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Psalmody in Color: Celebrating the Sacred Music of Black Voices
As part of The Abyssinian Baptist Church’s annual Black Music Month Celebration, Psalmody in Color is a weekend-long festival dedicated to exploring and uplifting the psalm settings of Black composers, past and present. Through concerts, lectures, and workshops, the festival highlights the rich sacred music traditions that have shaped worship and cultural life across generations.
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin University advances Christian worship through resources, events, and grants. Since 1997, we have partnered with congregations and organizations to fulfill our mission.
Douglas J. Brouwer on Pastoral Wisdom and Imagination
Published on
August 26, 2019
Video length
1 mins
These video excerpts come from a conversation between Douglas J. Brouwer and John D. Witvliet at the annual Calvin Institute of Christian Worship—
CICW—grants colloquium in June 2019.
Douglas J. Brouwer served nearly forty years as a Presbyterian pastor. He retired in 2018 from the International Protestant Church in Zurich, Switzerland, and now lives near Holland, Michigan. This conversation at the CICW annual grants event in 2019 marked the end of his eighteen-year service on the Vital Worship Grants Advisory Board.
Witvliet and Brouwer talked most about how “pastoral imagination” influences pastors, mentors, congregations, and grant projects. Theologian Craig Dykstra coined the term during his years as senior vice president at the Lilly Endowment Inc. Vital Worship Grants are made possible through the generous support of Lilly Endowment Inc.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
W. David O. Taylor on the Psalms and Praying the Unedited Life
Author and pastor-scholar David Taylor shares how he came to appreciate the psalms and how he encourages people to bring their full, unedited selves to God in prayer and experience a richer and more honest life of faith.
