As Theresa Honey Youngblood says in our soulful home packet this month – With each choice we make, as “to open or close, to include or exclude, to engage or refrain from acting, to share or withhold, to change or remain the same” we make and remake pluralism.
In musical terms, this feels like a dance to me. We move with our choices over time and in consort with the world within and the world around us.
One way we practice or don’t practice our pluralism is through our musical choices. As Matt Meyer points out in his recent series diving into the history of Unitarian Universalist congregational singing “[choirs, hymns, and psalm-chanting] had been ebbing and flowing in Christianity for centuries. And each of them, in reverse order, would be re-discovered and reinvented by our congregations.”
I encourage you to check out his series to learn more about our long history of music making within the context of Unitarian and Universalsit life and around the larger world these schools lived in:
A Journey into Congregational Singing – Matt Meyer
What to Sing: Psalms vs. Blasphemy & a Question of Content
How to Sing: Chants vs. Hymns & a Question of Form
Who Should Sing: Performance vs Participation
With What to Sing? Adding Instruments or Going Acapella