wfn.org | Dynamic Worship Highlights APCE Conference

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

6-February-1997 
97069 
 
            Dynamic Worship Highlights APCE Conference 
 
                         by Julian Shipp 
 
SAN DIEGO, Calif.--Participants in Association of Presbyterian Church 
Educators (APCE) conferences have long come to associate the event with 
dynamic worship services.  But even lifelong Presbyterians were moved by 
the speakers, musicians and special guests at this year's gathering here 
Feb. 5 - 8. 
 
     Using long, bold brush strokes and Mexican art motifs, California 
liturgical artist Becky Bane rendered her interpretation of the conference 
logo, "The Eye of God," symbolizing the all-knowing and omnipresent God. 
Bane captivated the audience by painting on huge sheets of paper positioned 
on the stage while worship leaders read Old and New Testament passages 
against a musical backdrop. 
 
     The effect was similar to watching a gigantic, animated Etch-A-Sketch. 
Bane's creation prompted a constellation of camera flashes and caused 
nearly everyone in the audience to do a simultaneous double-take. 
 
     "Sometimes what the eye sees transcends words, and what God's eyes 
take in is marvelous to consider," Bane, director of the Academy of the 
Arts at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Riverside, Calif., explained. "The 
joys and sorrows experienced by humanity throughout the generations must 
cause tears to spill from God's eyes like so many precious jewels." 
 
     "It's really exciting to be all together," said Judy Ferguson, APCE 
Governing Cabinet president of San Antonio, Texas. " We hope everyone will 
be inspired, relaxed and energized when they go home to do the important 
work they do." 
 
     Musicians Stephen Iverson (vocals and guitars) and Michael McCarty 
(keyboard) kept emotion levels charged with generous portions of 
contemporary, traditional and racial ethnic hymns. Both men serve as 
ministers of music at Sleepy Hollow Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo, 
Calif.  They also provide music for San Francisco Theological Seminary's 
Certificate in the Art of Spiritual Direction program as well as its Youth 
Ministry and Spirituality Project. 
 
     Also on hand were the "Community of Taize," an ecumenical monastic 
movement founded in 1940 by a Swiss Reformed seminary student named Roger 
Schutz (known now as Brother Roger). The community seeks reconciliation in 
the Christian church and wherever God's wholeness and peace is needed in 
the world. Most of the 100 or so brothers live together in a small village 
(Taize) in the Burgundy area of France.  Twenty or so of the brothers live 
in various places of poverty around the world as signs of God's hope and 
love in those settings. 
 
     Worship leaders for the APCE conference included noted Christian 
educators and authors the Rev. Howard Rice, the Rev. Marjorie Thompson and 
the Rev. Doug Adams. Opening worship on Feb.  5 included communion. 
 
     Expounding on the conference theme "Seeing Through God's Eyes" and on 
2 Corinthians 5:17 and Isaiah 43:19, Rice challenged Christian educators to 
avoid getting caught up in the past, however comfortable and familiar it 
may be, and never to be afraid of the challenges of the future. 
 
     "Let us dare to believe that every moment in our life is a gift from 
God," Rice said. "If we can discover freedom from the bondages of the 
past...we will discover the presence of God." 

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