A Journey into Congregational Singing
I came of age in a Unitarian Universalism that was proud of the diversity of the content of our worship. The breadth of our theology and the varied sources of our inspiration are something to behold. But I also came of age in Unitarian Universalist youth community and was moved deeply by the experience of youth worship. I grew up UU, but in some ways I still had a “conversion” experience when I first attended youth gatherings. I experienced spiritual transcendence in worship singing with other youth, spiraling into a room to sit around a chalice on the floor, or circling around a bonfire at a summer camp in the woods. It was transformative, but I couldn’t quite reconcile how differently it felt to sing with youth on a Saturday night and then attend worship in the pews on Sunday morning.
What I saw in my own congregation, and as I began to visit congregations around the country, was that the diversity of our worship content was not reflected in the diversity of form. Our increasingly diverse theologies were all held in a cultural contained of white protestant worship liturgy and music.
Over the years I’ve become increasingly curious about how Unitarian Universalism inherited our specific worship and music culture. Why is Sunday morning the only place that most of us hear organ music? Why are churches often the best, or only, place in town to join a choir? How did hymns become the standard for congregational singing?
While I was curious about the similarities, I also became more curious about the differences. Why do some congregations rise to sing together with such joy and enthusiasm, while others drudge slowly through the hymns? Why do some choirs seem so performance oriented, while others seem to sing with the congregation? And why do other churches increasingly have rock bands, or ukulele bands, or bell choirs, or drum circles?
In recent years I’ve worked with our Association of UU Music Ministries (AUUMM) to expand our annual conference to include a Songleaders Convergence, a celebration of community singing and grassroots songleaders in our movement. Helping to organize the Convergence has brought even more questions about our UU singing culture: Who are our songleading ancestors? What’s our inheritance of community singing as spiritual practice? What did our ancestors know about raising a song and joining together in harmony?
So I followed my curiosity down some assorted rabbit holes and spent my summer in the library. Our UU history of music and worship is expansive and I’ve only just dipped my toe in the waters. I’m no historian and many of my wonderings are still unanswered, but I also found some surprising answers to many of my questions. I found bitter debates that were settled long ago and I found arguments that seemed unchanged over hundreds of years.
Care to join me in the conversation?
I’ll be sharing a series of six essays. I’d love to hear from you about what other questions you have, what surprised you, or what I missed!