- Worship Workbench offers practical teaching about Christian worship and the preparation of liturgy from retired ELCIC pastor and liturgy professor, Paul F. Bosch, CWA. Pastor Bosch offers these essays as “shop-talk for worship leaders” with the wish that they be useful, provocative and entertaining. While Pastor Bosch speaks to the particular context of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, much of what he offers is broadly accessible to the ecumenical community.
It is with sadness that we announce the death of the Rev. Paul Bosch on January 21, 2023. Among many other contributions to ministry and particularly worship in the ELCIC and beyond, Paul wrote Worship Workbench for worship.ca for over three decades, contributing over 275 essays. Paul will be greatly missed but his legacy of thoughtfully presiding, reflecting and writing on Lutheran/ecumenical worship lives on in his words and so many who have learned and been shaped by them and by Paul. Paul’s obituary, including the date of his funeral, is below.
Rest eternal grant him, O God. And let light perpetual shine upon him.
2022 Essays:
- Essay 279 – October 2022: The Tyranny of Text
- Essay 278 – September 2022: Pre Literate Worship Pre Digital Worship
- Essay 277 – August 2022: Thousand Tongues to Sing: Honouring the Molecules
- Essay 276 – July 2022: The Sabbath
- Essay 275 – June 2022: Post-COVID Worship
- Essay 274 – May 2022: The Geographic Parish
- Essay 273 – April 2022: Speaking And Reading In Worship: Part Two
- Essay 272 – March 2022: Speaking And Reading In Worship: Part One
- Essay 271 – February 2022: Christ and Culture
- Essay 270 – January 2022: The Oxford Movement
2021 Essays:
- Essay 269 – December 2021: Architecture Always Wins: Part B
- Essay 268 – November 2021: Architecture Always Wins: Part A
- Essay 267 – October 2021: I Was a Teenage Kataphatic
- Essay 266 – September 2021: Julia Robert’s Orthodontist
- Essay 265 – August 2021: Signs in Worship
- Essay 264 – July 2021: Re-Imagining Prayer
- Essay 263 – June 2021: Leading Liturgy, Following Freud
- Essay 262 – June 2021: The Geographic Parish
- Essay 261 – May 2021: Anointing The Feet
- Essay 260 – May 2021: Re-Imagining Jesus
- Essay 259 – April 2021: Silent Sermon: Sacred Space: Easter Season
- Essay 258 – March 2021: Re-Imagining Holy Week
- Essay 257 – March 2021: Ordination
- Essay 256 – February 2021: Silent Sermon; Sacred Space: Lent
- Essay 255 – February 2021: Silent Sermon; Sacred Space: Epiphany Season
- Essay 254 – January 2021: Re-Imagining God
2020 Essays:
- Essay 253 – December 2020: “Discerning the Body” During A Pandemic
- Essay 252 – November 2020: Silent Sermon: Sacred Space: Advent
- Essay 251 – October 2020: “Couch Potato” Prayers, Part Two
- Essay 250 – October 2020: Virtual Communion
- Essay 249 – August 2020: Worship And Showbiz Theology And Theatre
- Essay 248 – May 2020: Lutheran Distinctiveness
- Essay 247 – April 2020: Good Advice
- Essay 246 – March 2020: Eschatological Prolepsis: “The Truth is Out There”
- Essay 245 – March 2020: Namaste And Concomitance
- Essay 244 – March 2020: A Classic Collect – A Spiritual Exercise in Writing Prayers
- Essay 243 – March 2020: A Blind Walk
- Essay 242 – February 2020: In Praise of 17th Century German Chorales
- Essay 241 – January 2020: Monkey Showers
2019 Essays:
- Essay 240 – December 2019: Worship Rules Part Three – For Worship Spaces
- Essay 239 – December 2019: Enlarging and Enobling the Humanum
- Essay 238 – November 2019: Worship Rules Part Two – Nine Rules for Worship Leaders
- Essay 237 – November 2019: Worship Rules Part One – For Worshipers
- Essay 236 – October 2019: The Harrowing of Hell
- Essay 235 – September 2019: The Seven Deadly Sins
- Essay 234 – August 2019: The Baptism of Christ
- Essay 233 – July 2019: A Super Graphic Wall Mural
- Essay 232 – June 2019: Welcoming Kids and Youth to Worship – Part 2
- Essay 231 – May 2019: The Vocation of Things
- Essay 230 – April 2019: Why Do They Dress that Way in Church?
