PLENARY PRESENTERS.......

SARA MILES
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 2:00 PM

To Trust the Incarnation

Meeting Jesus in flesh and blood: how worship and service are connected.  A workshop on the spiritual life as a physical life.

Sara Miles is the author of Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion and Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead.  She is Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco [www.saintgregorys.org] and the director and founder of The Food Pantry [www.thefoodpantry.org]

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KIMBERLY BRACKEN LONG, Ph.D
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 2:45 PM

The Worshiping Body

Through word, water, bread and wine we proclaim the vision of what God intends and rehearse the practices of Christian life in worship and the world: showing up, paying attention, and honoring bodies.  In and out of the sanctuary, where we put our bodies matters, for there we encounter the risen Christ.

Kimberly Bracken Long is Assistant Professor of Worship at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.  Ordained as Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA), she has served congregations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  She is the author of The Worshiping Body: The Art of Leading Worship (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2009), and The Eucharistic Theology of the American Holy Fairs (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011), as well as numerous articles and sermons.  Currently she is serving as editor and writer for the Feasting on the Word Worship Companion, a six-volume compilation of lectionary-based liturgical resources.  A speaker, preacher, liturgist, and teacher at worship conferences around the United States, Long also served as editor of the quarterly journal, Call to Worship: Liturgy, Music, Preaching and the Arts from 2005-2011.  She holds degrees in voice performance from the College of Wooster and the University of Maryland, the M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from Drew University.

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SAMUEL TORVEND
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 10:00 AM


Touch me and see:  A resurrection of the body in the church?

Christians can be tempted to speak of ritual, liturgy, or worship in the highly spiritualized language of ultimacy, "giving God glory," mystery, Holy Communion, or sacredness.  And yet that practice we call "liturgy" begins not in the church or the home but in the human body, in a variety of ordinary actions too frequently overlooked by church leaders.  In this presentation, Institute participants will be invited to consider the gnostic temptations within a disembodied worship practice, expand their ritual practices of the body beyond "word," "bath," and "meal," and ask if such rituals can, indeed, embody a theologia crucis seemingly absent from our cultural discourse and practice.

Samuel Torvend is Professor of Religion and holds the University Chair in Lutheran Studies at Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, Washington).  He also serves as the Director of Vocational Reflection at PLU's Center for Vocation and the Director of the Center for Religion and Culture in the Pacific Northwest. 

He is the author of the forthcoming Still Hungry at the Feast: Preaching the Eucharist (Liturgical Press), Flowing Water, Uncommon Birth: Christian Baptism in a Post-Christian Culture (Augsburg Fortress, 2011), Luther and the Hungry Poor (Fortress Press, 2008 - now included in its core library of Luther texts), and Daily Bread, Holy Meal: Opening the Gifts of Holy Communion (Augsburg Fortress in 2004).  Ordained in 1986, he now serves as associate for adult formation at St. Paul's Church in Seattle, Washington.

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John Arthur Nunes, Ph.D.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 10:00 AM


Kinesics: The Beat of the Body in the Rhythm of the Church Year

We all agree that communication goes far beyond words; the question is how far?  How much does movement, tempo, self-control, dance, posture, stance, and gesture figure in worship.  This talk will explore kinesic contributions from global cultures within the body of Christ to Lutheran cultus.

Dr. Nunes serves as president and CEO of Lutheran World Relief (LWR), a $42 million global organization.  With a passion for service and deep commitment to LWR's core values, John leads staff in 17 countries in working to end poverty, injustice and human suffering worldwide.

Prior to joining LWR, John served on the faculty of Concordia University Chicago as a professor of theology.  He has also served as a management consultant, and as an urban parish pastor and community organizer in Dallas, Texas and Detroit, Michigan.  A gifted public speaker, John is also a frquent keynote presenter.

"I believe deeply that God created everyone to live in justice, dignity and peace," John says.  "When people's most basic needs, like food, water and shelter, remain unmet, they are unable to live out their true calling.  By working alongside families and communities struggling to lift themselves out of poverty, LWR helps people around the world live into their full promise."

John holds a Bachelor of Arts from Concordia College, Ann Arbor, Michigan; a Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada; and from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago he hold both a Master of Theology and a Doctor of Philosophy with an emphasis in postcolonial identity.  John has also received honorary doctorates from Concordia University, Ann Arbor and Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin.

He currently sits on the board of directors of InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations.

John is the author of Voices from the City: Issues and Images of Urban Preaching and, with his wife Monique, the children's book Little Things Make Big Differences: A Story about Malaria.

Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, John grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and has lived in the U.S. since 1981.  He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with Monique, who is an administrator for Baltimore Lutheran School, and John, Jr., the youngest of their five children.