From the Archives

I was viewing the exhibit from our newly created church archive (which is on display on tables across from the church office), and my eye was drawn to an issue of "Day by Dei," the church newsletter, dated Jan. 4, 1996. There I found an entry written by Pat. Shaw.  She had just returned from a Worship Conference in which she had particpated in a workshop titled "The Drama of Liturgy." Her reflections and obeservations illustrate that spiritual truth does not have an expirty date.  Her words still ring as true today as they did 30 years ago. 

"All too often we sing or recite as though there is little meaning in it for us. It is something we have done hundereds of times. It is a series of memorized owrds. It is routine. 

We should approach our pariticpation in worship with conviction. It's a new day. What happened fifty times before doesn't matter. Let's be spirited! Let's be alive!"

She then ends with a quote from Robert Shaw, the legendary choral conductor who is widely considered the most influential figure in modern American choral history.  

Worship should be mind stretching, soul searing, gut wernching -- and a generally exhaustice experience. 

He also firmly believed that sacred music and religious worship should engage a person's highest intellectual and emotional faculties rather than acting as passive entertainment or simplified pop music. He frequently argued that minimizing the rigor of the arts within religious settings ultimately causes churches to "wither and drift into irrelevance."