The Ven. Dr. Richard Leggett (left) and the Rev. Lyle McKenzie are the Anglican and Lutheran recipients, respectively, of the 2024 Companion of the Worship Arts.
The Ven. Dr. Richard Leggett (left) and the Rev. Lyle McKenzie are the Anglican and Lutheran recipients, respectively, of the 2024 Companion of the Worship Arts.

Anglicans, Lutherans name 2024 Companion of Worship Arts recipients

April 3, 2024

In the continuing spirit of full communion, the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024 Companion of the Worship Arts (CWA).

The CWA is awarded every three years in recognition of significant contributions to the worship life of both churches. Since 2014, one Anglican and one Lutheran recipient receive the honour, recognizing ongoing inspiration and encouragement to others, and service to God, through worship, spirituality and the arts.

This year’s Anglican recipient is the Ven. Dr. Richard Leggett. With an extensive record of academic publication in the fields of liturgics and ecumenical studies, Archdeacon Leggett has been committed to using his scholarship in the service of the church. He has served in leadership roles in Anglican-Lutheran dialogue, in championing the diaconate in The Anglican Church of Canada, in contributing to active discernment of inculturation, particularly in First Nations contexts, and in liturgical textual work. His most significant contributions to liturgical development include work on revised and new texts authorized by the General Synod, most recently his careful curation of Pray Without Ceasing: Morning and Evening Prayer for All Seasons and for Ordinary Time, and his leadership of the group that created Additional Collects for the Revised Common Lectionary, both authorized by the General Synod of 2019. He is also the sole author of the Inclusive Language Psalter, commended for use across the Church.

This year’s Lutheran recipient is the Rev. Lyle McKenzie. He has served as Pastor/Developer of All Saints Lutheran in Calgary, AB, as Pastor/Chaplain of Augustana University in Camrose, AB, Pastor/Co-Pastor of Lutheran Church of the Cross in Victoria, BC, and Chaplain/Spiritual Care Provider in Multifaith at the University of Victoria. He also served for over ten years as ELCIC’s Assistant to the Bishop for Worship. Rev. McKenzie has worked on the worship planning teams of ELCIC National Conventions, Anglican Lutheran Assemblies, Alberta and BC Synod Conventions, National Worship Conferences, ordinations of bishops, pastors, and deacons, and national youth gatherings. In local contexts, he has worked with others to develop diverse and creative expressions of worship and the arts, as well as student chaplain, choral scholar, and artist-in-residence programs for young adults to share in worship training and leadership.

The CWA awards will be presented by ACC Primate Linda Nicholls and ELCIC National Bishop Susan Johnson at the 2024 National Worship Conference “STONES CRY OUT: Praying with the land,” which will take place from July 18-21, in Regina, Saskatchewan. For more information, visit www.nationalworshipconference.org.

Matthew 10:40-42

Rewards

40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

John 15:12-17

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 21:15-19

Jesus and Peter

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Luke 11:33-36

The Light of the Body

33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket; rather, one puts it on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. 36 But if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”

Matthew 8:1-4

Jesus Cleanses a Man

8 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, and there was a man with a skin disease who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”