Music in Christian Worship WRSP 70970/80970

Brite Divinity School/Church Music Institute

For three hours graduate credit or audit

June 22-July 3, 2026

Instructors: Dr. Charlotte Kroeker, with guest lecturers Drs. David Cherwien, Zebulon Highben, Don Horisberger,  Peter Marty, Gail Ramshaw, Don Saliers.

Prerequisites: The prerequisites Brite Divinity School requires for seminary study.

Course Description:  A foundational course for clergy and musicians about the church’s music, covering theological underpinnings in various traditions, various worship streams and how music relates to them, congregational song, choral song, music leadership, language, service planning, and staff relationships.

Class Procedures: Lectures, discussion, oral and written reports, individual projects, Daily Prayer Services using liturgy from the offices and music/liturgy studied

REGISTRATION COMING SOON!

Course Faculty:

Dr. Charlotte Kroeker, organizing professor, came to Dallas from the University of Notre Dame where she held a faculty research position in church music.  She is the author of The Sounds of Our Offerings: Achieving Excellence in Church Music, Alban Press, 2011, is editor of Music in Christian Worship, Liturgical Press, 2005, and has published numerous articles on church music.

Dr. Kroeker is trained as a performing pianist and pedagogue, spending most of her career as a college professor and administrator.  Born and raised in the General Conference Mennonite Church, she has served as organist and/or choir director in Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist congregations, concurrent with her academic appointments.  Dr. Kroeker has spent the last 15 years studying foundational issues for effective music in worship.  In this process, she has received grants from the Lilly Endowment, Louisville Institute, Wabash Center, Indiana Arts Commission, the University of Notre Dame, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, and private donors to fund research and to convene conferences, workshops, and focus groups of university/seminary faculty, church musicians, pastors and laypersons.  Dr. Kroeker oversees program development and strategic planning for CMI.

A conductor, composer, and scholar of sacred music, Dr. Zebulon M. Highben serves as Director of Chapel Music at Duke University Chapel and as Associate Professor of the Practice of Church Music at Duke Divinity School. He conducts the Duke Chapel Choir, edits the Music from Duke Chapel choral series, teaches courses in church music and hymnody, and oversees the Chapel’s extensive music program, which connects students, community members, staff singers, instrumentalists, and professional colleagues in myriad worship services and concerts.

As a composer, Zebulon is frequently commissioned by churches, schools, and arts organizations. More than sixty of his choral compositions, hymns, and liturgical pieces are published by eight major domestic publishing houses (Augsburg Fortress, Boosey & Hawkes, Colla Voce, E.C. Schirmer, GIA, Kjos, MorningStar, Santa Barbara) and by Gehrmans Musikförlag in Sweden. Compositional honors include awards from the American Composers Forum, The American Prize, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, ASCAP, and the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.

Dr. Don Horisberger holds degrees from Capital University (B.M.) and Northwestern University (M.Mus. and D.Mus.) where he studied with Karel Paukert, Wolfgang Rübsam, and Margaret Hillis.  He also studied organ and church music as a Fulbright-Hayes scholar to Germany.

His career spans service to churches in multiple denominations, with 30 years at The Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest, IL where he led adult, children’s, and handbell choirs, taking the adult choir to five week-long residencies at major English Cathedrals.  In addition, he was Associate Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus as part of his 40 year association with the CSC as singer, bass section leader, German coach.

Now semi-retired in the Madison, WI area, Don continues as guest conductor, recital organist, clinician, and lecturer.  A member of the Association of Church Musicians in Madison, he recently conducted a choral festival and played on member benefit recitals, and he continues with occasional church work, especially at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Madison.

Peter W. Marty serves as editor/publisher (since 2016) of The Christian Century, a journal devoted to shaping America’s conversation about religion and faith in public life, and for which he writes a monthly column. He is also a Lutheran pastor (ELCA) who spent 39 years in parish ministry, the last 28 of which as senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, a 3,500-member congregation in Davenport, Iowa.

A frequent preacher and speaker at churches and conferences across the country, Marty has authored hundreds of articles related to culture, character, and faith issues in our day. He is the author of The Anatomy of Grace (Augsburg Fortress, 2008). From 2004–2009, he served as host of the national radio broadcast, Grace Matters.

In 2010, the Academy of Parish Clergy named him “Parish Pastor of the Year,” an award recognizing leadership excellence and faithfulness in congregational development.

Peter has preached in some of America’s more notable pulpits including Washington National Cathedral, Duke Chapel, and Yale University. From 2010 to 2016 he served as the lead columnist for The Lutheran magazine. He is the recipient of Yale Divinity School’s Alumni Award for Distinction in Congregational Ministry (2022), and was the visiting Hoskins Fellow at Yale in 2009.

Dr. Gail Ramshaw studies and crafts liturgical language from her home outside of Washington, D.C. A Lutheran laywoman with a B.A., M.A., M.Div, and Ph.D., she is Professor Emerita of religion at La Salle University. She is a member and a past president of the North American Academy of Liturgy and a recipient of its Berakah award. She has written extensively about Christian worship, biblical metaphors, the Revised Common Lectionary, and congregational liturgical practice. Her primary publications include Mystery Manifest: The Triune God, Figuratively Speaking (2025); Pray, Praise, and Give Thanks: A Collection of Litanies, Laments, and Thanksgivings at Font and Table (2017); Christian Worship: 100,000 Sundays of Symbols and Rituals (2009); and Treasures Old and New: Images in the Lectionary (2002). In 2019 she was honored by Virginia Theological Seminary with the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 2022 with an honorary doctorate from Wartburg Theological Seminary.

Rev. Dr. Don E. Saliers returned to Candler in 2014 as Theologian-in-Residence after retiring in 2007 as the William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Theology and Worship. For many years he directed the Master of Sacred Music program at Emory, and was an organist and choirmaster at Cannon Chapel for 35 years. Before joining the Candler faculty in 1974, Saliers taught at Yale Divinity School, and has taught in summer programs at Notre Dame, Boston College, Vancouver School of Theology, St. John’s University, and Boston University School of Theology.
An accomplished musician, theologian and scholar of liturgics, Saliers is the author of 15 books on the relationship between theology and worship practices, as well as more than 150 articles, essays, chapters in books and book reviews. He co-authored A Song to Sing, a Life to Live with his daughter Emily Saliers, a member of the Indigo Girls.