wfn.org | ELCA Worship Team Plans for Future

[Brenda Williams <BRENDAW@elca.org>]

Reply-To: ElcaNews <ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG>

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 24, 1997

ELCA WORSHIP TEAM PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
97-34-101-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The mission of the worship
team of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
is to "lead, encourage and support the worship of
God" in the church, the Rev. Paul R. Nelson,
director for worship, told members of the ELCA's
Church Council.  The council heard the worship
plan at its, meeting here Nov. 14-16.
     Church Council members heard an update about
a new African American hymnal to be available in
1998.  The 550-page African American hymnal,
supplement to the "Lutheran Book of Worship,"
includes 350 African and African American hymns,
prayers and three liturgies.  "The book is a joint
project between the ELCA and the Lutheran
Church--Missouri Synod," said the Rev. Karen
M. Ward, associate director for worship.  The
primary publisher for the book will be Augsburg
Fortress, the publishing house of the ELCA.
     The ELCA's Division for Congregational
Ministries is "thankful for the work of the
African American hymnal steering committe.  The
book is now in the draft stage.  We are hopeful
that the draft materials will be approved by our
parnters in the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod to
allow joint publication of the hymnal," said the
Rev. Wyvetta Bullock, executive director for the
division for congregational ministries.
     The church will develop a process toward a
next generation of worship resources that may
follow the "Lutheran Book of Worship," Nelson
reported.
     The latest product of the worship team ready
for churchwide distribution is "The Use of the
Means of Grace: A Statement on the Practice of
Word and Sacrament."  Recent additions were made
to the statement.
     We have added to the statement a very brief
study guide or "study helps" to aid people
responsible for planning study sessions about
sacramental practices in congregations, said
Nelson.  A goal of these study sessions is to
"help those who study think through their own
understanding, appreciation, and use of the means
of grace within their congregational setting."
Study sessions will help students compare local
congregational practices with the principles
in the statement and suggest possible changes that
might enrich the sacramental life of the
congregation.
     "We are in the process of designing support
materials" for the statement, said Nelson.  "The
one we are working hardest on is a video resource
that will allow people to see what other ELCA
congregations are doing.  We think this is
especially important because some of the practices
in the statement are unfamiliar to a lot of
congregations.  When we talk about communing very
young children or infants, for example, a lot
congregations say, we'll consider that if we had
any idea how to do it," Nelson said.  The video
will feature congregations who do that regularly,
he said.
     "Also a very high priority are materials that
will prepare children and their families for Holy
Communion," said Nelson.  "The statement now opens
even lower age participation, but we do not have
any resources," he said.
     The Lutheran church recognizes the Lord's
Supper and Baptism as sacraments -- sacred acts
instituted by Jesus Christ.  "The Use of the Means
of Grace" was approved at the church's fifth
biennial assembly in Philadelphia Aug. 14-20,
1997.
     Worship is "the encounter with God's saving
work through Word and Sacraments where the whole
of human life is centered and organized around the
crucified and risen Christ, where the Church of
Christ 'the assembly of the saints,' is created
and where its mission for the world is rooted and
nourished," according to Nelson.
     In the next four years the church will
develop worship materials, train worship planners
and leaders, research and evaluate ELCA worship
practices and needs.
     The plan "exists to try and lay out the
working principles for the worship team and then
to do some long-term scheduling of the way
projects fit together," said Nelson in an
interview.  "The plan projects for us how to
responsively develop worship resources for the
ELCA in a way that is reliable and credible to our
constituencies," he said.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or
NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html