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Friday, June 20, 2008
Christian History on Spirituals
From Christian History (as featured in a recent newsletter)
Militant abolitionist Thomas W. Higginson was the commander of the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first Union regiment made up of freed slaves. In his camps, his soldiers would break out into song, which Higginson wrote down and published in the Atlantic Monthly.
“These quaint religious songs were to the men more than a source of relaxation, they were a stimulus to courage and a tie to heaven,” he wrote.
“By these they could sing themselves, as had their fathers before them, out of the contemplation of their own low estate, into the sublime scenery of the Apocalypse. I remember that this minor-keyed pathos used to seem to me almost too sad to dwell upon, while slavery seemed destined to last for generations; but now that their patience has had its perfect work, history cannot afford to lose this portion of its record.”
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Workshop and Worship at Open Table of Christ United Methodist Church in Providence, R.I.
We were grateful to get this note and these pictures from Open Table of Christ United Methodist Church in Providence, Rhode Island, one of our current grant recipients, and share them here with permission.
We had a glorious, Spirit-filled Pentecost that touched everyone involved.
Over 20 people attended the Saturday afternoon workshop that Jorge led. At
its conclusion at 4 PM, many people asked, “Can’t we just keep going?” We
learned to think more thoughtfully about style versus content, sacred
moments and memories and how to attempt to facilitate the holy.
Jorge continued the singing and teaching at our Pentecost potluck for about
90 people, including some new Cambodian refugees.
Sunday morning was glorious with Jorge both leading music and preaching. We
sang new music and experienced a new beautiful sung communion. We had a
powerful sense that this weekend was a turning point for the church in terms
of worship renewal and that we now moving forward with greater joy,
enthusiasm, fuller conscious participation and awareness of the Holy Spirit
in our worship and in our lives.
Learn more about our Worship Renewal Grants Program
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Friday, March 14, 2008
The Old Hymns - from 1891
From Chip Stam’s Worship Quote of the Week:
Sometimes we may think that we are the first generation of Christians to experience intense discussions (or arguments) over appropriate texts, instrumentation, and musical styles for corporate worship. Not so! Today’s WORSHIP QUOTE OF THE WEEK is taken from the preface of an 1891 hymnal. The author is Basil Manly Jr., one of the four founding faculty members of our seminary here in Louisville; his argument, even 117 years ago, is that we canÆt afford to lose the old hymns. Does this sound like it could have been written in 1991?
THE OLD HYMNS (1891)
For some years it has been apparent that the rage for novelties in singing, especially in our Sunday-schools has been driving out of use the old, precious, standard hymns. They are not memorized as of old. They are scarcely sung at all. They are not even contained in the undenominational song-books which in many churches have usurped the place of our hymn books.We cannot afford to lose these old hymns. They are full of the Gospel; they breathe the deepest emotions of pious hearts in the noblest strains of poetry; they have been tested and approved by successive generations of those that loved the Lord; they are the surviving fittest ones from thousands of inferior productions; they are hallowed by abundant usefulness and tenderest memories. But the young people of to-day are unfamiliar with them, and will seldom hear many of them, if the present tendency goes on unchecked.
--Basil Manly Jr. (1825-1892), from the preface of MANLY’S CHOICE: A NEW SELECTION OF APPROVED HYMNS FOR BAPTIST CHURCHES, Louisville, Kentucky: Baptist Book Concern, 1891. This rare volume, containing only the texts of the hymns, was given to me by a friend in our church. She was cleaning out the piano bench at home and thought I might appreciate it. She was right. Thank you, Stacy. A rough count shows that there are 254 hymns; 53 authored by Isaac Watts, 22 by Charles Wesley, and 16 by John Newton.
For more information on Basil Manly, Jr., take a look at http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/m/a/n/manly_bjr.htm.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Report from trip to Singapore
Joel Navarro has returned from a trip to Singapore, where he helped lead worship and a conference for the 25th anniversary of the School of Church Music at Singapore Bible College, and provided these pictures.
Above: Lee Chung Min conducts the SBC Choirs, performing Vivaldi’s “Dixit Dominus” and Handel’s “Dixit Dominus,” at the 25th anniversary concert of the SBC School of Church Music.
Below: (from left, front row) conference presenters Glenn Stallsmith, ethnomusicologist for Wycliffe Bible Translators; Dr. Philip Chan of Hong Kong Baptist College; Dr. Joel Navarro of Calvin College.
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
“God Has Gone Up With Shouts of Joy” - song for Christ the King week
In staff meeting today we sang “God Has Gone Up With Shouts of Joy” (Sing #154), which, we noted, was written for Ascension Day but ably fits the days following Christ the King Sunday, the climax of the Christian year:
God has gone up with shouts of joy!
Christ claims the throne of glory:
immortal Word in mortal flesh
to share with God our story
of humans lost to death and sin
who ache to be invited in
to Love’s eternal blessing.
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Tuesday, November 20, 2007
“Awake, My Soul”: New Documentary on Sacred Harp
Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp
In Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp, filmmakers Matt and Erica Hinton put a camera where no camera has gone before: in the old fashioned rural churches of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi where young and old gather to sing Sacred Harp, an a cappella hymn-singing tradition with roots in post-Puritan New England. Sacred Harp was, the filmmakers contend, America’s first music, and though it all but disappeared with the changing trends in American music over the last century and a half, it was ultimately preserved—not by the academies and institutions, “but instead by unschooled rural southerners who sang it not for an audience, but for one another and for God.” Combining history, archival images, interviews, and candid recordings, Awake, My Soul chronicles the intriguing story behind this much-loved musical tradition.
