Holy Conversation: Spirituality for Worship

Acknowledgments

vii Acknowledgments The passion to write this book emerged in the context of my first academic sabbatical during the autumn of 2004 when varied circumstances in my life coincided: the leisure to write; accumulated years of liturgical leadership in a congregation and extensive reflection on worship practices; my first years of teaching courses in spirituality at a theological seminary and leading educational /formational events for the wider church; the opportunity to lead liturgy in varied settings as a guest pastor; and, quite significantly, ample opportunities during these years to worship apart from leading at the ambo or at the table. I also have been increasingly aware in recent years of a strong desire to explore implications of lectio divina—sacred reading, an ancient way of praying with the Scriptures, the subject of my doctoral dissertation, and a centerpiece of my spiritual life—for participation in liturgy as a means of providing insights and resources for the renewal of the church’s worship life. Many have written good books on the practice of lectio divina. Numerous are the books on and resources for worship renewal. Now I claim the opportunity to put these pieces together and offer years of liturgical leadership and practice, research, reflection, and teaching to a wider public via this book. Spiritual and liturgical formation is the fruit of the Spirit’s work in Christian community. So I offer my deep, abiding, and loving appreciation and thanks to the people of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I served for twelve years as pastor, for their innumerable contributions viii Acknowledgments to my pastoral and faith formation. Likewise, I offer thanks to the people of St. Peter’s and Holy Trinity Lutheran Churches in New York City, where I am a member (at the former), where I have served as a pastoral associate (the latter), and where in both settings I have benefited from a compelling and beautiful liturgical life. Beyond these congregational settings, I am grateful to the varied constituencies of the Southwestern Pennsylvania and Metropolitan New York Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the leaders of which have given me many opportunities to try out my ideas in teaching and devotional settings and also have contributed greatly to my vocational formation and to my experience of the bonds of affection in the church. I am especially indebted to the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church where until recently I had served as the director of the Center for Christian Spirituality and a professor of ascetical theology. It is this seminary’s generous sabbatical policy, wonderfully thoughtful students, and collegially supportive faculty and administration that have made possible the particular adventure of writing a book. Three students in particular at General have assisted me over the years with this project from its conceptual and research stages to the editing process. So my thanks to Stephen Shaver, Steven Paulikas, and Kelly Ayer for their valuable assistance, respectively, in helping with initial research, reading and evaluating first drafts, and helping to edit the bibliography. I am likewise indebted to friend and mentor Philip Pfatteicher who first introduced me to the connections between spirituality and liturgy and whose Commentary on the Lutheran Book of Worship—and my rereading of this work when writing my meditations on a Mass for the Day of Pentecost, a focus of the second half of this book—provides much of the general knowledge content of my comments on the biblical sources for and historical background of features of the liturgy. Several people read first drafts of this work and offered enormously helpful comments, suggestions, and insights that have been incorporated into the final version. So I thank Lowell Almen, for his keen editorial eye, liturgical sensitivities , and faith in me as a writer; Eugene Brand, for his extensive historical and liturgical theological knowledge and decades of wisdom made personally available to me in many conversations; Lisa Dahill, whose work Truly Present: Practicing Prayer in the Liturgy is closely allied with mine; Gigi Kovac, for her particularly helpful insights and sensitivities as a congregational practitioner, organist, and choir director; and Robert Rimbo, whose passion for the renewal of worship life and collegial support have inspired me to complete this work. David Lott, my editor at Fortress Press, has been a profound gift in patiently ix Acknowledgments shepherding me through a process wholly new to me, that of writing and publishing...