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SECTIONALS BY SCHEDULE
Below are the breakout sessions, which we call “sectionals,” for our Annual Conference. These sessions are offered by a variety of presenters on a variety of topics.
Jump to a session:
Session D (Wednesday 11:00 am)
Session A (Tuesday 9:15 am)
Dancing On the Grave that I Once Lived in: An Exploration of Christian Congregational Song Utilizing Death Imagery
Bruce Benedict
This sectional will be streamed live for Digital Conference participants.
In this sectional we explore a range of images and metaphors that Christians have used over the centuries to capture the complexities of singing about life and death, with a particular interest in comparing images in contemporary worship songs with historic metaphors from various eras. This sectional will draw from the work of Jeffrey Vanderwilt in conversation with the section leader’s recent dissertation exploring American evangelical funerals.
Ways Will Open–Tunes by Sally Ann Morris
Sally Ann Morris, FHS
Join composer Sally Ann Morris, FHS, in exploring her latest collection of tunes. Her ever-expanding palette of sound has been influenced in recent years by extended visits to Iona, Scotland, where she served as volunteer musician for two summers. In addition to long-time collaborators like Mary Louise Bringle, FHS, and Adam M. L. Tice, FHS, text writers including Hannah C. Brown, Chris Shelton, and David Bjorlin have provided fresh inspiration for Sally’s work.
Hymns Now: Fresh Hymns for Today’s Church
Lloyd Larson
Founded in 2023 as an imprint of Jubilate Music Group, Hymns Now creates high-quality traditional hymns for contemporary worship. Join Lloyd Larson to explore this new resource’s mission, creative process, and growing catalog of downloadable hymns for the church year. Participants will preview recent releases from leading writers including Lloyd Larson, Terry York, Mark Blankenship, and others, and gain practical strategies for introducing new hymns effectively to choirs, congregations, and worship teams.
How Shall We Sing the Lord’s Song in This Land? Patriotism, Partisanship, and Worship Music in American Christianity
Joshua Taylor
From William Billings’ “Chester” to Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” from “God Bless America” after 9/11 to “Make America Great Again,” patriotic music has long raised questions about the relationship between faith, identity, and nation. These songs can inspire gratitude and unity, but they also risk exclusion, partisanship, and idolatry.
This session explores how national song in worship can either reinforce the idols of nationalism or become a means of honest lament, prayerful hope, and communal rebirth. Drawing on theologians such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Marva Dawn, and David Lemley, we will consider how worship music forms Christian identity, how patriotic texts can be framed faithfully, and how the church might sing its way into God’s new creation.
Participants will leave with theological and pastoral tools to engage these songs carefully, critically, and with courage.
Singing Church History
Paul Rorem & Martin Tel
Just as hymn texts reflect church history, so a little history can enrich hymn singing. Born of church talks and hymn sings, Paul Rorem’s little book, Singing Church History: Introducing the Christian Story through Hymn Texts (Fortress, 2024), is meant to support congregational learning and singing. It features texts of familiar hymns to introduce major movements and theologians, from the biblical songs through numerous early and medieval examples to the Reformation and modern times including the United States and World Christianity. The sharing of hymns across eras and denominations is emphasized as a durable grassroots form of ecumenical harmony. Rorem and Martin Tel will share their classroom experience with the book at Princeton Seminary as a resource for church musicians, teachers, and pastors.
A Brooklyn Girl Composes – The Musical Legacy of Amanda Husberg
Jacque Browning Jones, FHS
Though Amanda Husberg is no longer among us, her music lives on in our memories, hymnals, and churches. When Amanda died in 2021, she left a lively legacy of sacred music—from her Brooklyn Mass to her spirited requiem A Feast Prepared, and through congregational songs in between. A life-long Lutheran and Life Member of The Hymn Society, Amanda had over 286 hymns in print in every style imaginable. Her collaborators praised her ability to write tunes that perfectly melded with their texts. She also nurtured congregational song in the Brooklyn church she served for over 55
years.
