Standing in a sunlit church, the People’s Gospel Choir of Montreal begin their song with slow formality. Then the tempo picks up, the piano rumbles, and the choristers dance and clap. One woman breaks loose in a kind of frenzy, boogying to and fro with her arms swaying.
All this in an online video to promote the 2008 Anglican-Lutheran worship conference, where the theme is (as you may have guessed) “Order and Chaos.”
From June 25 to 28, 2008, Montreal, Que. will host the third biennial, national Anglican-Lutheran worship conference. Keynote speakers will be Gordon Lathrop, liturgical scholar from Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, and Karen Ward, pastor of Seattle’s Church of the Apostles.
“These conferences are wonderful learning experiences. They bring together really good people who talk both intelligently and critically about liturgy,” said Dean Peter Wall, the conference’s Anglican co-chair. “I think we have a lot to learn from each other, both Anglicans and Lutherans.”
In addition to talks, worship, and workshops, the conference will include expeditions to visit silversmiths, stained glass studios, a trip to Quebec City, and even an “organ crawl” to see a few of Montreal’s famous organs. Participants are encouraged to come to Montreal a day early for Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, and enjoy the Montreal Jazz Festival while they’re in the city.This event continues a 20-year tradition of summer Lutheran worship conferences. “After the Full Communion agreement [between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada] it was our delight to turn that into a joint venture,” said Rev. Eric Dyck, Lutheran co-chair of the conference. He also said that Lutheran families often plan vacations around these events.
Pastor Dyck notes that the 2006 Regina event sold out, and he expects the 2008 Montreal conference, which has a capacity of 200, will also fill up quickly.
To learn more about the 2008 Anglican-Lutheran worship conference, visit their website, or email the organizers. There is a discount for registrations before June 1, and registrations can be submitted online.