Students sang, prayed, and chanted in Christ Chapel during EvenPraise, a service of liturgical prayer combined with contemporary worship hosted by the Student Ministries Board April 7. 

The service lasted for approximately an hour and included traditional songs and chants, prayers officiated by College Chaplain Rev. Adam Rick, and modern worship music. 

Rick said EvenPraise took elements from the staple Sunday Evensong service, which features liturgical hymns, but is not something many students are familiar with.

“Our thought was to take the bones of Evensong as an evening prayer service and put on them the flesh of more contemporary expression, in order to introduce Evensong to students in a form they might be more familiar with, but also to experiment with how traditional liturgy and contemporary expression might come together,” Rick said.

According to the evening’s program, EvenPraise is built around convergent worship.

“Pushing beyond mere matters of ‘style,’ convergence attempts to build upon the rich biblical, theological, and historical roots of traditional order an expression which is contextualized for a particular community,” the program read.

Sophomore Rebekah Preston, who attended and enjoyed EvenPraise last semester, said that she liked the program’s convergent setup.  

“I think the traditional aspects give it a really nice rhythm, and the modern songs allow the modern audience to participate more fully,” she said.

Senior Ingrid Dornbirer, a Student Ministry Board member and singer for the EvenPraise service, said the goal was to combine different aspects of praise and worship from different denominations. 

“As we joked as we were tabling, it’s kind of give a little, take a little here and there,” Dornbirer said. “It was providing a space for everyone to feel comfortable in worship, and then maybe also see something they’ve never seen before and find that it’s also really good and a blessing.”

Dornbirer worked for Rick independently in the chaplain’s office as a social media manager in her junior year before becoming a member of the Student Ministry Board this past fall. The board is dedicated to fostering ecumenicalism on campus and running events that are welcome to everyone.

“We’ve seen it be really successful this year with even praise, with our various events,” Dornbirer said. “We had a great turnout — lots of lots of good support and people who can get behind our mission.”

Dornbirer said the ministry board changed up the music program of EvenPraise by adding new chants and songs as well as using microphones and guitar amps.

“We changed a little bit of the order, had the worship at the end, and found that that was a good way to close the service,” Dornbirer said. 

She said the group of music leaders were assembled from people currently involved in campus ministries and who have been supportive of Student Ministry Board events. 

“Rachel Hintze being an example — she helps with SOMA and is part of InterVarsity and a couple other people in that way, who we know have musical talent and we also know have the same kind of heart for ecumenicism on campus,” Dornbirer said. “They were more than willing to help again this semester so that was really fun to have the same team both semesters.”

Sophomore and EvenPraise pianist Eleanor Whitaker said the service changed her mind about the variations of worship in different circumstances. 

“Variety is important in melody and music,” Whitaker said. “Worship takes a variety of different forms and I think EvenPraise shows people a new different form of music.”

Rick said the Taizé chants, a liturgical tradition used by monks, are a special favorite of his.

“Taizé chants are a similar attempt as EvenPraise as a whole of taking traditional liturgical texts, and setting them to styles of music that make them more broadly accessible to a wider swath of Christians,” Rick said. “They’re very meditative, and they’re obviously very scriptural because the texts are from the Bible.”

Whitaker said she especially liked the addition of two pieces of Taizé music, “The Lord Is My Light” and “The Lord Is My Song.”

“They’re meant to be kind of repetitive and going through — they’re meant to be prayers and they’re meant to be contemplated, that was some music I haven’t been exposed to before,” Whitaker said. “You don’t just have to be doing something all the time.”

Dornbirer said while some parts of the musical program were harder for her as a music leader, due to the amount of words and rhythm specificity, she loved the challenge of learning something new.

“My favorite part was getting into the rhythm of the music and also being able to read Scripture as well as chant,” Dornbirer said. “It is a really cool experience getting to experience the whole psalm in one setting, as well as feel the poetry and rhythm of it.”

Whitaker said her favorite part of the service was the Trisagion hymn— a part of Orthodox Divine Liturgy— and the sung Lord’s Prayer.

“It’s a beautiful transition that showcases our reverence toward God,” Whitaker said. “And then we make a key change and when you jump into the ‘Our Father…’ and you’re like ‘What?’ You’re praising God and then you sing a song, that prayer that you’re very familiar with in this song form, and the music of that song reflects how you should act in the prayer.”

Whitaker said the music reflects the meaning of the words, which adds a new dimension to the prayer through singing.

“When ‘your kingdom come’ comes, you’ve got some bold chords there and you’re like ‘Yes!’” Whitaker said. “‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ and it grows.”

Dornbirer said the community of the team that helped with EvenPraise and their prayer before the service shaped her mindset of joy and gratitude.

“At the very beginning of it, we just prayed, and we gave it to the Lord,” Dornbirer said. “I had a growing appreciation for the space, the turnout, the people who were there as well as the people who were serving through leading the worship — getting to be in community as a team was really cool.”

Whitaker said she liked the redemptive path traced by the structure of EvenPraise.

“It follows a path that starts with confession in coming to God,” Whitaker said. “But then you have Scripture passages that remind you about the power of God, his forgiveness of sins, and you end the service with a reverence towards God and praise.”