What do Handel's Messiah and the Heidelberg Catechism have in common? The proclamation of the gospel of Christ, of course! And we here in West Michigan were blessed to be able to hear and proclaim the gospel in many different ways this past weekend in connection with both the catechism and the Messiah.

We were able to participate in the Our Only Comfort conference, celebrating the 450th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism, that beautiful, confessional, Reformed creed we hold so dear. The conference was put on by the Protestant Reformed Theological School and sponsored by Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church. The RFPA had our own book table there, staffed by our board members who answered any questions about the Standard Bearer and the Book Club and handed out various literature and catalogs.

(The Thursday evening crowd over-flowed the sanctuary of Hudsonville PRC and over 230 people tuned in to the live-stream broadcast! -photo courtesy of Chuck Terpstra)

In case you missed the conference, Hudsonville PRC has set up a special page on sermonaudio.com with audio links to all six speeches. RFPA readers and supporters traveled far and wide for the conference (several from out-of-state and even several from Germany, Italy, and Ireland) and it was a blessing to meet and fellowship with them!

After a spiritually edifying three days at the conference (read the recaps of each day here, here, and here), a Saturday evening performance of Handel's Messiah by a Protestant Reformed choir and orchestra provided a wonderfully appropriate finale to the weekend. We mentioned this performance here on the blog a few weeks back. What a special, unforgettable night of praise and worship! We have much to be thankful for: the gift of music, the time and effort put into making this performance a reality, our wonderful, blessed Protestant Reformed church community, and most of all, for our Messiah. In case you missed the performances, here's a snippet from the end of Saturday night's performance.

The performances were both audio and video recorded, although CD/DVD sale information has not yet been released. We'll let you know when we hear any details about when and where the recordings can be purchased.

Were you able to participate in either of these events this past weekend?