25 August 2024
by The Revd John Bell
For many people the term “church music” immediately suggests the sound of organs, choral music or praise bands. The two former are the subject of academic study, countless publications of sacred music and almost as many CD recordings. The latter is commonly regarded as either an inconvenience or a blessing, depending on the liturgical culture and musical sensitivity of the worshipper.
What would be less likely to have immediate resonance is congregational song. It is not something about which many PhD theses or books are written. Nor is it well served with training courses or graded examinations. For these and other reasons, it often has a low priority in local congregation and national church life – as the 1992 Archbishops’ Report on church music, In Tune With Heaven, witnesses.
Incarnation is rarely used regarding the renewal of church music… Yet it is essential and should be the model for all kinds of Christian revival
Yet, historically, it was the stuff of reformation – Lutheran, Calvinist and Anglican. Martin Luther’s theology suffused texts which he and his co-religionists wrote; they were the means by which the laity began to understand the purposes of God as distinct from the legalism of the Church. The Calvinist and Anglican reformations were more focussed – as regards hymnody – in having the Psalms, the texts endorsed by Jesus himself, sung as a common canon for all believers.
And when dissident Anglicans rallied to the cause of the Wesley brothers, they were introduced to the relatively alien phenomenon of hymns which nourished spirituality and commitment. These were in form and musical setting distinct from, and often preferable to, the “traditional” diet of scriptural paraphrases set to common metre tunes.
But gone – or so it seems – are the days when priests and pastors would studiously ponder what should be sung in forthcoming services of worship, in preference for choosing that which “the congregation knows and likes.” Should personal taste be the primary arbiter for appropriate praise? Or is there a fear that small congregations are so fragile that a new text, a new tune, a new musical initiative might lead to dissension in the ranks?
The word incarnation, usually associated with a mid-winter babyfest, is rarely used regarding the renewal of church music. It does not have much of a choral or diapasonal tone about it. Yet it is essential and should be the model for all kinds of Christian revival, for it indicates that God invests in ordinary people and renews not from above but from below.
The term “limited resources” is often used as an apology as to how a particular congregation and its musicians are insufficient for the task. Once articulated it becomes the equivalent of a diagnosis of rigor mortis. But what if the rumour (and we all live by rumours) were to be reversed, and we dared to believe that in any congregation there might be limitless resources if only we were bold enough to identify them?
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The Revd John Bell is the guest speaker at the The Royal School of Church Music Annual Lecture at St Thomas’s Church in Salisbury on September 18. He is a hymn writer and broadcaster whose passion for social justice and inclusion echoes through his work. John’s work alongside the Wild Goose Resource Group has included leading workshops on liturgy, music, spirituality and social justice in the UK, North America and further afield. He worked with the Iona Community for more than 40 years.
This is an RSCM event – details and booking via the link below
The following month, Sarum College is running A History of Sacred Music by Women a half-day online on October 17, led by Salisbury Cathedral Precentor, The Revd Canon Anna Machan.
This is a Sarum College event – details and booking via the link below
A History of Sacred Music by Women
Read Anna Macham’s post on women & sacred music:
Women Composers Who Made Music Against the Odds
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