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Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Mark Noll on ‘song, culture, divine bounty, and issues of harmonization’
Mark Noll, in the latest issue of Books&Culture:
What explains the power of song so powerfully to shape, anchor, encourage, disturb, unite, divide, and distract Christian communities?
It is a much better question than can be answered in a brief essay on what the churches must learn and unlearn in order to be agents of God in the world. Yet at least part of the answer is that singing is a deeply rooted expression of culture. Becoming self-conscious about culture and why, as illustrated by Christian experience of song, reactions to cultural expressions are so powerful has become imperative. With people, goods, and communications both electronic and print now flying around the globe at unprecedented speeds, and—more important—with almost all Christian communities daily confronting ever-expanding instances of cross-cultural commingling, the church’s effectiveness as the herald of salvation and the hands of Christ for service in the world depends, now more than ever, on self-conscious attention to cultural differences.
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Friday, October 12, 2007
‘Rise up church with broken wings’
In chapel at Calvin College this morning, we sang ”Shout To The North and the South,” and I was struck by the lyricism and ecclesiology of this verse:
Rise up church, with broken wings;
Fill this place with songs again,
Of our God Who reigns on high.
By His grace, again we’ll fly.
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Jimmie Abbington on NBC News
Frequent Symposium presenter and CICW Grants Advisory Board member Jimmie Abbington was featured in an October 3 NBC News report last week on musicians in the church; the video is currently available online.
Christianity Today review of Sojourn album
Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky, was one of the many worshiping communities partnering with us to explore the theme of Vertical Habits. We’re delighted that one of the fruits of their learning--their worship album “Before the Throne"--received this very affirming review at ChristianityToday.com:
[E]very once in a while, I receive an album that pleasantly surprises me on all fronts. Not only is the packaging impeccably and cleverly designed on Sojourn’s Before the Throne, but the worship band for Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky also managed a far more impressive feat: They actually wrote worship music that I didn’t feel like I’d already heard a million times before. Hard to imagine, I know.
Comprised of ten original songs—plus one cover of a hymn—Before the Throne sort of resembles the City on a Hill albums. Not only does it create a sense of community through multiple vocalists, but the songs center around similar themes, particularly the sharing of God’s peace, love, and other blessings. The CD also has an organic feel with earthy instrumentation, giving their sound a relatable, homespun quality.
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Monday, September 24, 2007
The Gospel According to Bach
From the new issue of Christian History & Biography:
For the Glory of God Alone
Fueled by his Lutheran faith, J. S. Bach devoted his life to creating music for refreshment, proclamation, and praise.
By Calvin R. StapertJohann Sebastian Bach was arguably the greatest composer in the history of Western music and a man whose staunch Lutheran faith informed his life, his career, and his view of music. He believed that music was a “refreshment of spirit,” as some of the title pages of his works stated. He believed that music was a powerful tool for the proclamation of the gospel, as his cantatas, Passions, organ chorales, and other compositions clearly show. And ultimately, he believed that music brought glory to God, as the initials SDG (Soli Deo Gloria, “To God alone be glory") at the end of most of his scores bear witness.
Related Publication
My Only Comfort: Death, Deliverance, and Discipleship in the Music of Bach
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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Remembering Linda Hollies
We were saddened to learn of the sudden death of Rev. Linda Hollies, a minister and author who participated in Symposium workshops with Jimmie Abbington on African American worship music. Rev. Hollies was the co-editor with Abbington of Waiting to Go: Advent through Pentecost and Going to Wait: Between Pentecost and Advent, and editor of Trumpet in Zion: BlackChurch Worship Resources.
From the Grand Rapids Press:
The Rev. Linda Hollies comforted women who were weary, inspired them in ministry and encouraged them to be “bodacious” in life.
She also wrote prolifically and spoke boldly when she perceived injustice.
The Rev. Hollies, 64, died suddenly Saturday night while attending a women’s conference in Phoenix, where she was to preach Sunday. Her family is waiting to hear from medical authorities there regarding her cause of death, said her daughter, the Rev. Grian Eunyke Hollies-Anthony of Grand Rapids.
“The most important thing to my mom was to be true to her calling as a woman of God in all aspects of her life,” Hollies-Anthony said. She vowed to carry on her mother’s ministry, Woman to Woman Ministries Inc., an educational resource for women of color.
continued...
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Report from National Worship Leader Conference
Report from Paul Ryan at the National Worship Leader Conference in Austin, Texas:
Tonight began the inaugural National Worship Leader Conference sponsored by Worship Leader magazine. This is a four evening, three day event in Austin, Texas, with plenary speakers, practical workshops, and many, many opportunities to worship together in song and prayer.
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Thursday, July 19, 2007
Report on visit with John Bell of the Iona Community
Report from Bethany Vrieland:
On Thursday, July 12, around 75 people gathered at First Presbyterian Church in Schoolcraft, Michigan, from Cadillac to Jackson to Kalamazoo in the Presbytery of Southern West Michigan, to spend a day with Iona Community leader John Bell. This program, which was part of a Worship Renewal Grant from CICW, was the result of much prayer and preparation, and the whole day was very effective, powerful, and smooth.
John Bell came to Schoolcraft by way of Indianapolis (and Ireland!), and it was nothing short of a miracle that he came to be in a small town, in a small Presbyterian church, in Western Michigan. John Bell, who is internationally known for his teaching and work on congregational song, has written many hymns that are used around the world today, and he makes many trips a year to teach his ideas, methods, and songs. He came to Schoolcraft to lead a day-long workshop on congregational song, which was followed in the evening by a “Big Sing”.
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Friday, July 06, 2007
Teaching Hymnology ‘07
Reports from Bethany (Meyer) Vrieland on the Teaching Hymnology seminar held last week at Calvin College:
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