About Strong Center Open Doors
This website is a portal for connection and service to you in your yearning to lead and live the liturgical
tradition at full stretch. In the last decade there has been a trend toward dismissing the riches of our historic
and ecumenical inheritance, portraying it as irrelevant, out of touch, and boring. I reject that box and its
characterization of worship. It is true: careless, silly, and mechanical exercise of ritual practices have
deserved the "box." But, that is not the kind of liturgical practice that I believe we yearn for; that is not liturgy
I imagine.
Strong CenterOpen Doors.com aims to participate in an online community of pastors, priests, worship
planners, musicians, other worship leaders and anyone who yearns for the strength and openness of the
Christian liturgical tradition.
I am grateful to Gordon Lathrop and his prolific work. His writings have helpfully focused many of us on
website and in related teaching, conferencing, and writing.
With the publication of Patterned by Grace: How Liturgy Shapes Us in 2007, I felt a need to support its
readers and to support and strengthen a community of people yearning for life lived out of the central
practices of Christ's liturgy. So, this website! Where it goes and what comes of it, I leave to the Spirit and
you.
I am a United Methodist elder (presbyter), but deeply ecumenical in commitment and experience through
years of involvement with the Consultation on Common Texts, the North American Academy of Liturgy, and
the North American Association for the Catechumenate. The Order of Saint Luke continues to be my
spiritual home and forming community. I took early retirement to live more deeply the contemplative life
through promoting the sacramental life of the church. The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and
Worship Arts was instrumental in the early years of this journey and continues to be for me a network of
friends, colleagues and pot-stirrers in the arena of liturgy and the arts.
I bring to the "table" my years of pastoral practice, reading and reflection, writing, and my service for twelve
years as Director of Worship Resources in the Center for Worship Resourcing at The General Board of
Discipleship of The United Methodist Church.
While my mission is broader than my published books, I do seek to augment and support you as readers
via this website. They include Patterned by Grace, Come to the Waters, and (with Craig Kennet Miller)
Contemporary Worship for the 21st Century.
.
This website is a portal for connection and service to you in your yearning to lead and live the liturgical
tradition at full stretch. In the last decade there has been a trend toward dismissing the riches of our historic
and ecumenical inheritance, portraying it as irrelevant, out of touch, and boring. I reject that box and its
characterization of worship. It is true: careless, silly, and mechanical exercise of ritual practices have
deserved the "box." But, that is not the kind of liturgical practice that I believe we yearn for; that is not liturgy
I imagine.
Strong CenterOpen Doors.com aims to participate in an online community of pastors, priests, worship
planners, musicians, other worship leaders and anyone who yearns for the strength and openness of the
Christian liturgical tradition.
I am grateful to Gordon Lathrop and his prolific work. His writings have helpfully focused many of us on
- the importance of the central things (font, lectern/pulpit, and table) and
- the strong actions around them (bath, story/proclamation, meal)
- held in faithful tension with the necessity of attending to the larger world in its hurts and hopes.
website and in related teaching, conferencing, and writing.
With the publication of Patterned by Grace: How Liturgy Shapes Us in 2007, I felt a need to support its
readers and to support and strengthen a community of people yearning for life lived out of the central
practices of Christ's liturgy. So, this website! Where it goes and what comes of it, I leave to the Spirit and
you.
I am a United Methodist elder (presbyter), but deeply ecumenical in commitment and experience through
years of involvement with the Consultation on Common Texts, the North American Academy of Liturgy, and
the North American Association for the Catechumenate. The Order of Saint Luke continues to be my
spiritual home and forming community. I took early retirement to live more deeply the contemplative life
through promoting the sacramental life of the church. The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and
Worship Arts was instrumental in the early years of this journey and continues to be for me a network of
friends, colleagues and pot-stirrers in the arena of liturgy and the arts.
I bring to the "table" my years of pastoral practice, reading and reflection, writing, and my service for twelve
years as Director of Worship Resources in the Center for Worship Resourcing at The General Board of
Discipleship of The United Methodist Church.
While my mission is broader than my published books, I do seek to augment and support you as readers
via this website. They include Patterned by Grace, Come to the Waters, and (with Craig Kennet Miller)
Contemporary Worship for the 21st Century.
.
| Copyright © 2007 Daniel T. Benedict, Jr. All Rights Reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. |
Strong Center Open Doors
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Table and lectern at Center
Chapel UMC, Indianola IA.
Designed and created by Ted
Lyddon Hatten
Chapel UMC, Indianola IA.
Designed and created by Ted
Lyddon Hatten
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