The Creative Expressions of our Worship

Our awesome Easter backdrop composed of the golden alleluia rocks painted on Shrove Tuesday.

As Anglicans, our worship reflects the belief that God uses the materiality of creation to reveal his divine presence. Our Sunday service culminates with us consuming bread and wine which has been consecrated “to be the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” In the Eucharist, Jesus manifests himself in a particular place, in a particular time, and with a particular people. We encounter God in the presence of Jesus and experience divine grace by receiving the bread and the wine.

The physical practices of our Anglican worship are meant to aid us in being receptive to Jesus’ presence. We light candles, cross ourselves, and sometimes kneel during public prayers. We hear scriptures with our ears and use our mouths to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Some Anglican churches even burn incense, ring bells, or pray with icons as an aid to their worship. Our worship is structured to draw the attention of our physical senses to the Triune God who is revealed in Jesus Christ.

I believe that the physical nature of our Anglican liturgy invites us to express more art and creativity within our worship. Music is one obvious way that we do that, but it does not have to be the only way. Whether it’s poetry, painting, or other various art forms, I believe that all beauty implicitly points to the beauty of our Creator in whom all beauty originates. 

One of the things that I love about our church is that we are so creative. We’ve created so much art, from singing in a virtual Christmas choir, creating a multi-lingual Nicene Creed video, and to velcroing hand-painted rocks on walls. Our church has created so much beauty despite all the limitations that come with transitions, location moves, and service time changes. It’s pretty amazing!

So as we transition into a new season and see what God has for us, I want to share some ways that we can continue to express our creativity as a congregation.

• Firstly, if you are a musician who is going to the retreat, then please bring your instrument! Our musical worship will be like last year’s retreat where all musicians will be invited to play with their instruments. The chord charts will be provided in the liturgies. This is a tip of the hat to our IAC history when all the church musicians would come together and play music in a church wide jam session. (I hear through the grapevine that IAC music jams/hymn sings will be coming back soon! Stay tuned for more info.)

• Secondly, if you are going to the retreat, we are bringing back our 2^nd annual IAC Retreat Talent Show! Bring all your poems, songs, dance numbers, moth stories, and comedy sketches! If you have an act you would like to perform, then you can sign-up here. It’s going to be epic!

• If you are unable to go to the retreat, perhaps you can join the small group that Michelle Strickland and I created. We wanted to create a space where artists can contemplatively respond to scripture using various art forms (visual art, music, poetry, writing, etc.) We’re calling it “Contemplatives and Creatives,” and we are hoping that this group can be a space where artists can creatively flourish while being prompted by scripture. The amazing Kim Mcknight agreed to host, and if you have the privilege of knowing her, then you know it will be awesome.

  
  

It is a gift and privilege to be the Worship Pastor at Incarnation. I am both excited and curious to see what God has in store for us in this new season of ministry. I hope and pray that this season will bear much creative fruit.

Your fellow worshipper, 

Russell