Where do sacred words belong?Not just in scrolls or books, but in places. In raised platforms and ritual movements.In voices rising from wood, stone, and memory. Since my last update, I’ve been exploring new ways to reflect on these themes — not only through writing, but through sound.One of these experiments has taken the form … More Proclaiming Holy Scriptures: In the Space Between Voice and Stone
This video, “A Workshop on Sacred Spaces and Movements in the Liturgy,” was originally a workshop for the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto, Canada, in 2018. It explores the profound connection between sacred spaces and the movements that animate liturgical worship. The workshop runs for 28 minutes and delves into how sacred architecture … More A Workshop on Sacred Spaces and Movements in the Liturgy
Calvin Institute of Christian Worship – 2022 Online Grants Event John Witvliet, moderator. David Pereyra (OCAD University) To gather diverse worshiping communities in online workshops and webinars. The goal is to create a culture of inclusion by assessing inclusive thinking. This also includes helping communities develop strategies to increase their inclusivity. Additionally, it involves gathering … More Teacher-Scholar Panel: Inclusive Worship, Reconciliation, and Public Witness
In 2021, I got a grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship that allowed us to continue our work at the Inclusive Design Research with Our Doors Are Open: Welcoming Person with Disabilities in places of Worship. The grant supports integral research that connects worship with other disciplines of study and practice. I will … More Vital Worship Scholar Grant
Many countries, communities, and individuals are working on helping refugees and migrants by creating a welcoming environment to receive millions of dislocated people worldwide. Given the tremendous global increase in forced migratory flows, Pope Francis, himself coming from an immigrant family, insists on several encyclicals (EG, AL, LS) giving excellent support and a distinctive look to migrants and refugees. In this group, some are more vulnerable than others: children, women, and people with disabilities; perhaps the latter group is the most vulnerable one. The pope says, “I would stress that dedication and concern shown to migrants and to persons with special needs alike is a sign of the Spirit. Both situations are paradigmatic: they serve as a test of our commitment to show mercy in welcoming others and to help the vulnerable to be fully a part of our communities” (AL 47). In these two sentences, Pope Francis first arises an absolute novelty in the Church Magisterium, persons “with special needs” (and not “with disabilities”), second associates them with migrants, third reinforces the idea that both are invited to become full parts of Christian Communities. From this point of view, the biblical figure best representing the person with a disability would not be the sick or the little one, but rather the stranger. If this new perception would settle permanently, the pastoral care of persons with disabilities could soon be part of the Service for Pastoral Care of Migrants, whose mission is to humanize the encounter with foreigners, to promote solidarity with the brother and sister in trouble, and to encourage local churches to welcome all of foreign origin. This paper proposes to put together “migrant” with “disability” and present a program from the Inclusive Design Research Centre for Pastoral Welcoming and Inclusion in faith communities. … More Hospitality Towards Immigrants with Special Needs in Places of Worship
In my research on Sacred Places, I agree with many scholars that only a few places are sacred for their own without human involvement, such as the Mount Temple in Jerusalem, the Great Mosque of Mecca, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, and apparition Marian pilgrimage sites. Indigenous people … More Places of Holiness and Places of Horror
In a wide variety of contexts today, we face an outbreak of conflict, in which there exists a disturbing failure to understand one another in the most vital of matters. Closely partnered with this phenomenon is the widespread rejection of all dialogue in which such an understanding might occur. Intouchables, the French film directed by … More Wholehearted Silences
INTRODUCCION El espacio sacro es un elemento que se encuentra en todas las culturas. Los cristianos desde sus orígenes no han sido ajenos a esto, pero su nueva fe los hizo mover fuera de los parámetros de su época. Por un lado, los que venían del judaísmo, su punto de referencia era el Templo de … More Las iglesias domesticas Proto-Cristianas
Death is not only an external psychological phenomenon to human beings, but also it is ontologically immanent. We must accept that death is something that will come to all of us. When we are born, we start to die, but we take long time to realize that. Acceptance of this is different between people having … More Facing and Accepting Death
Now in his early 50’s and divorced, Rémy is in the hospital. His ex-wife Louise pleads with their son Sébastien, who has become a very successful businessman in London, England, to come home. Sébastien hesitates because he and his father haven’t had much to say to each other for a very long time, but ends … More Exploring the Role of a Pastoral Care Minister through the film “The Barbarian Invasion”
Perspectives 