Michael Mills, OSA, CWA: ArtistWe are delighted to feature the works of ELCIC pastor and artist Michael Mills, OSA, CWA [e-mail] at the tops of the pages at Lift Up Your Hearts.
Pastor Mills, of Toronto, Ontario, is an accomplished liturgical artist and designer. He is perhaps most widely known in the ELCIC for his engaging and elegant design of the worship space for the 1997 ELCIC National Convention held in Toronto. Thanks in no small measure to Pastor Mills and his team, worship, as a medium for welcome, really came into its own at the 1997 convention!
Pastor Mills was a leader at the Eastern Synod's Discovery '99 where his lovely Covenant Triptych, on loan from the ELCIC's national collection, formed part of his presentation. Pastor Mills was an artist in residence at River of Life, the ELCIC's 1998 national worship conference.
Pastor Mills designed the logo of the familiar image of a presiding minister entreating
people to "lift up their hearts" in the eucharistic liturgy for Lift Up Your Hearts, the
ELCIC's
1996 national worship conference. The image has since served on the splash
page of the ELCIC's Lift Up Your Hearts worship and spirituality web site
where a number of Pastor Mills' works can be found. Pastor Mills designed
the medal awarded to the ELCIC's Companions of the Worship Arts, an honour he, himself received in
2002. The original design is also part of the national collection of the church.
Pastor Mills has a special concern for the environment for worship. He has been in demand as a consultant in connection with the redesign and refurbishment of congregational worship spaces. He has served on a number of worship planning teams for a variety of synodical and national conventions and similar events. He has also served as a presenter and worship leader at Eastern Synod spiritual retreats.
In 2001, Pastor Mills was accepted into the Ontario Society of Artists. The OSA was founded in 1872 and is Canada's oldest continuously operating art society. Pastor Mills is active in the Toronto arts community as an exhibitor and juror. Pastor Mills designed the processional cross for the ELCIC's 2003 national convention. Visitors to the parishes in which Pastor Mills has served will have delighted in his ability to take ordinary items and an ordinary space and to transform them.
Pastor Mills maintains a website at www.studiomills.com.
Pastor Mills serves as pastor at Advent Lutheran Church, Toronto, a congregation of the Eastern Synod. His pastoral leadership there has been received with warmth and gratitude. Pastor Mills expounds a strong and loving theology of grace. A graduate of Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, ordained in 1991, Pastor Mills has also served the congregations of St. Philip Lutheran Church (Kitchener) and First Lutheran Church (Vancouver).
