Trinity Presbyterian Church

3115 Providence Rd.

Charlotte, NC

Team Leader: Jane Arant

website

Team Members

Jane Arant |director of music and team leader
Julia VanHuss | assistant director of the liturgical day camp
Margaret Rowe | church school teacher and liturgical day camp teacher

About the Church

Trinity Presbyterian Church is a 600-member church located on a main traffic artery in suburban Charlotte, NC.  Sunday morning worship at 11AM is best characterized as formal.  A fine adult choir sings weekly, and worship is often enriched with members of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.  In addition to its own outreach ministries, First Presbyterian is home to three community outreach programs.

About the Project

Liturgical Arts Day Camp: A Model for Nurturing Children in the Experience of the Arts in Worship

The hallowing of time is fundamental in the common life of the church.  It also provides a wellspring of creativity for the framing of worship and the liturgical arts.  For sixteen years, Trinity Presbyterian Church has had a Liturgical Arts Day Camp for elementary-aged children.  Activities focus on learning and hands-on experience of the arts that take into account the following four goals: giving attention to some aspect of art in worship; placing this local experience into a larger religious or cultural context; introducing students to working artists; and providing recreation and fellowship.

Liturgical time has been a recurring central theme for the camps, various activities emphasizing 1) the rhythms of life and faith as reflected in the liturgical year and its roots in Jewish festivals; 2) Biblical archeology as it investigates these roots; 3) the rhythm of medieval monastic hours and liturgy-centered timekeeping in earlier societies; and 4) musical rhythm as a function of time and of bodily experience in time. 

Trinity seeks to find paths toward “packaging” their Liturgical Arts Day Camp in a way that it can serve the wider church.  This unique summer program will undoubtedly be of interest to other congregations, and they are willing to serve as resources for leaders of other congregations.