Dear friends,
Warm greetings from Johannesburg, South Africa.
How do we worship, conduct the liturgy and use music as Lutheran churches in Southern Africa coming from diverse traditions, cultures and languages? What are some of the challenges churches face? What is our tradition and what are our gifts? How do we worship in the time of a pandemic and how can we learn from and teach each other, deepen our fellowship and strengthen the proclamation of the Good News?
LUCSA member churches are currently engaged in a three-year project focusing on worship, liturgy and music. (The Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa (LUCSA) is the sub-regional expression of the Lutheran World Federation with 15 member churches in ten different countries.)
A number of planned gatherings had to be postponed because of COVID-19 travel restrictions but recently workshops with in-person and virtual on-line presentations and participation took place in Botswana and Zambia.
One of the organizers of the workshop in Zambia wrote the following:
“…This was an historical workshop because it was the first of its kind … for worship and music leaders. We pray that it will not be the last one, as all participants requested that we should have similar workshops at least once a year.
We give thanks to [all the presenters] who took time to facilitate at the workshop. For our international facilitators, we were connected via Zoom with few difficulties and the audience was able to hear them loud and clear. This clearly indicated that we can host more e-workshops in future. Thank you so much and we wish you God’s endless blessings.”
An important joint study on worship and liturgy published in 1996 by the Lutheran World Federation observed that Lutheran worship is cultural, counter-cultural, inter-cultural and trans-cultural. Through LUCSA workshops musicians and worship and choir leaders are sharing knowledge and being encouraged to develop and write new music, songs and liturgies that are Gospel-centered, contextual, inclusive and relevant, remembering that prayer and praise without justice and mission is incomplete.
Thank you for your prayers and support and your participation in God’s mission locally and globally.
Yours faithfully,
Rev. Dr. Philip Knutson
ELCA Global Mission Regional Representative – Southern Africa
Johannesburg, November 20, 2020
My blog page address is: https://southernafricanconnections.wordpress.com/
Please note the link for online giving can be found at https://community.elca.org/MissionaryGiving
Giving Code: MSG0245
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