This session offers an opportunity to sing many of Amanda’s works and hear from colleagues and friends about their affection for Amanda and respect for her work. Come sing her music, remember her contributions to congregational song, and celebrate her one-of-a-kind personality that always made everyone smile.
From the Mountain Top to the Sanctuary: The Lasting Power of Songs from Youthful Encounters
Heather Gottas Moore
This interactive session explores how the songs we learn during formative youth experiences—around campfires, at retreats, and through mountaintop moments—continue to shape us as adult musicians and worship leaders. Through shared singing, storytelling, and discussion, participants will reflect on the power of formative songs to guide worship choices, shape communal identity, and renew the spirit of leadership. Together, we will rediscover how echoes of those early songs still inform our theology of music and our ministry of congregational song today. This collaborative experience invites participants to reconnect the joy of youthful singing with the ongoing work of nurturing vibrant worship and community life in the church.
Princeton Theological Seminary Wright Library Collection Tour
The Special Collections and Archives department will display a pop-up exhibit of materials from its rare book and manuscript collection. These materials will feature historically significant editions of hymnbooks, hymnals, psalters, and music manuscripts from the 16th through 20th centuries. Highlights will include early and first editions of works from the expansive Louis Benson Collection of hymnody and hymnology, including works by Isaac Watts, Tate & Brady, Sternhold & Hopkins, and others. Brian Shetler, Head of Special Collections, will be available to guide participants as they engage with the materials in the exhibit. N.B. There is a limit of 10 participants for each time this tour is offered. The display itself will also be available each day for personal perusal from 9:00-3:00.
Session B (Tuesday 3:45 pm)
Singing the Saints Home: Life, Death, and the Music of Rebirth
Anderson Harrison, III
This sectional will be streamed live for Digital Conference participants.
In the Black worship tradition, the experience of death is not postured in silence. It is lived out through sound—moaning, shouting, dancing, singing. The funeral is referred to as a homegoing service, or celebration, and functions as sacred space where the grieving community gathers to sing out a curated song list whose lyrics honor the coexistence of grief and joy, movement and mourning, death and life.
Drawing on examples from the African American spiritual, traditional and contemporary gospel, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century hymns, we will examine how music functions as resuscitation—breathing and singing life in the face of death—enacting a cultural and communal theology of resurrection. Songs such as “Soon-a Will Be Done,” “Goin’ Up Yonder,” and “I Shall Wear a Crown” illustrate how Black worship traditions navigate pain and promise, embodying rebirth through rhythm, harmony, community, and the Holy Spirit.
Through historical reflection, lyrical analysis, and participatory singing, this presentation invites attendees to identify theological motifs of “rebirth” within sacred music and reflect on how this tradition can enrich broader Christian worship and hymnody across cultures.
Christmas in July–A Service of Lessons and (New!) Carols
Chris Shelton
Need a little Christmas? Chris Shelton will lead a “Lessons and Carols” service featuring selections from a forthcoming GIA Christmas carol compendium. We will sing new texts with beloved carol melodies as well as newly composed tunes.
Grindal: A Treasure of Faith: the Psalms; Reynolds: Voice of the Heart
Gracia Grindal, FHS & Joanne Reynolds
Gracia Grindal, FHS, and Joanne Reynolds each present their new collections of hymn texts: Grindal’s A Treasure of Faith: the Psalms, a complete collection of new hymn texts for each of the 150 Psalms; and Reynolds’s Voice of the Heart: A Collection of New Hymn Texts.
Twelve Years of Miller and Thompson
Lindy Thompson & Mark Miller, FHS
Composer Mark Miller and lyricist Lindy Thompson share the remarkable story and songs that resulted from their serendipitous meeting. Learn about their writing process, sing through their catalog (“I Choose Love,” “Home by Another Road,” “Stillness”) and hear some pieces that are in the works.
Singing Homeland for Those Seeking God’s Reign
Noel Werner
Is there a place for patriotism in Christian discipleship and worship? Learn how one church engaged this issue and created a civic service of prayer in the context of the 250th U.S.A. anniversary.
