November Music

On All Saints Day Sunday, we remember those of our congregation and friends & family that are no longer with us.  They will be missed but remembered by the stories that we share.  We celebrate them with songs such as “For All the Saints” (William W. Now/Ralph Vaughan Williams), “Shall We Gather at the River” (Robert Lowry), and “Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In” (African American Spiritual). I can’t think of a better way to remember our cherished ones!

November 25 at 6:30 p.m. is our Indigenous service, honoring our indigenous friends and family.  This year, the drumline from Bluebird Cultural Initiative will be our special music.  I am truly excited that the drumline is giving of their time to participate with us. Of course, there is plenty of pie to follow!  (FYI:  We will be setting up for Hanging of the Greens on Novebmer 29.)  

On another note….(get it?), I would like to thank you, the congregation, for trying something new in the service:  singing a song without words. Paperless music, if you will. In our case, no words on the screen. You are doing a fantastic job!

You ask how “paperless music” has come about.  This past spring, Pastor Heather and I attended a workshop let by Music that Makes Community where all we did was sing for an hour.  There was no music. There were no words on paper.  Yet, we learned short phrases that we could sing over and over.  There were no rules.  We could sing rounds, make our own harmony, add movement, and add instruments/percussion.  (What pleased me most is that we already do some of the songs in our worship.)  This workshop was a gentle reminder that we could use our words, our music, our motions as a way to participate in justice:  music mobilized as a form of resistance, building a sense of common unity.   

Click on Music that Makes Community and see what it is all about.  Let me know what you think!

 Musically Yours,

Becky Jones
Worship and Music Coordinator