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This week I am excited and honored to be taking part in the Yale Congregations Project in New Haven, Connecticut 21-26 June along with my colleague Melanie and my friend Brian. We comprise the team from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia. I'm tweeting, too, using the hashtag #YaleCP

The morning began by boarding a bus with many people I did not know, and traveling to First Presbyterian Church, New Haven. By the end of the day, I, and everyone else on the bus, had many new acquaintances and insight into the lives of seven other congregations.

We began with prayer, seated at our round tables, singing an Indonesian Psalm refrain "Haleluya! Pujilah tuhan" with hand clapping. The clapping ostinato would continue after the sung refrain ended, and various people spoke verses of Psalm 95.

We received a warm welcome from Martin Jean, the director of the institute.

Then Dorothy Bass, who will also serve as facilitator for our plenary session Monday, introduced the theme for the week: "Hark, the glad sound: welcoming new and returning Christians to worship". She focused on three central threads she saw running through the various projects: Hospitality, Testimony, and Ritual Engagement (St. Paul's, Richmond was mentioned in connection to this last area).

Then followed introductions of all the congregations taking part in the seminar this week:

• Colbert Presbyterian Church, Spokane, Wa. - a relatively young church that focuses on servant leadership, a focused ministry model they referred to as "intentional downsizing", and a worship style that is liturgical Presbyterian "but with soft edges".
• St. Olaf College Student Congregation - a church in a very high traffic area: 1,000 people walk through their narthex (a hallway on the campus) daily.
• Tyson House - the Episcopal & Lutheran campus ministry at the University of Tennessee. An impressively mature and active student congregation with leaders seeking to form a network of like-minded "liturgy labs" like theirs.
• Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church, UCC, New Haven - The oldest African-American church in the known world. We'll actually be at this church later in the week.
• First United Church of Christ, Northfield, Minn. - began introduction by singing "Come, let us worship God" a song that makes everyone in their community smile. They want to bring more art into their worship: to "infuse" it with art.
• First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple - a remarkable space in a remarkable skyscraper in downtown Chicago. This project seemed to have the most in common with our own at first blush. Here, 60,000 people walk past the church's front doors daily, and the vast majority are totally unaware that the church is there. They also have a lot of new downtown neighbors: new residents in downtown Chicago where there where none before. Impressive place; unique situation.
• Holy Family Catholic Community, Fond du Lac, Wisc. - a massive community with four churches. Ethnic division.
• Robertson-Wesley United Church, Edmonton, Alberta - this was by far the most creative and cohesive presentation of the day, marked by dance, live music, and art that was created during the presentation, which was itself structured around the church's statement of faith.
• Then it was our turn - we painted, as best we could, a picture of our geography, demographics, history, membership, culture, behavior, and theology. We'll see if it made any sense.

We had a very fine panel on our theme for the week. Narrative emerged as an important strand in all this. Craig Mueller, an ELCA pastor from Chicago was outstanding.

Our time at the church ended with Evening Prayer, in the church itself, with Martin Jean leading the hymns from the organ.

Two personal connections: my wife and her early music ensemble met the musician at the Chicago Temple when they performed there recently. And the organist from Robertson-Wesley coordinated the McGill Summer Organ Academy the year I attended, about 10 years ago. I sat next to her at this evening's very fine performance of the Rachmaninoff Vespers, after which I made more personal connections, including one with Glenn Miller, the super-profundo organist & choirmaster at Kirk of the Hills, Bloomfield, Michigan.

This conference is filled with remarkable people and stories. It is a real blessing to be here.

Labels: church music, liturgy, St Paul's (Richmond), Yale Congregations Project