Our Faith in Words and Music: A Celebration of The Hymnal 1982
Marty Wheeler Burnett
Marty Wheeler Burnett’s new book – Shapers of the Hymnal 1982: Our Faith in Words and Music – explores the groundbreaking hymnal through the eyes of its creators as the Episcopal Church celebrates the fortieth anniversary of its publication.
The Hymnal 1982 is a landmark publication that has shaped the Church’s song and provided a wealth of musical resources. Through the author’s first-person interviews, meet the poets, composers, clergy, liturgists, and scholars who contributed to this influential book, and hear their insights about what has worked well—and the changes they envision for the future. The author also shares her observations, as well as input from musicians currently serving Episcopal parishes.
A Seat at the Table, A Voice in the Choir: Creating a Space for the Disabled in the Life of the Church through Music and the Spoken Word
Patty Thel
The disabled child, teenager and adult have gifts to offer the church, and the church as a faith community is only strengthened by their presence. This presentation will explore ways to create all-inclusive worship services, including the exploration of hymns and choruses that are accessible and speak to the message of inclusion, and ways for worship and song leaders to create a worship format that brings people of all abilities together in praise and worship.
Session C (Wednesday 9:15 am)
Singing the Witness: Hymnody, Martyrdom, and the Ecclesiology of Justice
Adán Fernández & Lola Bobrow
This sectional will be streamed live for Digital Conference participants.
This session examines the hymn as a theological vessel for narrating the witness of the martyr within an equitable and participatory ecclesiology. Throughout Christian history, martyrs have stood as authoritative witnesses, embodying faith through lived solidarity, moral courage, and the rejection of violence and domination. Hymns and sacred songs, as expressions of the sensus fidelium, have long mediated these narratives, forming the church’s collective memory and shaping its vision of discipleship.
In the context of El Salvador, hymns venerating St. Óscar Romero narrate not only his ministry and martyrdom but also the ecclesial struggle for justice, dignity, and communion among the poor. These songs reclaim the voice of the marginalized as integral to the Body of Christ, re-centering the faith around a theology of liberation and shared witness. This session will engage hymns and songs devoted to St. Óscar Romero and other contemporary martyrs, exploring how musical storytelling functions as a locus of ecclesial identity, a pedagogy of Christian living, and a means of sustaining communal memory within the broader work of building a just and inclusive church.
Sing, Little Bird
Dan Damon, FHS
Dan Damon, FHS, will present his new collection of hymns, including over thirty of Dan’s new hymn texts and tunes. Also included are new tunes for texts by Brian Wren, FHS, Carl P. Daw, FHS, Gracia Grindal, FHS, and others, jazz arrangements of traditional spirituals, and musical settings of 12 previously unpublished hymn texts by Ruth Duck, FHS.
Sing of All that Love Can Do, Texts by Mary Nelson Keithahn, Music by John D. Horman; Hymns to Sing on a Storm-Tossed Sea, Texts by John Dallas, Music by Kenneth Athon
Mary Nelson Keithahn, John Horman & Kenneth Athon
Introducing two new hymn collections: Sing of All that Love Can Do, More Hymns and Songs to Sing in Our World Today, texts by Mary Nelson Keithahn and tunes by John D. Horman; and Hymns to Sing on a Storm-Tossed Sea, texts by John Dallas and tunes by Kenneth Athon.
At the Crossroads: Between Church Music Scholarship and Practice
Marcell Silva Steuernagel, Maren Haynes Marchesini & Brian Hehn
This sectional will take the form of a reflexive group learning experience for and about Christian congregational music scholar-practitioners (also identified as teacher-scholars), defined as those with professional training and experience in both academic scholarship and church music practice. The leaders of the session, who are working on a larger research project that focuses on what church musicians can learn from the experience of scholar-practitioners, will share select findings of their work as a prompt for dialogue with sectional participants who are either scholar-practitioners themselves or are interested in contributions from this intersection. This dialogic learning session will also be oriented to the theme of the conference, focusing on notions of rebirth, death and life from the scholar-practitioner perspective.
