Interactive workshops for worship
planners and leaders
with renowned worship practitioners and trainers
Dr. Heather Murray Elkins
Altar-ing the World
Sunday, May 1, 2005
2:30 – 5:00 pm
Altar-ing the World is a process of transformation that takes place whenever we encounter the Holy in the ordinary and our human experience is altered. To lift up commonplace things for holy use requires a willing to practice the four-fold action of a sacramental life: to lay hands on the created world and lift it up, to bless God, to break open the meaning, to share the mystery. Together we will explore how we do this together in congregational worship.
Dr. Heather Murray Elkins is associate professor of worship and
liturgical studies at The Theological School and Caspersen School of
Graduate Studies at Drew University. She began her teaching career as an
instructor in the first bi-lingual independent school on the Navaho
Reservation. During her pastoral career she served as a local church
pastor, a truck stop chaplain, a university chaplain, and an academic
dean. She has written Worshiping Women: Reforming God’s People for
Praise (Abingdon) and co-edited Word, Table, and Song: Essays in
Celebration of Howard Hageman, Scarecrow Press). She is presenting
working on Tangible Evangelism: Getting Our Hands on Good News” and “Buying
the Farm: Appalachian Stories, Sermons, and Structures” and a book with
Kathy Black on “Wising Up: Women, Ritual and Aging.”