In my tenure as organist, worship planner and writer, a trusting mutuality (ORIENTATION) has developed between the congregation I serve and myself. DISORIENTATION was introduced at the 2006 retirement of our senior pastor. During the interim transition, we worked tirelessly to shape worship that would ground the worshipping community in an unchanging, faithful God. Now with new, visionary pastoral leadership, we are in a place of RE-ORIENTATION. Our worship reflects a fresh openness to the Spirit.

Walter Brueggemann’s characterization of "Psalms of Orientation, Disorientation, and Re-orientation" (Brueggemann: Praying the Psalms) suggests that each phase of life offers opportunity for transformation in our relationship with God. I wish to explore parallels to this characterization 1) for congregational worship, specifically exploring hymnody, psalmody and liturgical resources, 2) in the nurture of my own spiritual life, particularly in the spiritual practices of my own prayer life, contemplation, and liturgy of the hours (morning and evening prayer).

Because worship staff rarely have opportunity to worship on their own behalf, to be carried by great congregational song, or to allow silence to become a conduit for their own life with God, I propose this time apart, disorientation for both myself and the congregation. My proposal delineates time in these settings: Abbey of Gethsemani (Kentucky), St. Benedict Monastery (St. Joseph, Minnesota), and Iona Community (Scotland).