Two Sides of the Same Coin
Chi Yi Chen Wolbrink
The act of communal singing is not mere music-making, but expresses a lived theology of God’s people – where every voice, culture, and generation participates in God’s harmony. Singing expresses the unity of the people (Ubuntu), the balance of life and faith (Yin–Yang), and the wisdom of our heritage (Sankofa). From traditional hymnody to contextualized expressions, the songs tell the story of faith and its context.
Hymns for Home and Church: The New 2027 LDS Hymnal
Edward Poston
Edward Poston gives a brief history of hymnody in the tradition of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A comparison of the church’s Hymns 1985 with its new 2027 publication, Hymns for Home and Church, will illustrate the changing cultural and theological changes within the LDS tradition. A survey of works by living composers, text writers, and hymnal editors will be examined.
Organ Masterclass (Part 1)
Mina Choi
This 2-part session will include a small number of participants who will play a hymn or sung service music and receive live feedback from the clinician on their playing. This “masterclass” style session is designed to allow all participants to learn together from the clinician’s feedback to the individual players. Participants who register for this session will be asked whether they want to be included in the players who receive feedback or whether they would just like to watch and listen. Note: This event spans both sessions C and D.
Princeton Theological Seminary Wright Library Collection Tour
The Special Collections and Archives department will display a pop-up exhibit of materials from its rare book and manuscript collection. These materials will feature historically significant editions of hymnbooks, hymnals, psalters, and music manuscripts from the 16th through 20th centuries. Highlights will include early and first editions of works from the expansive Louis Benson Collection of hymnody and hymnology, including works by Isaac Watts, Tate & Brady, Sternhold & Hopkins, and others. Brian Shetler, Head of Special Collections, will be available to guide participants as they engage with the materials in the exhibit. N.B. There is a limit of 10 participants for each time this tour is offered. The display itself will be available each day for personal perusal from 9:00-3:00.
Session D (Wednesday 11:00 am)
The Sound of Science: God’s Wonders to Perform
Jan Kraybill, FHS
This sectional will be streamed live for Digital Conference participants.
Explore the fascinating science behind the sounds we hear, and the waves that surround us that are beyond human hearing. Learn how sound is used in our own and in other species for connection, communication, comfort, and more. Explore “the music of the spheres” coined by scientist/theologian/philosopher Pythagoras and the “music of our home” discovered by Apollo space missions.
Hold My Hope: Songs by Ana Hernández
Ana Hernández
Short songs for praying together – 1-8 part tunes for use in worship, on pilgrimage, in school, or anywhere you find yourself. Flexible, with room for improv. Suitable for all ages and abilities.
Ancient Starlight in the Night: Hymn Texts by Richard Leach with Tunes by Patrick Michaels
Patrick Michaels & David Schaap
Collected hymn tunes from Patrick Michaels over many years setting the texts of Richard Leach.
Jesus Only Help Me Sing: A Choral Exploration of the Hymnody of C.P. Jones
Donté Ford
This sectional will explore new choral anthem arrangements of select hymnody of black Holiness hymn writer and composer, Bishop Charles Price Jones. Created as a result of a Teacher-Scholar grant awarded by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, these arrangements are designed for use by the average church choir to perpetuate the use of this prolific hymnody across ethnic and denominational lines.
Melodies of Kinship: The Maquiso Tune Tree
Jean Nalam
This sectional will highlight twenty-one hymn tunes created by Cebuano composer Elena Maquiso, each lovingly named after a member of her family—ranging from her parents and siblings to her nieces, nephews, and even a non-biological mother figure who deeply influenced her life. The session will open with a brief introduction to Maquiso’s remarkable life and legacy, followed by a presentation of her hymn tunes. It will conclude with the joyful singing of some of her most widely used hymns in the Philippines, offering both reflection and participation.
