Worship for a new communion

Sunday was a day rich in worship both on the Calvin college campus and in the morning at local churches across the Grand Rapids area. I ended the first service I attended at Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids eating utterly delicious strawberry shortcake as we international ecumenical visitors drank coffee and shared in fellowship with people from the local congregation. Later we ate lunch downstairs in the fellowship hall and entertained our hosts with songs from around the world, our ad hoc choir was pretty good, well we had fun anyway.

Later in the day back in the plenary hall on Calvin campus we gathered for the WCRC celebratory worship and it was wonderful. Children from across the world were involved in the liturgy, asking questions about the newly formed World Communion and about elements of the liturgy and faith. It worked well. The music was wonderful, we had a glorious enactment of 1 Kings 19, the great prayer of thanksgiving before communion came in English and Spanish, there was shared leadership of women and men in the service, and communion of over 3000 people took place without any sense of rush or problem. Somehow it managed to be elegant, formal and informal ...
And Rev. Yvonne Delk preached a great sermon on "What are we doing here?" towards the end she said "I am here to commit my life to the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace so that lives can be changed, biblical visions can come into view, the lame can walk, the captives can be released, and the acceptable year of the lord can be proclaimed! ... so the question still remains What are you doing here?"
It seems as if there were lots of people watching the live videostream and you can also find lots of really great video clips from our fabulous film maker Edwin de Jong here. I particularly like the suitcases and the many halleluyas.
Late in the day rather fewer folk gathered in the very beautiful college campus chapel for music, quiet, candles and prayers at the end of the day. A day that had really seen the new World Communion begin in worship, praise and prayer.

Jane Stranz