May 30, 2019
Greetings:
As you have no doubt heard, the 224th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center, June 20-27, 2020. It’s an enormous undertaking to host GA. Our Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA), chaired by Carrie Finch-Burris, has been hard at work since last April.
As host presbytery, we are responsible for planning the daily worship experiences at GA. Worship is at the center of every GA experience, from beginning to end. The opening service, in particular, is the “big” festival service of praise that sets the tone for the entire week, it will include the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper (actually, Communion will be served daily at this GA) and a mass choir.
Elizabeth McLean and I are co-chairs of the worship planning team. Our team will be developing liturgies for the week based on the themes and scripture texts determined by the Co-Moderators and the Stated Clerk. The liturgies, including music, need to be completed by early February 2020. Throughout the week, we will offer liturgical experiences that reflect the diverse musical traditions and worship styles of our churches. We want to be as innovative, creative, and imaginative as possible. And we hope that each of our congregations will feel connected to the worship and work of the GA that week. There’s much to do.
We need your help.
First,
we would like to host a meeting of our music/choir directors, organists, and worship leaders on
Tuesday, July 9, at 7 p.m., at the Catonsville church
to begin exploring possibilities for GA worship
.
Since the presbytery does not have a list of all the music/choir directors and organists serving in our congregations, we ask that you please forward this email to your music leadership staff and encourage them to attend the meeting on July 9. If you can also send the name(s) and contact details for the music/choir directors, organists, worship leaders at your church to
Ken Kovacs
(Catonsville) that would be helpful.
Second,
please think about who in your congregation might have the gifts and interest to join us on the worship planning team. We’d like to have the presbytery broadly represented as we design the various worship services. If you know creative people who would find the idea of creating inspiring worship services for the whole denomination as exciting and inspiring as we do, please pass on their names and contact information to
Elizabeth McLean
(Prince of Peace) by the end of June if possible.
Thank you so much for your assistance! If you have any questions, just let us know.
Grace and peace,
Ken Kovacs & Elizabeth McLean
