mquivik

BA in English education, St. Olaf College, 1972; MA in the history of education, Columbia University, Teachers College, 1977; MDiv, LTSP, 1994; PhD in Worship, Proclamation, and the Arts, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, 2003; pastorates in Montana (1993-98) and Minnesota (2002-05).

Dr. Melinda Quivik teaches both liturgy and homiletics. She is committed to the integration of the two fields. Her courses include foundational courses in liturgy and homiletics and electives in both fields, including life passages, baptism and initiation, the purposes of preaching, narrative and imagination in preaching, lectionary and liturgical year, preaching resurrection, and others. Ordained in 1994, she has served congregations in Montana and in Minnesota. 

Deeply committed to the ecumenical ordo, Dr. Quivik's primary research focuses on how meaning is constructed in the assembly through symbol, paradox, law and gospel, and in the assembly’s participation in worship through both word and sacrament.

During the development stage of the ELCA worship book, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Dr. Quivik worked in a number of capacities with the Renewing Worship project: as a member of the preaching consultation on "Principles for Worship," as a member of development panels for the Holy Communion and Life Passages liturgies, as a presenter of the Renewing Worship materials—proposed hymns and liturgical rites—in several synods, and as an organizer of testing and evaluation of the holy communion settings. She serves on the candidacy committees for the Metro New York Synod and Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, Eastern Panel. At the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Florida, she preached for one of the daily eucharists.

Her publications include the forthcoming Serving the Word: Preaching in Worship (Fortress Press, 2009); A Christian Funeral: Witness to the Resurrection (Augsburg Fortress, 2005); essays on Anamnesis, Liturgical Theology, Ritual, and Worship in New Westminster Dictionary of Theology (Westminster John Knox, 2009);  “Re-Assembly: Participation as Faith Construction,” in Centripetal Worship edited by Timothy Wengert (Augsburg Fortress, 2007); the Holy Week reflections for New Proclamation, Year A (2007-2008) Advent through Holy Week  (Augsburg Fortress, 2007); contributions in Sundays and Seasons, the journal Liturgy, other homiletical helps, and publications of the ELCA Worship Office, including the preaching section in With the Whole Church.

Dr. Quivik has taught at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, and the ACTS lay school of theology in the ELCA Virginia Synod. She has given workshops and lectures on liturgical theology, the liturgical year, life passages, various preaching topics, and aesthetics.

A member of the North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL), she has worked with the Liturgical Language Seminar since 1997 and for five years convened the seminar. She is currently a member of the Liturgical Hermeneutics Seminar of NAAL. Dr. Quivik is a member of the Academy of Homiletics and the Society for Biblical Literature.