2025 Institute

Rites of Passage: Engaging Occasional Practitioners in a Secular Age

he American religious landscape is characterized by declining participation in religious institutions, increasing uncertainty about matters of faith, and a growing population identifying as non-religious. Nevertheless, many people continue to turn to churches at some of the most significant moments in their lives—such as the birth of a child or the loss of a loved one—and many others show up to support them.

Most of our planning resources are directed at the Sunday assembly. Yet, baptisms, weddings, and funerals are liturgical events rich in their potential for service and outreach. How might we more fully consider the possibilities of these occasions to be better prepared to serve a decreasingly churched culture?

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First Things First

Let’s Explore

April 28 – 30
ILS 2025

At last year’s Institute, Rev. Dr. Sarah Kathleen Johnson introduced the idea of occasional religious practice to describe a way of relating to religion that is characterized by participation in religious practices occasionally rather than routinely, most often in connection with certain types of occasions, including holidays, life transitions, and times of crisis. She encouraged us not to rush to judge occasional practitioners’ lack of involvement or to come to hasty conclusions about why they are seeking out these practices but instead to listen to and learn from them. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay up to date on the 2025 conference.

2025 Institute

Live Streams and Resources

Click links to view live streams and resources from ILS 2025.

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Live Streams On YouTube

Monday, April 28, 2025

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Resources

Past commissions and papers

Since its founding, the Institute of Liturgical Studies has served as a gathering place for church leaders, congregations, scholars, and ecumenical partners who steward and nurture the church’s liturgy and song. Presentations, workshops, and conversations originating at the Institute have informed a number of written worship resources and scholarly publications; texts and music commissioned for or “field-tested” during the Institute have, over time, appeared in several congregational resources including Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), Lutheran Service Book (2006), and All Creation Sings (2020).

While many of the Institute’s papers and presentations can be accessed through ValpoScholar, the following sections feature liturgical texts and music commissioned by the Institute. Some materials have been made available for download through generous permission of their creators, and links are provided for published resources.

We invite you to download and utilize these resources in your setting, acknowledging their creators or the Institute in locally designed materials.

Plenary Presentations and Other Papers

Browse and download papers presented at past Institutes.

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Calling & Spiritual Life