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Tuning Our Hearts to the Psalms
How the Bible’s Songbook Can Shape Worship and Witness in Aotearoa
Dates: 17-19 July 2024
Venue: Waipuna Hotel and Conference Centre
Price: $295 + GST
In July 2024, Carey Baptist College will host a three-day conference exploring how the Psalms can inspire Christian worship and shape God’s people here in Aotearoa. The conference will gather a range of Christian leaders including students, pastors, worship leaders, scholars and creatives to explore the Bible’s songbook and prayerbook.
Through academic lectures, communal worship, and workshops for songwriters, pastors, and Christian leaders, we will imagine how the Psalms might catalyse new worship expressions sung and prayed in the mother tongues and heart expressions of the people of Aotearoa. Participants will worship together, write new Psalm-inspired songs together, and learn together how the Psalms might transform the church’s preaching, teaching, pastoral care, and discipleship.
Tickets
Psalms Conference
Wed 17-Fri 19 July 2024
Waipuna Conference Centre | 58 Waipuna Road, Mount Wellington, Auckland
If finances prevent you from attending, please get in touch.
$250-$295 + GST + Booking Fee
A limited number of earlybird tickets are available until 29 February.
Key Note Speakers
Ellen Davis
Dr Ellen F. Davis is the Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School. The author of eleven books and many articles, her research interests focus on how biblical interpretation bears on the life of faith communities and their response to urgent public issues, particularly the ecological crisis and interfaith relations. She is currently collaborating with professional dancers, musicians, and painter Makoto Fujimura on interpreting the Psalms through the arts.
Te Hira Paenga
Ko ōna kāwai nō Te Taitokerau nō Ngāti Hine, Te Kahu o Torongare, Ngāti Rangi, Te Māhurehure, Ngāti Rāhiri, Ngāi Tawake, Te Matarahurahu, Ngāpuhi. Ki te Rāwhiti ko ōna hapū ko Ngāti Konohi, Ngāti Rangi, Te Whānau a Ruataupare ki Tūpāroa, me Ngāti Kahungunu.
Te Hira is the Tikanga Māori Dean at St John’s Theological College and is currently completing his PhD through the University of Otago with a focus on theology and kapahaka.
Anameka Paenga
I pakeke mai ahau i ngā rekereke o aku tīpuna ki Ōpōtiki. He tamaiti ahau nā ōku pakeke, i waimaria ahau i ngā whakaakoranga maha o te kāinga. Ko te kapa haka tētahi o aua kura.
Anameka is the current Co-Principal of Te Wānanga Ihorangi formally Oati, who specialises in teaching, curriculum development, and resource creation. She is leading out the development and the creation of curriculum with a Theology and Te Reo Māori focus.
Jill Firth
Dr Jill Firth (PhD, Australian College of Theology) is lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament at Ridley College, Melbourne.
She has ministered in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Hong Kong, and Melbourne, and is an Anglican priest and a trained spiritual director. She has edited her PhD on lament psalms for publication and is currently writing a commentary on Jeremiah.
Brent Strawn
Dr Brent Strawn (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is a professor of Old Testament at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina with particular interests in the Psalms, Old Testament theology, Israelite religion, and ancient Near Eastern iconography. He has published over two hundred and fifty academic works and regularly speaks and preaches in churches across the United States.
*Presenting virtually.
Federico Villanueva
Dr Rico Villanueva (PhD, Trinity College/University of Bristol) is a pastor, seminary teacher, editor, and author. His book “It’s OK to be NOT OK” applies his research on Psalms of lament. Currently, he serves as Commissioning Editor for Langham Publishing and Pastoral Care Coordinator for Asian scholars of Langham Partnership. He was previously General Editor of the Asia Bible Commentary series and teaches part-time at Asia Graduate School of Theology and Ateneo de Manila University.
Michael Rhodes
Dr Michael Rhodes (PhD, University of Aberdeen/Trinity College Bristol), is lecturer in Old Testament at Carey Baptist College. His passion is to help the church hear and respond to God’s call in Scripture to become a community that embodies Jesus’s good news for the poor. At the Psalms Conference, Michael will be presenting with other Carey faculty members.
Call for Papers
Scholars, students, and others working in the theological and wider academic community are invited to propose papers intended to help attendees engage the Psalms and/or imagine how they might shape the praying, singing, and witnessing life of the church in Aotearoa.
Call for Workshops
Are you a pastoral leader, worship leader, musician, liturgist, spiritual director, counsellor, artist or poet who has used the Psalms in your ministry and have experiences and ideas to share? We wish to provide a platform to share your experience and insights into using the Psalms with other practitioners from around Aotearoa and beyond.