Looking for Lament: Exploring the Presbyterian handling of the Psalms during World War Two: Malcolm Gordon Feb 2019

Malcolm Gordon for Presbyterian Research Network, 28 February 2019.

In this paper, Rev. Malcolm Gordon offers insights into the place of lament in our Christian faith – which is often an absence rather than a presence.  In exploring our published liturgies and hymns over time, he has found a disturbing trend away from the expression of lamentation in our faith and our worship, primarily in the move away from the use of the psalms. And he asks why it is that, if we do sing or read the psalms of scripture, we prefer to use those which a bit more upbeat?  Malcolm looks at the place of the lament psalms in the church particularly in the context of the Second World War and finds them conspicuously and sometimes intentionally absent.  Yet without lament how can we be a people of faith, without lament how can we know the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  Those who lead worship in any way are encouraged to engage with this very practical paper on the theology of lament in our faith practises.

Margaret Garland, Minister, Opoho Church, Dunedin

Malcolm also wrote about this topic in the 2018 Snapshots in Mission.