Hymn Society - Birmingham 2010

We had a great week at Samford with old and new Hymn Society friends. This week, I was most impressed by the good ecumenical experience that these meetings provide. Every time, I come home more aware and more interested in other believers and their heritage.

I put together my own little American music conference by choosing particular small sessions to attend. Several dealt with African-American hymn traditions including the work of Tindley (a composing pastor who served a mega-church in the early 20th century), research into the second oldest African-American hymnal (presented by a distant cousin of mine, Dick Hulan!), and a session on several female African-American hymn writers. In this last session, I learned Margaret Douroux's beaatifully moving "Give Me a Clean Heart." We also enjoyed an evening of shaped-note singing, a hymn festival led by James Abbington and dedicated to the music of "the unknown bards" who wrote the spirituals (the quoted phrase comes from James Weldon Johnson's poem about those spiritual composers), and evening prayer led joyfully by our friends Stefan Waligur and Kaaren Lynn Ray. These evening prayer times featured bagpipes and took place in Hodges Chapel, which is by far the most ornate worship space I have seen in a Baptist community. Click here for a virtual tour.

The personal lessons of the week for me highlighted two of my on-going themes: the deep meaning and significance of community and the importance of thinking for one's self.

The most emotional moment of the meeting was singing "We Shall Overcome" hand-in-hand with my fellow musicians and realizing the endurance, peace-mindedness, and heroism of the many great civil rights workers whose names and deeds I need to celebrate more.

Hymn Society

We returned this week from the annual conference of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada to the sounds of band camp rehearsal on campus and breezy evening walks that remind us that the coast isn't very far away.

I can tell by the way I feel - emotionally, mentally, and spiritually rejuvenated- that Hymn Society was very good for me.

Our flight to Minnesota for the conference was my first flight, and I think I might not have been as afraid of it as I thought I was. I was still nervous, though.

The conference was at St. Olaf, which is a liberal arts school with a very strong choral tradition in Northfield, MN.



Some major memories of the conference for me follow:

The first night's hymn festival for which John Ferguson played piano and organ - Ferguson is an incredibly gifted artist who draws the congregation into worship through his insightful playing and sensitivity

Carl Daw's profound and personal texts, many of which deal with peace and the Trinity

Witnessing Brian Wren's quick mind for finding just the right word to fit the theological and poetic requirements during a workshop for text writers

Learning about David Morales's terrific work with young people in inner-city Oakland - you can read Cantare con Vivo's mission statement here

A very moving hymn festival (in which Kathy read scripture) that was structured around the parables of Jesus

Plenary sessions featuring Marva Dawn and a talk on what types of hymns Dr. Seuss would like (this was light-hearted and challenging)

Breakout sessions about performance practice for Lutheran chorales, a new collection of Psalm paraphrases by Richard Leach, a new collection of settings of texts by Fanny Crosby - many recently rediscovered texts that speak to a broader range of issues that the best-known Crosby texts, and Djembe drumming to accompany congregational singing

Lots of fresh organically-grown food raised on-campus

Video of the hymn festivals can be found here.


After the conference, we went to Duluth, MN to visit our friends, Paul and Eileen Scaringi. While there, I read Paul's dissertation which deals with freedom, creativity, and the Trinity in the works of Berdiaev and Moltmann.

Paul is the pastor of the United Protestant Church of Silver Bay, MN, which is the oldest ecumenical church on MN and is aligned with several denominations including American Baptist, Church of Christ, Methodist, and Presbyterian. Kathy sang my setting of verses from Psalm 87 which I wrote for the occasion.

After church, we did a little hiking along the cliffs beside Lake Superior.