As the worship planning for the 223rd General Assembly has moved through the past two years, I have had the unique vantage point of being co-chair of the Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA) worship committee while serving as a member of the executive board of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians. We have worked with the Office of the General Assembly, the current co-moderators and the Office of Theology and Worship to plan worship that is inspiring, exciting, faithful to the Reformed tradition and reflective of the diversity of the church, while utilizing as many local resources as possible.
General Assembly will meet in St. Louis at the confluence of three rivers. As worship follows the path laid out for us by God’s Word, through the texts chosen by the preachers of the week, we hope you will experience how God is working among us, calling us forward to a fuller expression of the kin-dom.
The Presbyterian Association of Musicians has been an important resource and of great help. David Gambrell, co-editor of the revised “Book of Common Worship,” met with our committee to review principles of Reformed worship and to highlight updates in the BCW. We are excited to incorporate several of these changes and additions in the GA worship services. We commissioned Mary Louise Bringle, chair of the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song, to write a new hymn for the assembly. Her “Draw the Welcome Circle Wider” is based on the assembly’s theme of “Renewing the vision: Kindom building for the 21st century,” and it will be a thrilling moment when it is given voice for the first time at opening worship. PAM’s former executive director, William McConnell, will be on hand to lead music at Wednesday’s ecumenical service. Ellen Phillips, a liturgical artist, has led local artists to create art reflective of the worship themes.
The opening worship service will feature a choir drawn from the churches of the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy and will be accompanied by musicians from our renowned St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Throughout the week we will also be led in music by the Cote Brilliante Community Men’s Choir, members of Pendo Presbyterian Church (our recently chartered Kenyan congregation), the Carolbeth True Jazz Trio and many other singers, dancers and instrumentalists.
A relatively new project for PAM is a partnership with MorningStar Music Publishers to offer a series of choral anthems reflective of Reformed theology and music. At the opening worship service on June 16, the assembly choir will sing three anthems from this series, which are all based on hymns from the “Glory to God” hymnal. If you are in St. Louis we invite you to stop by our booth, meet some members, learn a little more about the organization and pick up a sample of copy of music.
Our committee’s hope has been to model faithful and vibrant worship that reflects tradition and creativity, worship that creates space where each finds a sense of home — even as we are challenged to cross the river into the new future to which God calls us.
David Erwin is director of music ministries at Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church in St. Louis. Susan Niesen, co-chair of the worship committee, also contributed to this article.
