Kairos, Kronos, and the Liturgical Arts at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Charlotte
Student report by Amanda Weber (M.M. ‘13)
This year´s Congregations Project pulled together an all-star faculty team – some of the best and most sophisticated theologians, musicians, and artists. Nevertheless, it took no more than five minutes for Jane Arant, minister of music at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, to captivate the inner child of every one of them. Jane, along with Julia Van Huss and Margaret Rowe, have been leading a liturgical arts day camp at Trinity for the past seventeen years, and were invited by the ISM to explore ways this program could grow and be shared. “I planned to talk about our project for only five minutes,” Jane explained after their opening session, “but the looks on everyone´s faces were so seductive that I had to keep going!” Jane had seduced the crowd, all right; the first person to speak up after her presentation said, “I want to go to your camp!” and one of the clergy present had quietly started folding origami birds.
During the first half of our week together, Jane, Julia, and Margaret shared details about their camp. We learned and were touched by the small size and intentionality of the camp; Jane prefers to work with no more than twelve students in one group in order to give the attention each child deserves. The week is run with four practical goals: involving the children in hands-on activities relating to worship and the arts; placing this into a larger context of church history and Western culture; introducing children to artists who engage in sacred art; and fostering fellowship, recreation, and team-building. Trinity´s project proposal sums this up most beautifully: “A nurturing ministry, the camp is intended to draw children into a life-long embrace of the arts as an expression of their own faith, so that their Christian identities are more firmly grounded for living in a hurried and secular world.” These goals are carried out in the most creative ways, teaching the children through visual art, music, food, architecture, biblical archaeology, sacred
geometry, theater, and countless other activities. Poet and theologian (and ISM faculty) Tom Troeger exclaimed to the Trinity team, “You´re doing theological education using multiple intelligences!” By the later part of the week, all Congregations Project participants were encouraging Jane to step out of her humility and introversion and share this incredible gift. Excitement arose as we thought of ways to start liturgical arts camps in other places.
As Jane gave witness to the many stories of children discovering the treasure chest of the liturgical arts, it was no surprise the grown-ups in the room were equally taken. Together, we discussed this year´s theme, “Keeping Time,” as it relates to the liturgical year. Writer and theologian Rita Ferrone reminded the group that liturgy is often either a closed book to people, or something people take for granted. So much of the preparation for worship happens behind the scenes, and yet, the structure of liturgical changes over the course of a year is what draws us together as a community living in God´s time. This eschatological sense of time, kairos, is made separate from familiar clock time, kronos. Theologian Don Saliers
helped the group to see that the arts play a large role in helping to take us out of kronos time and into holy time.
As the week progressed, we reflected on every kind of time imaginable. Theologian and musician Maggi Dawn guided us in thinking about generations going by – a larger sense of time – and I couldn´t help thinking of the younger generations of the church. My generation, twenty-somethings, are almost entirely absent from most churches, and there is a cross-denominational fear that the generations that follow will not show up to church either. It was in this context that I suddenly began to feel a sense of urgency about the work Jane, Julia, and Margaret are doing at Trinity. Their work is not simply a summer day camp filled with activities to keep kids occupied while their parents are at work. Instead, these wonderful women are helping to provide the youth of the Church with a theological education. They are carrying through on the promise they made as a congregation at each child´s baptism to nurture them in Christian faith and practice. And as a result, the children return home from camp each day excited to educate their parents in the meanings behind the liturgical arts.
There is wealth in this project that remains to be tapped. Perhaps the greatest gift of this camp is to bridge generations of leadership in the Church. Jane hopes that one day, one of the children will ask to be on the worship and arts committee. Why not? The youth not only understand the meaning behind the many
aspects of the liturgy and have learned to do practical things like change the paraments, but they also find joy in helping with worship. God´s presence becomes more real for them when they are involved, and we who are older are called to experience God through the eyes of a child. What potential for an intergenerational community that seeks to be a part of God´s time!
“We want people to recognize this camp as something more than three older ladies doing something nice for the children,” Jane said in her closing remarks. All gathered nodded in understanding, and I smiled, remembering the very first welcome to the week, when Dorothy Bass introduced the theme of Time. “This theme is going to explode on us,” Dorothy warned. “We must remain open to seeing our expectations overturned by God.” And so it is my prayer that Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlotte might be stirred up by the children of the congregation, that the Spirit of God might move through the arts in worship, and that we might all stay connected to the child in us that engages the world with delight and awe.