As you make plans to celebrate the festivals of Pentecost and Holy Trinity and look ahead to summer worship, consider the following ways to explore All Creation Sings.
Day of Pentecost
Try worshiping in multiple languages through either song or spoken word. Has your assembly worshiped using ACS Setting 11, a fully bilingual setting in Spanish and English? Watch this video from Bishop Felix Malpica as he gives pointers for beginning the process of bilingual worship. Audio recordings of the music in Setting 11 are available to support your introduction process.
Sing “Come, Holy Spirit” (ACS 940) as a gathering song or around a time of prayer. This video from Music that Makes Community shows how it can be taught to an assembly.
Teach your choir “As the Wind Song” (ACS 943). A lovely two-part arrangement by Helen Kemp in the St. Olaf Choirbook for Women can be enhanced with free instrument parts for chime tree and glockenspiel. Subscribers to Prelude Music Planner can download this anthem (titled Wind Song) as well as an arrangement for SATB choir and handbells (Published by Choristers Guild).
Holy Trinity
Explore rich imagery for God by getting to know the “Scriptural Images for God” (p. 268 in the Pew Edition). This blog post gives one pastor’s perspective on this helpful appendix. Another post written prior to the publication of ACS gives helpful background on the inclusion of this content.
Experience more fully the richness of Trinity in ACS through Kids Celebrate the Trinity, a booklet for kids but also super helpful for their grown-ups. Purchase in advance and have available for kids in worship that day and throughout the year.
Sing the hymn “The Play of the Godhead” by Mary Louise Bringle. This video will introduce you to the text and tune.
Summer
Discover All Creation Sings outside of worship with an intergenerational event using Gather Together: 8 Intergenerational Events to Explore All Creation Sings. Perhaps you have a session close to Trinity Sunday and use “Image-ine the Possibilities: An Event about the Images of God.”
Plan for next year’s choir season by choosing some anthem arrangements of hymns in ACS. This is an excellent way for the choir to introduce unfamiliar texts and tunes to the assembly. This PDF available from Augsburg Fortress offers several suggestions from multiple publishers.
Use the Service of Word and Prayer as the scaffolding for a brief summer outdoor worship. This video gives help for using the service.
Dig Deep into the All Creation Sings website, especially if ACS is new to you. You’ll find many more articles, videos, and webinars as well as PDFS and image files to assist in any introductory events.
