SUMMER 2023
CENTENARY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Rooted in Resurrection
W
ith this issue of Sightings & Soundings, we come to the end of a program year, one full of vibrancy, growth, energy, and joy. Music & Arts at Centenary has flourished in this post-pandemic era, deepening worship experiences for our congregation and expanding Centenary's presence in the community. We've developed a music series that reaches wide, we've established a devoted space for visual art, and we've welcomed hundreds of community members into our sanctuary. As we reflect on where we've come from and where we are called to go, contemplative theologian and late Winston-Salem resident Beatrice Bruteau (1930-2014) lends a perspective which I find inspiring, particularly as we continue on in the afterglow of the Resurrection. Bruteau suggests that we, as heirs to the Resurrection, are newly empowered to view the whole of reality from a radical vantage point: We are looking now from a point of view that is rooted in our sense of our own reality in God. It makes everything look quite new to us, and our new ability to offer love-and-meaning energy to our world helps it to become "new." Indeed, we are called to be co-creators of newness in concert with God, and God's gifts of music and art provide us with tangible ways of doing just that. Music and art draw us toward a different order of reality, deeper modes of expression, and higher levels of perception. Bruteau goes on to describe the fruits of this reoriented focus: Perceiving creative action and interaction as reality itself, we feel ourselves fully living, full of the richness of God's life, the interior fountain that never fails. The beloved hymn “How Great Thou Art” will lie at the center of 11:00 AM worship on June 25, a festival worship service that will officially conclude our program year. That day, may we heed the call to consider, in awesome wonder, the world's God's hands have made. May we be moved that our souls would sing. And may we depart that day eagerly anticipating a 2023/24 program year filled with new opportunities to create, to express, and to root ourselves in the richness of God's Resurrection life. Jonathan Emmons Director of Music Ministries