Music and Liturgy, Identity and Formation
A Study of Inculturation in Turkey
- Preaching & Worship
- Evangelism & Missions
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2021
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Publisher's Description
Music and Liturgy, Identity and Formation is a one-of-a-kind book about All Saints Moda Church in Istanbul. In this book, Sue Whittaker explores the ways Dr. Turgay Ucal, the MBB founding pastor, has intuitively blended Christian faith and the local urban culture. Indigenous songs and adaptations of Reformed liturgy work together to enable worshipers to feel comfortable with Christianity. Images, customs, and gestures guide seekers into new ways to pray and live their lives. Turgay's theologically sound approach provides a welcoming Christian home for Muslims searching to connect to Allah/God. For thirty years, the practices and strategies detailed in this book have merged to clearly present the gospel message in culturally appropriate ways. The principles of the All Saints Moda Church model of inculturation can be applied to Christian ministry among Muslims in all countries and cultures worldwide.
Endorsements (4)
“Dr. Sue Whittaker’s embedded case study explores a Turkish pastor’s journey to worship God out of his culturally and spiritually Turkish and Islamically shaped heart. Using various analytical tools, Whittaker validates Pastor Üçal’s efforts to remain sensitive to the culturally shaped needs of his congregation while developing a theologically sound, culturally appropriate liturgy through which his congregation is enabled to foster their relationship with God. A worthy addition to the growing number of such studies.”
“Whittaker’s ethnodoxological research provides a delightful case study of fruitful worship inculturation in a Turkish Christian context. With profound implications beyond Muslim majority contexts, this volume explores how believers at All Saints Moda embrace and create a fully local and yet authentically Christian expression of their faith, not only in their music but through other liturgical elements such as space, gestures, contextual theology, and oral teaching styles that emphasize stories, illustrations, and cultural metaphors.”
“What a gift Sue Whittaker offers us in recounting here the life and ministry of Turkish pastor and musico-liturgist Turgay Üçal! Grounded in Scripture and rooted in Turkish musical and religious culture, some critics claim Üçal’s compositions and liturgical innovations ‘smell like Islam.’ Whittaker argues they smell like the gospel. I agree. This study is a real treasure and a model for the kind of creative conversation that needs to happen throughout the global church.”
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