James Abbington, Atlanta, Georgia
Kathleen Turner, Salt Point, New York
Text and Music: Orlando Jaurez; arr. James Abbington © 1991 CMI-HP Publishing, admin. Word Music, LLC/Life Spring Music
Used by permission. CCLI #40063.
Opening Greeting
Emily Brink, Kai Ton Chau, Dale Cooper, Cindy DeBoer, Will Groenendyk, SooA Hong, Satrina Reid, Paul Ryan, Kathy Smith, Noel Snyder, Kristen Verhulst, Joanna Wigboldy
“Let All Things Now Living”
Music: Welsh tune
Piano: Rebecca Snippe
Song: “Father, Let Your Kingdom Come”
Text and Music: Latifah Alattas, Ben Cooper, Isaac Wardell, Orlando Palmer, and Liz Vice © 2017 Porter’s Gate Publishing
Used by permission. CCLI #400063.
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 44:24, Jeremiah 51:15-16, Hebrews 1:1-3, Colossians 1:15-20, Revelation 21:5
Hannah Barker Nickolay
Jackson Nickolay
Song: “Jehovah Sabaoth (God of Angel Armies)”
The Aeolians of Oakwood University
Huntsville, Alabama
Recorded at the Calvin Symposium on Worship 2020
Text and Music: by Donald Lawrence
Used by permission.
Prayers for the World
Christina Edmondson
Kevin Adams
Song: “Healer of Our Every Ill”
Text and Music: Marty Haugen © 1987 GIA Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. OneLicense.net A-703303.
Calvin University Women’s Chorale
Scripture Reading: Psalm 145:1-7
Zeeland Christian School Students and staff
Zeeland, Michigan
Song: “Thank You”
Grand Rapids Virtual Choir
Text and Music: Walter Hawkins © 1990 Malaco Music Group
Used by permission.
Blessing
Mark Charles, Kai Ton Chau, María Eugenia Cornou, SooA Hong, Chan Jang, Noel Snyder
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
