The Mennonite Worship and Song Committee receives $18,000 grant
The Mennonite Worship and Song Committee has received an $18,000 grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship as part of Calvin’s Vital Worship Grants Program.
This grant will enable the committee—working under the mantle Resonate—to work with congregations in Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada to celebrate and teach the richness of culturally diverse singing practices that deepen community life and connection with God.
“Since we don’t all identify as hymn singers, this study will help bring a breadth of worship practices and needs more clearly into focus. A single hymnal cannot serve every congregation, so we hope to build something representative of a range of practices that are giving life to Mennonite worship,” said Bradley Kauffman, project director.
The grant will allow three committee members to travel to six musically and racially diverse Mennonite congregations across the United States and Canada. In each place committee members will join the congregation in singing, worship, and listening for what makes songs and liturgical practices meaningful. In addition to gathering possible resources for a new song collection to be released in 2020, this grant will make possible a video featuring stories and songs shared by the congregations.
“I’m excited to learn more of the breadth and depth of what ‘Mennonite music’ is. I’m hopeful that sharing stories about meaningful songs will lead to new perspectives and experiences of the divine,” said Katie Graber, who chairs the intercultural worship subcommittee and will spearhead the grant project.
Resonate was one of 33 projects chosen to receive a Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. These projects have a variety of emphases—visual arts, storytelling, music, preaching, contemplation and more—but have as a common purpose a desire to both deepen people’s understanding of worship and strengthen practices of public worship and faith formation.
Said Kathy Smith, director of the Vital Worship Grants Program: “These collaborative projects bring people together to study, plan and create, foster new learning and nourish intergenerational community in worship.”
This year’s Vital Worship Grant recipients are from around North America and include 20 congregations, one high school, four colleges and universities, three seminaries, and five other organizations—including MennoMedia on behalf of the Mennonite Worship and Song Committee. Each grant will fund a year-long project (beginning in June) that promotes vital worship and faith formation, and this year’s awards range from $6,000 to $18,000 per project.
For more information on the grants program, including a complete list of this year’s grants recipients, see calvin.edu/worship. For more information about Resonate or to schedule an interview, contact LeAnn Hamby at (540) 908-3941 or email LeAnnH@mennomedia.org.