The Princeton Theological Seminary and Erik Routley
Nancy Graham
In the words of Carlton R. Young, FHS, everything that came out of the mouth of British theologian and musician, Erik Routley, was unique and important. In the fast-paced expansion of worship music and hymns from the 1960s through the 1980s, Routley was one of the main drivers. His conception of artistry in worship, coupled with practical ideas for application, gave sound confidence to the modern congregations and assemblies. It was the President of PTS, the Rev. Dr. James I McCord, who convinced Routley to leave England and take up residence in the US to better spread his profound and compelling perspective. Routley’s prophetic foresight can give the challenges of contemporary churches support and guidance towards a rebirth of singing congregations.
Organ Masterclass (Part 2)
Mina Choi
This 2-part session will include a small number of participants who will play a hymn or sung service music and receive live feedback from the clinician on their playing. This “masterclass” style session is designed to allow all participants to learn together from the clinician’s feedback to the individual players. Participants who register for this session will be asked whether they want to be included in the players who receive feedback or whether they would just like to watch and listen. Note: This event spans both sessions C and D.
Princeton Theological Seminary Wright Library Collection Tour
The Special Collections and Archives department will display a pop-up exhibit of materials from its rare book and manuscript collection. These materials will feature historically significant editions of hymnbooks, hymnals, psalters, and music manuscripts from the 16th through 20th centuries. Highlights will include early and first editions of works from the expansive Louis Benson Collection of hymnody and hymnology, including works by Isaac Watts, Tate & Brady, Sternhold & Hopkins, and others. Brian Shetler, Head of Special Collections, will be available to guide participants as they engage with the materials in the exhibit. N.B. There is a limit of 10 participants for each time this tour is offered. The display itself will be available each day for personal perusal from 9:00-3:00.
Session E (Wednesday 3:45 pm)
The Sacred Spectrum: Enhancing Worship for Neurodivergent Children Through Music and the Arts
Nathan Myrick & Eric Amouzou
This sectional will be streamed live for Digital Conference participants.
As awareness of the needs of neurodivergent (ND) children grows, congregations across denominational spectrums are beginning to ask themselves how they can serve the worshipping needs of those who may be unintentionally excluded from full participation in the life of faith. This concern is further pronounced when we realize that sensory processing is a primary means of dysregulation among ND children (van Ommen 2024, for instance). Orders of service, with their sometimes-rigorous decorum and adherence to sonic and visual stimuli, are often unwelcoming places for ND children.
But how does congregational music affect this experience? Could music be a key to unlocking a more caring, nurturing, and edifying formational practice of worship? Perhaps, as some psychologists have suggested (Kim et al 2024, for example), music may generally help ND individuals regulate emotions and process sensory information more pleasantly. Could congregational music play a similar role in the life of Christian communities? This sectional suggests that it does, and, drawing from our ongoing fieldwork with Christian communities across the US with the support of a Lilly Endowment Inc grant, offers insight and resources for enhancing worship in other local congregations.
Amazing Grace! from Blind to Free
Lloyd Larson
2025 marked the 300th anniversary of John Newton’s birth, the author of arguably the most loved and frequently sung hymn of all time. Amazing Grace! from Blind to Free is a 45-minute musical recounting the life of Newton, including three of his hymn texts: GLORIOUS THINGS OF THEE ARE SPOKEN, HOW SWEET THE NAME OF JESUS SOUNDS, and AMAZING GRACE! This session will include background information about the creation of this new musical, a complete reading/singing of the musical, and a Q & A time at the end of the session to discuss the work.
Grace Notes: Using Devotionals as Spiritual Warm-Ups in Choir Rehearsal
Marlene Jenkins Cooper
This interactive workshop introduces choir directors and musicians to a practical tool for rehearsal preparation: the five-minute devotional. Drawing from her book Grace Notes: Five-Minute
Inspirational Devotionals for the Church Choir, Musicians, and Friends of Music, Marlene Jenkins Cooper demonstrates how short, scripture-based devotionals can center singers’ hearts on God before lifting their voices in song.
