1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Participants
Entrance: Longing for Holiness
This section is led by Princeton Seminary Choir from Princeton, New Jersey. The readers are Christina Ong and Colleen Toole. They are led by Martin Tel, director, Michael Gittens and William D. Carter III, accompanists, and William Heard, soloist.
Resting in God’s Presence
The scripture reading is led by members of Thornapple Covenant Church here in Grand Rapids: Elise Hartmann, Bob Kingma, Ashlyn Korpak, Joy-Elizabeth Lawrence, and Casey McIntosh. Music is led by Jorge Lockward, from the New York office of the General Board of Global Ministries for the United Methodist Church, by West Michigan high school string players who have met today to form an honors orchestra led by Calvin faculty members John Varineau and David Reimer. They are joined by soprano Awet Andemicael from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, CICW accompanist Norma de Waal Malefyt, and Calvin College student, Kelsey Stark, oboe.
Cry for Help
The scripture reading is led by CICW staff members Kristen Verhulst and María Cornou. The music is led by David Bailey and the Urban Doxology band from Richmond, Virginia, and Tom Jennings from Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York.
Victory and Vindication
The scripture reading is led by current and former CICW staff members Anne Zaki (Cairo, Egypt), Eric Sarwar (Karachi, Pakistan, currently studying at Calvin Seminary), and Kai Ton Chau (Grand Rapids). The prayer is led by Anne Zaki. The music in this section is led by Eric Sarwar, with supporting musicians from Church of the Servant in Grand Rapids: Greg Scheer, Erin De Young, Maria Poppen, Susan Cleveland, as well as by the orchestra.
The Light of Creation, The Light of the Law
The scripture reading is led by members of Thornapple Covenant Church. The music is led by the orchestra, joined by Awet Andemicael and James Buswell, concert violinist who taught for many years at the New England Conservatory of Music, as well as by a student-led choir from the Korean Student Association at Calvin College.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
