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Arts of the Spirit: Concerts, Classes, and Collaborative Worship Planning

Twice each year, Central Presbyterian’s clergy, musicians, and educators convene to

plan worship for the upcoming months. Although the details are left for subsequent

staff meetings, these biannual times of focused reflection establish the foundation

for Central’s intentional, inspiring, deliberately inclusive and liturgically grounded

worship life.

Three times per year, a professional artist/ensemble comes to Central under the

auspices of our Arts of the Spirit education/performance/outreach series. For

“Concerts with a Cause,” artists present a free public performance with a love

offering that benefits a designated charity. For “Learning with the Spirit,” artists

lead Saturday master classes and then participate in Sunday worship. For “Gathered

to Sing,” artists conduct a worship‐centered concert emphasizing audience

participation.

With the support of the Congregations Project, we envision combining these two

established practices, extending their reach in ways that would serve the larger

community and the larger church. Specifically we envision:

• Bringing guest artists to our biannual planning sessions for collaboration

with Central’s worship leaders.

• Facilitating worship‐planning workshops to complement each “Arts of the

Spirit” event.

• Commissioning a professional videographer to record each phase of our

worship‐planning practices, and create from this footage a teaching tool that

Central would make available to all churches.

• Daring to produce or host more provocative artworks.

When we imagine artists joining Central’s worship‐planning team to collaborate on

arts‐infused services across the liturgical year, we are exited for our congregation.

When we remember how worship must always flow beyond the confines of a

Sunday morning sanctuary, we are excited for our community. When we consider

how this process could be made public through the creation of a worship‐planning

video resource, we are excited for the larger church. This excitement would be

made manifest by participation in the Yale ISM Congregations Project.

Yale Institute of Sacred Music
PO Box 208273, New Haven CT, 06520
409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511
Tel: 203-432-3187 Fax: 203-432-5296

© 2010. Yale Institute of Sacred Music.