- Essay 229 – March 2019: A Wound Map
- Essay 228 – March 2019: A Topical Index
- Essay 227 – February 2019: Metaphors, Myths — and The Mass and the Molecules
- Essay 226 – January 2019: Prince or Peasant
2018 Essays:
- Essay 225 – December 2018: Welcoming Kids and Youth to Worship
- Essay 224 – November 2018: Wonder, Love and Praise
- Essay 223 – October 2018: Intimate Companionship – Part 2
- Essay 222 – September 2018: Intimate Companionship – Part 1
- Essay 221 – August 2018: Enlarging the Sign
- Essay 220 – July 2018: Benedicite, Omnia Opera
- Essay 219 – June 2018: Housekeeping
- Essay 218 – May 2018: Whatever Happened to Apologetics?
- Essay 217 – April 2018: Protestant? or Catholic? or both?
- Essay 216 – March 2018: Koine Worship – Part 2
- Essay 215 – February 2018: Koine Worship – Part 1
2017 Essays:
- Essay 214 – December 2017: My Ten Greatest Hymns
- Essay 213 – November 2017: Should Christians Celebrate Remembrance Day?
- Essay 212 – November 2017: Esse, Bene Esse and Plene Esse
- Essay 211 – November 2017: A Discipline of Daily Prayer
- Essay 210 – October 2017: Receiving Communion
- Essay 209 – September 2017: The Intercessions – Their Scope and Sequence and Style
- Essay 208 – August 2017: A Spiritual Autobiography
- Essay 207 – July 2017: The Post Sermon ‘Amen’ / That After-Sermon Silence
- Essay 206 – July 2017: Posture, Position and Gesture
- Essay 205 – July 2017: Oral or Literate or Electronic
- Essay 204 – June 2017: Signs of the Kingdom 2017
- Essay 203 – May 2017: What Makes Worship Lutheran?
- Essay 202 – April 2017: Gospel Acclamations
- Essay 201 – April 2017: The Quem Queritis Trope – A Brief Liturgical Drama for Easter Morning
- Essay 200 – March 2017: The Stations of the Cross for Good Friday
- Essay 199 – March 2017: Indiscriminant Welcome to the Table: Yes or No?
- Essay 198 – February 2017: High Tech? or Low Tech?
- Essay 197 – January 2017: “Love me, Love my Religion?”
2016 Essays:
- Essay 196 – December 2016: The Great O Antiphons, Visualized
- Essay 195 – November 2016: Idol Factories
- Essay-194 – September 2016: Singing in Worship
- Essay 193 – June 2016: FOUR REASONS why High Technology is out of place in Christian Worship
2014 Essays:
- Essay 192 – July 2014: Cult and Culture
- Essay 191 – June 2104: It’s the Law in Norway
- Essay 190 – May 2014: A Worship Audit
- Essay 189 – April 2014: Worship for Grown-ups
- Essay 188 – March 2014 : Honouring all five senses in worship: Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch
- Essay 187 – February 2014: The Maniple: Symbol of service
- Essay 186 – January 2014: Appropriated Sincerity: Reading prayers out of a book
2013 Essays:
- Essay 185 – December 2013: Rescuing the Molecules: Welcoming the Unlikely (Introducing Children to Holy Communion Part Two)
- Essay 184 – November 2013: Kids and Kierkegaard: Introducing children to Holy Communion
- Essay 183 – October 2013: Obsequious before the Emperor
- Essay 182 – September 2013: Fun with Dick and Jane – At Worship
- Essay 181 – August 2013: Ushers at Communion
- Essay 180 – July 2013: Primary Experience
- Essay 179 – June 2013: Singing Together
- Essay 178 – May, 2013: “Spiritual? Yes. Religious? No.”
- Essay 177 – April, 2013: Trivia
- Essay 176 – March, 2013: Decorating Sacred Spaces
- Essay 175 – February, 2013: Taize Worship
- Essay 174 – January, 2013: Apologia Pro Vita Sua: A Spiritual Life Report