Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Recent History 6
God, you call us to this place, where we know your love and grace.
Here your hospitality makes of us one family,
Makes our rich diversity richer still in unity,
Makes our many voices one, joined in praised with Christ your Son. SNC 14:1
Our topic today was the development of music over the 40 year history we’re studying. We began with a chart that separated musical development into seven vibrant and diverse streams: Roman Catholic renewal hymnody, Protestant contemporary classical hymnody, African American spirituals, Revival/Gospel songs, Folk song influences, Pentecostal songs, and global and ecumenical songs. These diverse streams feed into the river of congregational song. One participant mentioned that most hymnals are a mosaic of these musical styles which make hymnals an ecumenical move. For another, hymnals connected corporate and private worship practices, as she explained through a memory of the childhood experience of taking hymnals from home to corporate worship. Another suggested the importance of the role of publishing companies and the economy; he said, “These people are priests, deciding what will be on the lips of pray-ers across the denominational spectrum.” Several also posed struggles they felt with the affect of technology on learning music and on reception of various types of music. (With iPods we never have to listen to a song we don’t like.) This session ended with a challenge to change the question: Instead of fighting issues of style, explore what would help pray a specific Psalm better.
Hawn’s Gather into One suggests the importance of singing the songs of the world as a way to interact with the people of the world and intercede for the needs of the world. This echoes a theme from our discussion of African American practices, that of avoiding Ethnic tourism. Rather than singing a song for the sake of adding global music, we sing global songs to pray for the worldwide church. A participant also pointed out that some traditions or congregations seem willing to embrace the pop culture of other ethnic groups while rejecting American pop culture, and another pointed out that the opposite is also true—some groups that are more likely to embrace American culture may also be hesitant to engage with global culture.
John concluded the day with the Nairobi Statement from the Lutheran World Federation and raised the challenge for each church and congregation to be transcultural, contextual, counter-cultural, and cross-cultural. He explained churches or traditions are typically very good at some and struggle with others, but we should all have elements in our worship that are true in every context, that engage the specific ministry context, that biblically speak against the cultural context, and that suggests unity that crosses time and place.
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