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Join the Grebel Community for a special virtual chapel service to celebrate the arrival of our new hymnal Voices Together. This special service is open to the public and will feature a homiletic reflection by Distinguished Alumni award winner Sarah Johnson. The service will include music and worship resources from Voices Together.��

Register now to participate in this special virtual event (via Zoom).

Grebel’s alumni committee selected Sarah Kathleen Johnson (BA 2007, MTS 2008) as the recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Alumni Service Award. The award will be given to Sarah during this celebratory evening.

Sarah’s research and expertise has been employed by MennoMedia in the development of Voices Together, the new Mennonite hymnal.�� In a nomination letter to Grebel’s alumni committee, Executive Director of MennoMedia, Amy Gingrich, commented on Sarah’s diligence. “In addition to curating an expansive set of written worship resources, Sarah crafted a vision for worship resources that included the introduction of visual art in the hymnal as a way to broaden the experience of worship resources in our collection.”

“In her leadership role for Voices Together, Sarah has been at the centre of a very careful process of listening to the diversity of expressions across our churches, examining a dizzying array of potential hymns and worship resources for inclusion, and charting a way forward that is deeply rooted in the Christian tradition and sensitive to present context.” explained Jeremy Bergen, director of Theological Studies at Grebel. “This hymnal will shape not only the worship, but also the theology, mission, and the very identity of Mennonite churches for decades to come.”

“It has been profoundly rewarding,” said Sarah, “to facilitate a collaborative process that brings people together from across the church for important conversations about who we are, where we come from, and who we are called to be in the years ahead, and especially to consider how these questions about identity and purpose intersect in concrete and embodied ways with what we sing and pray and do when we gather for worship.”

Read more about Sarah and her involvement with Voices Together.

Noon Hour concert features Voices Together

Also on Wednesday January 27 at 12:30, the Grebel Noon hour concert series will feature Voices Together committee member Anneli Loepp Thiessen “Still Singing - Women Composers and the Voices Together Hymnal sharing stories and songs from Women.”  This is a free event and can be accessed online at the noon hour concert website.��