[Anglican Journal — The Anglican Church of Canada] Meeting in Regina, Saskatchewan, July 18-21 for the first time since before the pandemic, the National Worship Conference is examining how church liturgy and worship practices can better reflect the diversity of modern congregations, says the co-chair of the event’s planning committee, Kate Berringer.
The conference, held jointly by the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, normally happens every three years. An online gathering was held in 2021, but the conference has not met in person since 2018.
This year’s conference, titled “The Stones Cry Out,” features guest speakers Michelle Nieviadomy, a Cree woman and assistant director of the Edmonton Healing Centre, a nonprofit which provides counseling and outreach services; Becca Whitla, a professor of practical ministry and pastoral theology at Saskatoon’s St. Andrew’s College who studies ways to decolonize liturgical practice; and the Rev. Chung Yan Lam, a Lutheran pastor at All Saints’ Anglican Church Westboro in the diocese of Ottawa with expertise in expressions of worship across cultures.
Berringer said she expected the subject matter of this year’s conference to be sensitive and controversial. The event’s website describes its purpose as exploring what it means to decolonize expressions of worship in the Anglican and Lutheran churches. Berringer says it’s about identifying the ways in which Anglicans and Lutherans from outside European-derived culture don’t see themselves reflected in the churches’ worship, and about finding ways to make it their own.
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