Calvin hosts 2010 Symposium on Worship

Summary: Calvin College will host the 23rd annual Calvin Symposium on Worship from Thursday, January 28 through Saturday, January 30, 2010.
  
Calvin College will host the 23rd annual Calvin Symposium on Worship from Thursday, January 28 through Saturday, January 30, 2010.
  
The conference, co-sponsored by the seminary's Center for Excellence in Preaching and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (CICW), expects to attract about 1,500 guests from 39 different countries, including more than 300 students and teachers from more than 70 high schools, colleges, and seminaries around the world.
  
The conference features three plenary sessions and offers about 100 different break-out sessions led by presenters from more than a dozen different countries. One highlight of the conference this year will be a day-long presentation, "Worship, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation: Global, Local, and Personal," with presenters from Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Palestine and South Africa.
  
John Witvliet, the director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and a presenter at the 2010 Symposium, says that this year's conference will challenge attendees to think deeply about the connections between worship and daily life.
  
"We are convinced that the church's public worship services should be intentional about how they form people for lives of reconciliation and forgiveness," said Witvliet. "Hearing speakers from Pakistan and South Africa, as well as from congregations in North American towns and cities offers a rare opportunity to help see a larger vision."
  
The Symposium begins each morning and concludes each evening with a one-hour worship service. The theme of all worship services at the conference will be "The Great Stories: Narratives of the Old Testament." Neal Plantinga, Marva Dawn, Laura Truax, Frank Thomas, Mariano Avila and Richard Mouw will be preaching at these services, which are free and open to the public.
  
Check-in, walk-up registration and all worship services will be held at Calvin's Van Noord Arena, located in the Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex. For more info on the conference, including how to still register, visit
http://www.calvin.edu/worship/ or contact Kristen Verhulst at 616-526-6831.
  
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Received on Fri Jan 22 15:30:17 2010