ELCA News Blog
June 25, 2009   

ELCA plans Lent, Holy Week services retreats across country

by Carrie L. Draeger, ELCA News Service*

Retreat-style events will take place this summer to give Lutheran pastors and lay leaders a fresh view of Holy Week services. They are part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) "Worship at the Center 2009" events said Scott Weidler, associate director for worship and music, ELCA Worship and Liturgical Services.  The first event was held June 15-18 at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn. "I left motivated to share the information in my home congregation," said Janet Dembo, Harlingen, Texas, who attended the first event.

Each retreat consists of liturgies for Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the vigil of Easter.  After services, small- and large-group sharing provides for "an opportunity for focusing on pastoral, theological, musical or artistic and practical concerns," Weidler said.  The final retreats are June 29-July 2 at Messiah Lutheran Church, Fairview Park, Ohio; and July 7-10 at Christ Lutheran Church, Long Beach, Calif.  Online registration closes the Thursday before the first day of the retreats, but walk-in registrations are welcome, Weidler said.

The format gives participants a chance to step out of their normal leadership roles and experience Holy Week from the pews, Weidler said.  "You experience things very differently as a worshipper," he said.  Weidler hopes that participants will get useful ideas from the retreats, not a set way of how the services should go.  "These (services) don't have to look and sound exactly the same from congregation to congregation," he said.

* Carrie L. Draeger is a senior communication major with a concentration in journalism at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash. This summer she is an intern with the ELCA News Service.