Participants will engage in sample devotionals, discuss how to incorporate them effectively into rehearsals, and sing hymns or spirituals that align with the devotional focus. Attendees will leave
understanding the importance of spiritual preparation alongside vocal warm-ups and gain practical strategies for fostering unity, encouragement, and spiritual growth in the choir setting.
Contemplative Community Worship, Singing Life in Desperate Times
Marty Haugen, FHS
This will be a conversation about contemplative communal worship.
The practice of daily prayer has always been the way that Christians (and people of every faith) ground and guide and support themselves. We need this more than ever in these chaotic and divisive times.
The examples of Taizé and Iona have demonstrated anew how quiet, contemplative prayer (connected to a life of service) invites, draws and challenges us to be healing and prophetic communities of caring and solidarity with the world and God’s people. This sectional will also offer resources and songs to prepare and lead contemplative worship.
Voices of Resistance: Hymns that Stand Firm Against Christian Nationalism
Stephen Fearing
This sectional explores the theology of hymns—both past and present—that offer a strong foundation for the church’s resistance to Christian nationalism. As this ideology threatens the faithfulness of congregations and the integrity of democracy, singing becomes a powerful act of defiance against harmful ideologies and the systemic issues of racism, authoritarianism, and Christo-fascism.
Participants will explore modern and traditional hymns, highlighting theological views that unite the church in its prophetic witness for an inclusive and courageous understanding of Jesus Christ. As the language of the church and Scripture is increasingly used to undermine human rights and replace a theology of abundance with narratives of fear, the hymns we sing become deeply meaningful.
This session complements Andreas Teich’s 2025 presentation on how German Christians manipulated hymnody to support the Third Reich. In contrast, this workshop focuses on the church’s role in resisting the rise of Christian nationalism today, highlighting hymns that promote justice and uphold the dignity of all people.
From Lament to Living: The Contemporary Rebirth of Siraya Congregational Songs
Chia-An (Victor) Tung
The Siraya language, as an endangered indigenous language of Taiwan, is undergoing a journey from “death” of cultural memory to “rebirth” of faith in practice. This session centers on the newly published The Lord Our Refuge: A Modern Worship Hymnal of the now thriving Siraya Musuhapa movement. The presenter will share a true narrative of transforming the sorrow of near linguistic extinction into communal hope, which particularly emerged from personal reflections during the pandemic—grappling with a father’s cancer-related passing and cultural, generational loss. What transpired was a grassroots movement that integrates prayer, composition, translation, choral arrangement, and worship leadership.
Participants will experience at least three contemporary Siraya hymns presented through a short talk, demonstration musicking, and congregational singing. These works carry theological significance and demonstrate how biblical passages, language, and music intertwine to transform experiences of “death” into testimonies of “rebirth.” Integrating perspectives from ethnomusicology and practical theology, this session proposes a concrete and transferable model that assists multicultural communities in creating “new songs” enabling worship into action that renews life and faith.
Singing with All Creation
Carl Bear
On the rare occasions when the church’s music engages with the non-human world, other beings in God’s creation are typically treated as objects to sing about, rather than fellow worshipers to sing with. For example, most “creation hymns” extol the goodness of God’s creation (e.g., “All things bright and beautiful”) or, more recently, lament the human desecration of God’s creation with calls for creation care (e.g., “Touch the earth lightly”). Very few explicitly unite human singers with the rest of creation as fellow worshipers of God (“All creatures worship God most high” being a notable exception). What would it sound like to sing with all creation more intentionally? This session builds on the theological insight that all creation worships God and that human expressions of worship should be integrally connected to this universal song of praise. From ancient sources, such as Psalm 148 and the Benedicite, to contemporary resources, this practical workshop explores ways to join our voices with the non-human world in praise and prayer. It also points to gaps in the church’s repertoire of song where songwriters and worship leaders can experiment with creative new ways to sing with all creation.