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2019 Calvin Symposium on Worship | Vesper
Part of the Liturgy of the Hours (daily prayer), Vespers, or Evening Prayer, fulfills Christ’s teaching in Luke 18:1, where he says, “Pray always.” The Liturgy of the Hours is comprised of several specific times of prayer, most importantly, Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, marked by the rising and setting of the sun. Throughout the day there are the Office of Readings, Daytime Prayer(s), and Night Prayer before bed.
This service of Evening Prayer follows the traditional form for the service, giving thanks for the day and giving praise to God.
The National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM) is an association that seeks to foster the art of musical liturgy. The Grand Rapids chapter seeks to do this locally with education, networking, and collegiality of the pastoral musicians who serve within the Diocese of Grand Rapids, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and mutual support of church musicians. NPM members are regularly involved in activities with the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, and vice versa.
We are grateful to the Grand Rapids Chapter of National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM) for participating in the service, along with music ministers Tony Alonso and Robert Batastini, presider Kate Williams, and lector Kimberly Hope Belcher.
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.
