The Elm Ensemble brings together professional and amateur musicians with great sacred music and creative worship planning to help keep the church in dialogue with diverse voices from Christian history.

Elm is a liturgical project begun by Sally and Josh Messner during their time in the Twin Cities. It grew out of their mutual affinity for liturgy, worship, and music in the Christian tradition and was nurtured and supported by the remarkable worshiping community at Christ Church Lutheran in Minneapolis.

Elm is both an acronym for Early Lutheran Music—we are interested in the composers and hymn writers from Luther to Bach, including Luther himself—and a nod to the importance of the elm tree for the urban canopy of Minneapolis, where the group began.