Emmanuel College Principal HyeRan Kim-Cragg and Professor Mona Tokarek LaFosse are pleased to announce a new project at Emmanuel College for the 2024-25 academic year entitled, “Trauma-informed Worship Leadership: Empowering International Graduate Students for Effective Trauma-informed Ministry,” or TiM for short.
Wing Yi Wong and HyeLim Yoon, both international PhD students at Emmanuel College, helped create the project and will facilitate sessions with Kim-Cragg and LaFosse. The project involves eight other international graduate students, mostly PhD students working in the areas of homiletics, liturgy, music and the Bible. They also serve local Christian congregations in the Greater Toronto Area.
By drawing on their lived experiences and ministry leadership, the participants will consider the realities of trauma - especially trauma related to migration - that leaders and worshippers bring into their experience of worship, recognizing that trauma manifests in many forms. Engaging four areas of inquiry - space, symbol/art, Scripture, and supplication - they will reflect, practise and create trauma-informed worship. This project endeavours to benefit the participants and their congregations and will also culminate in an online worship resource and co-taught course on “Embodied Reading of the Bible for Preaching” by Kim-Cragg and LaFosse.
This project is made possible through a Vital Worship Vital Preaching Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Grand Rapids, Michigan, with funds provided by Lilly Endowment Inc.