This is a practice that we have used in our schools which uses poetry to consider a subject or a moment in the church calendar. It is a meditative and contemplative event where students prepare to read the poems (chosen according to their relevance and exploration of a subject or liturgical event) and meditations on the poems. They are often accompanied by musical interludes or paintings. We have discovered that employing literature in a manner that addresses its academic elements but leads us into worship is a type of embodied learning discussed in James Smith’s book “Desiring the Kingdom.” This is appropriate for all members of the school community: parents, board members, teachers, administrators. We encourage you to come and experience this liturgy with us and transplant it to your own school this year.
Christine Perrin
Christine Perrin has taught literature and creative writing at Johns Hopkins University, Messiah College, Gordon College’s Orvieto Program, through the Pennsylvania Arts Council to students of all ages, and at the local classical school where her husband was headmaster for a decade and where her children a ended K-12. She consults with classical schools in curriculum development and faculty development in poetry. She is a two time recipient of the PA Arts Council Artists Fellowship and a Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference Fellowship. Her own work appears in various journals including The New England Review, Image, TriQuarterly, Blackbird, and Christianity and Literature, The Cresset. “The Art of Poetry” a text book for middle to high school students was published in 2009 by Classical Academic Press. She attended Johns Hopkins as an undergraduate and the University of Maryland for graduate school. She keeps a blog at: h p://blog.classicalacademicpress.com/poetry
Jesse Hake
Raised in Taiwan by missionary parents, Jesse studied history at Geneva College (Beaver Falls, PA) and the University of St Andrews (Scotland) before marrying Elizabeth and taking his rst teaching job in Washington DC. Jesse has been teaching college and high school students for over nine years, with six of them at Covenant Christian Academy, a classical Christian school in Harrisburg, PA. At Covenant, Jesse has taught literature, rhetoric, theology and history as well as facilitating faculty development and overseeing upper school culture and discipline.