The records in this series were collected by Ralph Van Loon in his capacity as Coordinator for Worship of the LCA. Records include annual reports, papers, bibliographies, budgets, newsletters, committee documents, correspondence, surveys, evaluations, and drafts of liturgical text and music as well as hymn music and text for the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW). Many items in this series are not Van Loon's copies of official Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) documents but are LCA DPS administrative files dealing with the ILCW. The records range from 1968 to 1978, but the bulk of the records is from the mid to late 1970s, when the Lutheran Book of Worship was nearing completion and the ILCW was approaching its end. Some correspondence is in a separate file folder, but other correspondence is arranged by subject and incorporated within the other files, such as correspondence regarding the Contemporary Worship series. Correspondents include local pastors who used the Contemporary Worship series, other ILCW participants, and LCA officials. The most significant portion of this series is devoted to surveys done by the LCA regarding the Lutheran Book of Worship. Files on this subject include Hymn Survey; ILCW Testing, Evaluation Instrument and ILCW Testing, Test Congregations; New Hymnal and New Hymnal Responses; Review Committee; Supplementary Information for Pastors' Review of Liturgical Texts; Survey of Hymns; and all Test files. These files include correspondence from LCA pastors as well as reviews concerning the Lutheran Book of Worship. They also include criticisms and suggestions regarding all aspects of the LBW. The Comparative Hymn Lists were prepared by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) Commission on Worship (Fred L. Precht served as its Executive Secretary and Kay E. Cogswell as its Secretary). The ILCW Copyrighted Material for Editorial Use and Review Purposes Only are booklets of material prepared for ILCW participants. The Hymns are simply hymn texts and music that were under consideration for the LBW. The Progress Report contains a draft of and rationale for the order, music, and text of the LBW. Seminary Colloquia on the New Liturgy was a program by the LCA to provide for a thorough review of the liturgy proposed by the ILCW. The files are sub-divided and include correspondence with William G. Rusch and Robert J. Marshall. Rusch was director of the LCA's Department of Ecumenical Relations in the Division for World Mission and Ecumenism and Marshall was president of the LCA.
