Waterloo, ON.

Re: Aesthetics in worship, June, p. 17

Thanks for a splendid June issue. Much there to chew on. I was particularly pleased to note Nathan Fong’s article. That’s a subject we don’t address often enough in our conversations about mission.

There’s more to be said on the subject. We cannot NOT use the arts in worship. The question is not shall we or shall we not use the arts. We simply cannot avoid using the arts: If not these architectural arrangements, these movements and gestures, these rituals and ceremonies, these hymns, these vestments and paraments, then surely others.

As Nathan points out, the arts speak, communicate, teach, instruct. They are a media of meaning. Woe to the worship planners who are insensitive to what the arts are saying in their particular parish. Sometimes the arts speak more clearly and persuasively than our sermons.—Rev. Paul Bosch, Waterloo, Ont.