The Institute | Featured Leader | Schedule | About Iona | Register
Andover Newton's Summer Institute for Arts and Worship, now in its sixteenth year, is all about renewing the vitality, beauty, and faithfulness of Christian worship.
Each summer, pastors and lay people, seminarians and artists, musicians and poets gather on our hill-top campus outside Boston to explore a theme intended to revitalize and renew religious worship. The focus is on growing creatively, spiritually, and intellectually
This year’s Institute features John Bell of the celebrated Iona Community in Scotland. The theme, “God Surprising” – the refrain from one of John’s beloved hymns – provides the focus for our days together.
The shape of the institute includes creative worship, John’s morning presentations on renewing the church through passionate and engaging worship, afternoon workshops on the arts and transformation, and the chance to be with an extraordinary gathering of clergy and musicians, students and lay leaders.
Spread the word! Print out and post this flyer.
Registering for course credit:
Andover Newton and other qualified students who wish to attend the Summer Institute for course credit should register for it via normal Andover Newton course registration procedures. Additional course work and participation will be required for credit registration for the Summer Institute.
For more information about attending the Summer Institute as a credit course, please click here.
Public and non-credit registration:
The Summer Institute is open to all as a non-credit workshop. To register on line for the Summer Institute and pay by credit card or check, please click on the sign-up button to the left.
Group rates are also available. For more information about group rates and the non-credit program, please send an email to .
Featured leader:
John Bell, a native of Kilmarnock, lives in Glasgow where he studied Arts and Theology. After spells of voluntary work in London and Amsterdam and engagements in student politics, he was ordained by the Church of Scotland and has long been associated with the Iona Community. For ten years he worked in youth ministry with his colleague, Graham Maule, before giving his full attention to music and worship.
John lectures, preaches and conducts seminars across Europe, North America, Australasia, and more recently, in southern Africa. He is a hymn writer, author and regular broadcaster on national radio and television, but retains a primary passion for congregational song and worship. He and the work he shares with his colleagues has been honoured by the Royal School of Church Music, the Hymn Society in the US and Canada, and the University of Glasgow, the first and second of which bestowed on him the status of Fellowship, the third a Doctorate.
About the Iona Community:
Founded in 1938, the Iona Community is an international, ecumenical Christian community of men and women with headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland. It maintains several residential centers, including Iona Abbey, on the Scottish island of Iona, which the community restored early in its history. (First established in the 5th century, the original Iona Abbey may have been the birthplace of the famous "Book of Kells" illuminated manuscript.) The Iona Community draws its membership from many different Christian groups and from all walks of life. It is especially well known for its commitments to peace and justice issues and for its innovative approaches to Christian worship.
Schedule:
The Institute will take place June 20 - 23, 2010, on the campus of Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, MA. A complete daily schedule will be announced.
