Introducing the 300 Themes of GatheringWorship.ca
We had a delightful time developing the many search possibilities for GatheringWorship.ca. The Gathering team worked hard to imagine what you, as the users of this worship resource, would be looking for, drawing on our own experience as worship leaders.
Most of the search filters use drop-down menus. As you start typing, you will notice that the menu is gradually refined to match what you are typing.
With the shorter menus, such as Christian Calendar and Special Occasions, it is easy to scroll through to discover the possibilities to choose from. However, we have created more than 300 themes by which you can search the worship materials.
If you are like me, you’ll want to get a sense of the whole scope of possible themes. That’s hard to do when you’re scrolling through a list of over 300 themes. So, we are providing a downloadable PDF below with the full list of themes to date.
How did we choose these themes? We started with the thematic index in the back of Voices United. We added in themes from More Voices that were not included in Voices United. Then we started looking at the whole list. We removed some themes that we did not feel would be frequently used anymore. We combined others. We updated some to reflect the terms that are being currently used in worship and theology. Then we added new terms that were not on the radar when the two hymnals were created.
The wonderful aspect of having a website is that it is flexible; we can add new themes, judiciously, as needed to address emerging theology and understandings. The thematic index in a print book, such as a hymn book, remains static. That’s why we are so delighted to offer you all the possibilities of GatheringWorship.ca.
If you think of a theme you’d love to be able to search by on GatheringWorship.ca, please send us a message. Tell us why you’d like to have that theme included, and we will consider it. Even better, submit some materials to go with that theme. We count on your submissions to make GatheringWorship.ca a rich resource for worship leaders across Canada and around the world.
Susan Lukey, Editor
