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Shaping a Desert People

This project explores the ways our experience of worship in a desert

landscape can deepen and expand our relationship with God and, in the process,

enable us to live in a more caring and just relationship with this part of God’s creation.

Without a liturgical life that connects people to the desert around them, there can be

no experience of this landscape as a sacred part of God’s creation. We seek through

worship to help our congregation and others connect to the desert so they can

experience it as a place that is both sacred and home. This project has several

components, including

• A 5‐week study of desert wisdom focusing on biblical stories of the desert.
• A second 5‐week study with presenters from Native American, Hispanic

Catholic, Jewish and Islam traditions focusing on that tradition’s

understanding of desert faith and the ways in which that faith is incorporated

into the worship life of their community.

• The development of a year‐long “Desert Care” program for middle and high

school youth integrating service, faith education, and worship. This includes

hands‐on environmental work, as well as the development of liturgical

resources (i.e., prayers written by the youth).

• A development of an interfaith, community‐wide series of symposia on “the

blessing of the water.” How do we connect both our sacred and practical

uses of water with the Creator who is the source of this life‐giving resource.

• A compilation of desert faith liturgies and litanies for use by United and other

faith communities. These resources will draw upon the deep roots of desert

spirituality as found in both the Biblical tradition and that of the early

church’s Desert Mothers and Fathers.

• Further development of United’s liturgical art and architectural resources

that reflect our desert setting.

We welcome the opportunity to deepen our own understanding of Christian

Worship, both its roots and its contemporary forms. Faculty presentations and

dialogue with others would give us the academic foundation and practical

experience of others we need to move our commitment and practice of desert faith

to another level.

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.