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On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
In September 2016 participants gathered at the Universal Design for Worship seminar at Calvin College. Singer-songwriter Ken Medema participated through musical leadership and storytelling.
I wear a multi-color garment;
it is pink, and it is green.
And I long to find a place where eyes are open,
where all of me is seen—
the weaknesses I struggle with,
and all the strengths I own—
to be in a place where I can know,
and where I can be known.
So hurray for the pinks among us,
and hurray for all the greens.
And hurray for a place where we find the grace
to see and to be seen.
We’ve come to learn to build a house,
a house for one and all,
where all giraffes can live,
and where elephants are not afraid to come and call.
We’ve come to learn to build a house
for all the pinks and greens,
a house that is an open place
to see and to be seen.
Hurray for all the pinks,
and hurray for all the greens.
And hurray for a day, hurray for a place,
where we see and we are seen.
And now we come to the table,
for the most sacred part of all,
to share a meal—a love feast—
and God on you we call:
Bless our feast and bless these conversations that we know,
so we will learn and build and grow,
and through this day we go.
So bless the pinks among us,
and bless all the greens,
and bless this feast as we enjoy,
as we see and we are seen.
© Ken Medema
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.
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.
Old Testament scholar Nancy deClaissé-Walford has spent her career studying the ordering of the Psalter. Most of the psalms, she says, are not tied to a particular situation, allowing us to sing and pray them honestly in our own contexts.
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.
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.
Old Testament scholar Nancy deClaissé-Walford has spent her career studying the ordering of the Psalter. Most of the psalms, she says, are not tied to a particular situation, allowing us to sing and pray them honestly in our own contexts.
A Psalm Talk by Jared E. Alcántara recorded at the 2026 Psalms 150 conference, with a visual prayer and embodied response from artist Dea Jenkins.
