The Bethel College Worship and Arts Symposium, Joining Voices Together, will be held on November 12, 2022
Registration will open July 1, 2022
- Individual: $35 for all or part of the symposium; includes Saturday lunch and supper
- Group: $20 each when 3 or more people from the same congregation register as a group; includes Saturday lunch and supper
- Bethel College faculty, staff, and students, Hesston College students: free; lunch and supper available in the cafeteria for the regular faculty/staff and student prices
Worship and Arts Symposium Presenters:
Adam Tice served as the Text Editor for Voices Together. He led the effort to screen thousands of hymn texts. Adam co-authored the Voices Together “Aspirations for Language Use” guide with Worship Resources Editor Sarah Johnson. This was a seminal document that guided committee discernment. Adam is a prolific hymn writer in his own right, having published numerous collections of his original work. Adam’s work is highly regarded ecumenically and his own hymns (reviewed anonymously) tracked uniquely well in Voices Together discernment. Adam is on the editorial staff at GIA publications, Inc.
Workshop: Aspirations for Language Use: Considerations for Shaping the Words we Sing
Ethnomusicologist Katie Graber served as the Intercultural Worship Editor for Voices Together. She led the work of listening to diverse voices within Mennonite Church Canada and MCUSA. Katie is keenly attuned to helping us consider when our singing expresses and grows healthy relationships and when our choices venture into cultural appropriation or other abuses of relationship.
Workshop: Diverse Voices: Intercultural Worship in Voices Together
SaeJin Lee served on two Voices Together committees: Worship Resources and Intercultural Worship. She gave essential leadership to the curation of twelve original works of art that distinguish Voices Together. SaeJin brings insight into how we can engage worship with our eyes, drawing together diverse, intergenerational worshipers.
Workshop: Visio Divina: Worshiping with Our Eyes
Isaac Villegas was part of a team of pastors and scholars who answered the call to shape Voices Together worship resources. He was part of a group of writers who crafted the central practices resources; resources for Baptism, Communion, Funerals, Weddings, and Child Dedications. Isaac’s ministry and scholarship explore connections between worship and justice.
Workshop: Worship Practices that Join Us to God’s Work of Liberation
Bradley Kauffman was the project director and general editor for Voices Together.
| 8:30 | Registration |
| 9:00–9:50 | Plenary I: What Language [Did We] Borrow?: The Sounds of Twentieth-Century Mennonite Denominational Collections |
| 9:50 | Stretch break |
| 10:00–10:50 | Plenary II: Voices Together: Curating a 21st Century Collection |
| 10:50 | Break |
| 11:15–12:00 | Art in Voices Together (SaeJin Lee and Rachel Epp Buller) |
| 12:00–1:30 | Lunch |
| 1:30–2:20 | Breakout I |
| 2:30–3:20 | Breakout II |
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Concurrent breakout topics
Aspirations for language use (Adam Tice)
Diverse Voices: Intercultural Worship in Voices Together (Katie Graber)
A keyboardist's introduction to Voices Together (Cynthia Neufeld Smith)
Holy Ground: Discernment and Decision-Making in Voices Together (Bradley Kauffman)
Visio Divina: Worshiping with Our Eyes (SaeJin Lee)
Worship Practices that Join Us to God’s Work of Liberation (Isaac Villegas)
Plen I: Developments in Mennonite Singing in the 20th century (historical context)
Plen II: Why Voices Together? Why Now?
Image: Dona Park, Communion, 2018
