By Ben Fisher ’27 from an interview with Rev. Dr. Char Cox

In a recent interview with Rev. Dr. Char Rachuy Cox, we discussed her successes with liturgies developed as a part of the Celebrate! Worship for Every Festival series. various liturgies and how she developed them to include kids into the worship experience. The pilot liturgies include Christmas, Easter, and Ascension. The goal of these was to include a larger audience into worship, with Char saying that “it might be a way to help people realize that the worshiping life of a faith community is truly for everybody.” To do this, she shares the importance of the liturgies encouraging people to be “actively involved in leadership, in participation, in ways that are meaningful for people of all ages and and all abilities to participate in.”

The more that we can be creative and imaginative, and wonder about how do we make the liturgy living for everyone who’s participating in it, including the littlest among among us, the greater the possibility that everyone will realize that the liturgy draws us deeply into God’s story, so that God’s story can deeply inform our own lives.

Rev. Dr. Char Rachuy Cox

Rev. Char further expands on this by saying how each liturgy is supposed to be “living, and all too often we experience it as something that is not living, that it just kind of becomes this rote rhythm that we go through, and it misses its connection with our lives. The more that we can be creative and imaginative, and wonder about how do we make the the liturgy living for everyone who’s participating in it, including the littlest among among us, the greater the possibility that everyone will realize that the liturgy draws us deeply into God’s story, so that God’s story can deeply inform our own lives,” By restoring the life to liturgies, Rev. Char hopes to reach out and include even the youngest children in the worship experience. 

Through the use of music, theater, and art, kids are more encouraged to participate in worship and take a leading role in the services. For example, the Easter Liturgy had kids using bells and decorating the cross with flowers during worshiping, “helping children understand that the story is for them, that it’s about them, that it’s not just a grown up story, or it’s not just a big people’s story, but it’s a story that is truly for children as well as everybody else.” Rev. Char also mentions a quote from Lyle Griner, who is the director of the Peer Minister Network. According to him, “youth will either lead or they will leave the church,” and we need to create opportunities for them for meaningful leadership and that includes worship leadership. This is one of the main focuses of these celebration liturgies; to give even the youngest children the opportunity to be leaders and be in the spotlight of worship. 

Youth will either lead or they will leave the church

Lyle Griner

Another example of this process in action is during the Christmas liturgy where the service was interspersed with readings, hymns, and a nativity set that kids would be able to periodically add too as the service progressed. In the future, Rev. Char hopes to include a possible art show component that will allow kids to display the art they make during Sunday School and worship to the rest of the congregation. This could be done using bulletin covers that all congregation members will be able to see as they enter the church. Rev. Char also talked about the use of multiple intelligence theory and how each person learns better using specific strategies such as writing or art. By incorporating art and movement into worship, she hopes that the liturgies will be able to access these strategies for each kid, further enhancing their learning experiences. I hope to utilize her advice to make a curriculum that is more inclusive with different learning strategies.

I look forward to seeing Rev. Char’s progress with the celebration liturgies, and I pray for the best with their development and success as we move into the summer season.