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The St Clement's Parish Council recently sponsored a study leave for music director, Lynley Lewis. Lynley attended the Anglican Lutheran National Worship Conference held July 18-21 in Regina, Saskatchewan. The conference brought together worship leaders from across the country. Topics included:

-our current and historical expressions of worship and the richness of faith communities seeking to articulate their relationships with God
-how we can "confront empire" in the way we pray, sing, preach and celebrate the sacraments
-what it means to "decolonize liturgy on Turtle Island" in light of the call to the churches to live into our responsibilities from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action

There was opportunity throughout the conference to learn with Indigenous and non-Indigenous speakers, some of whom were business leaders and musicians, others professors, pastors, and lay leaders. 

Lynley came home with a unique piece of music he first heard sung by conference speaker Becca Whitla, professor of practical ministry and the Dr. Lydia E. Gruchy Chair in Pastoral Theology at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon. It is a short, sung prayer to encourage reflection on our relationship to the land.

Becca writes: "This song, by Teri Grunthaner, came into being as communities in and surrounding Lawrence, Kansas prepared to ceremonially return a sacred red rock ancestor to the Kaw Nation — Iⁿ‘zhúje‘waxóbe, who was stolen from the river and people in 1929 and defaced with a plaque commemorating early European settlers. After a long struggle this 24 ton grandfather rock, whose English name is Sacred Red Rock, has been rematriated to the land, in the care of the Kaw Nation. I learned the song . . . from Doe Hoyer and Conie Borchardt at a Hymn Society conference in Atlanta. They were doing a workshop on their work to embody repair and solidarity through singing. It is a collaboration between Music that Makes Community and the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery."

At the upcoming September Parish Council meeting, Lynley will share a presentation of his time at the conference. In the meantime and with the permission of the composer, we will be singing the piece by Teri Grunthaner (see photo) at the opening to our Sunday service on September 1, 8, 15, and 22. I look forward to hearing your experience of the song and what reflection it inspires.


The Reverend Helen Dunn