Join The Hymn Society for a four-part webinar series exploring how to bring meaningful congregational song to Holy Week services. Expert clinician pairs will share practical approaches for both formal and informal worship settings, offering planning foundations and specific suggestions for each major service.
Live sessions at 2:00 pm ET with Q&A:
Registration:
Jennifer Baker-Trinity, Deacon, serves as Program Manager for Worship Resource Development, a shared position between the ELCA and Augsburg Fortress Publishers. In this position she develops, edits, and teaches about resources that support the church’s worship. Jennifer completed her studies at Valparaiso University and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. She has been active as a member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and has been a member of the Hymn Society, most recently assisting with program planning for the 2025 conference. Jennifer has served as a church musician in Illinois, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, and has been a writer for several devotional and worship resources. She especially enjoys crafting reflections for hymn festivals. She lives in Shoreview, Minnesota, with her spouse and three children.
Donté Alexander Ford is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and serves the Wheaton College community as Assistant Professor of Music and Associate Chaplain for Worship Arts. He is an alumnus of Penn State University (BA), Southern Methodist University (MSM, MM, MDiv), and the University of Arizona (PhD) and is best described as a musician, minister, and scholar. At Wheaton, Donté teaches Principles in Music and Worship Ministry, coaches Chapel Bands, oversees the music and worship arts offerings in Chapel worship, serves as the director of the Worship Arts Certificate, and since 2022, Opera Music Director and Conductor.
Donté’s many musical talents have afforded him the opportunity to serve as guest clinician/conductor, lead pianist, opera chorister, resident percussionist, and Minister of Music. His musical activities also include composing, as he is a published composer with GIA Publications, Inc. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Sankofa Chorale, a multi-ethnic choral ensemble that preserves and perpetuates African American Choral music while performing that music alongside choral masterworks of the Western European choral canon.
As a scholar, Donté focuses his efforts on the history and preservation of Black American concert and popular music, church hymnody and congregational song, as well as the history, theology, and music of African-American Pentecostalism. His scholarly work includes lectures on African American choral art forms and contributions to the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology and UM Discipleship Ministries’ History of Hymns.
Register NowZebulon M. Highben is Director of Chapel Music at Duke University Chapel and Associate Professor of the Practice of Church Music at Duke Divinity School. He conducts the Duke Chapel Choir and Schola Cantorum, teaches courses in sacred music and worship, edits the Music from Duke Chapel choral series with MorningStar Music/ECS Publishing, and oversees Duke Chapel’s extensive music program. More than seventy of Zebulon’s choral and liturgical compositions are published by eight domestic publishing houses and by Gehrmans Musikförlag in Sweden. Compositional honors include awards from the American Composers Forum, the American Harp Society, The American Prize, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, ASCAP, the Bach Choir (UK), The Hymn Society, and North Dakota State University.
Dr. Lisa Hancock, Director of Worship Arts Ministries at Discipleship Ministries, holds a Master of Sacred Music and a Master of Theological Studies from Perkins School of Theology, and a PhD in Religious Studies from Southern Methodist University. During her career, she has served as an organist and music minister in United Methodist congregations in the Horizon Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church. Lisa’s doctoral work focused on the doctrine of Christ, disability, and atonement, and she now serves as the co-lead of Growing in Grace, an initiative of Discipleship Ministries that assists local churches, denominational leadership, and parachurch organizations in the work of forming all children into anti-ableist Christians through worship.
Register NowRev. Dr. David Gambrell is associate for worship in the denominational offices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He was an advisory member of the committee that produced Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal (WJK, 2013) and co-editor of the latest edition of the Book of Common Worship (WJK, 2018). David is a representative to the Consultation on Common Texts, the ecumenical body responsible for the Revised Common Lectionary. He is author of Breathing Spirit into Dust: Fifty Hymn Texts (GIA, 2015) and Presbyterian Worship: Questions and Answers (WJK, 2019), and editor of the Connections Worship Companion series (WJK, 2021–2024).
Chris Shelton is the pastor of the Broadway Presbyterian Church in New York City. His first collection of hymns, Sing No Empty Alleluias, was published by GIA in 2021. His hymns have been included in Voices Together; in the recent hymnal supplement of the Church of Scotland, God Welcomes All; and on GIA’s ongoing Unbound online resource. Chris grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, studied Drama and Music at Texas Woman’s University, and earned his Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 2003. As a pastor, Chris has served communities in New Jersey and New York. Chris journeys through life with his husband, Kevin, and their 9-year-old son, Ciaran.
Register NowDavid Anderson serves as Editor-at-Large for GIA Publications. Additionally, he serves as Director of Pastoral Music and Liturgy at Ascension and St. Edmund Parish in Oak Park, Illinois. Since 1992, David has prepared and coordinated monthly prayer services in the spirit of Taizé, which brings together hundreds of people from many Christian traditions at each gathering. David completed a Master of Church Music at Concordia University, and a Master of Liturgy and Ministry at Catholic Theological Union, both in Chicago. In 2024, he received the Doctor of Pastoral Music degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He is a regular presenter at conferences throughout the country, speaking in the areas of liturgical music, the Community of Taizé and other contemplative and ecumenical prayer outreaches.
Megan Mash grew up in Independence, MO and began playing piano at the age of seven. She was active in the music program, both as a participant and leader, in her home church. Megan earned a Bachelor of Arts in music and religion from Simpson College in Indianola, IA. She earned a Masters of Sacred Music with a concentration in organ from Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology. She studied organ with Larry Palmer, conducting with David R. Davidson, children’s music with Julie Scott and hymnody and church music with Michael Hawn and Christopher Anderson. She is currently a Doctorate of Pastoral Music Candidate at Perkins School of Theology. Megan has served The Hymn Society of the United States and Canada as a Deborah Carlton Loftis Ambassador, chaired the centennial collection committee, and is currently serving on the Executive Community as secretary. She is also a member of the American Guild of Organists, The Fellowship, and Choristers Guild. Megan has been serving churches full-time since 2010 and is currently the Director of Worship and Music at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chapel Hill, NC.
Register Now