Worship Symposium Opens Registration

Nov. 6, 2009 — Registration is now open for the Calvin Symposium on Worship, an annual event that draws hundreds of church members from a range of denominations, especially the Christian Reformed Church, as well as speakers, theologians, musicians, liturgists and preachers from around the world.

The symposium, which offers open worship for the general public, runs Jan. 28-30, 2010, on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.

Among the participants, Rev. Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, and Rev. Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., current president of Calvin Theological Seminary, will be preaching as part of the symposium.

Among those speaking about worship and culture worldwide will be Rev. Elias Chacour, Archbishop of Galilee of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church; Rev. Nicqi Ashwood, an ordained pastor in the United Church in Jamaica, and education and mission secretary to the Caribbean and North America Council for Mission, and Edward Gilbreath, director of editorial for Urban Ministries, Inc., a national publishing and communications company based in Chicago and editor-at-large for Christianity Today.

The annual symposium will also feature, among many others:

• Mariano Avila, professor of New Testament, Calvin Theological Seminary, Bible translator and former pastor in Mexico.
• Setri Nyomi, a pastor in the Evangelical Church in Ghana and the General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), a fellowship of more than 200 denominations with roots in the 16th century Reformation.
• Eric Sarwar, director of the Tehillim School of Church Music & Worship, Karachi, Pakistan, and an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church in Pakistan.
• James K. A. Smith, professor of philosophy at Calvin College, and author of Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? (Baker Academic, 2006) and Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Baker Academic, 2009).
• Nina Zwart, the national coordinator for Children and Worship for The Presbyterian Church in Canada. She serves as a children and worship leader at New St. James Presbyterian Church in London, ON.

Each day of Symposium begins and ends with a complete worship service. Thursday is devoted to seminars which allow in-depth study of worship-related topics. The main schedule of hour-long workshops begins on Friday and is repeated in the same time slots on Saturday. Those wishing to attend are encouraged to study and print out registration information by clicking on, Worship Symposium.

There are also questions and answers to frequently asked question, a schedule of the events and presentations, and information for the general public who are invited to will attend the worship services held in the Spoelhof Complex Arena on the symposium website: http://worshipsymposium.org/.

Online registration closes when organizers each capacity or on Jan. 20 at 4 p.m. If there is still room, walk-up registration options will be posted on the web.

—Chris Meehan, CRC Communications