Music as Communion
A Message from our Music Director
What a few weeks it’s been! Starting on the last Sunday of Lent, we’ve had Bobby McFerrin, Dave Worm and friends joining us each week to lead Circle songs. We spent the seasons of Lent and Epiphany sitting in the round, in a circle. Sitting in this way can facilitate a different kind of liturgical experience, one that has our focus directed toward each other, the gathering of the community around the table, creating and celebrating in mutuality. Circle songs carry a similar kind of purpose, where the focus is aimed at finding music together, by actively engaging in a deeper kind of listening and discovery. The Spirit is always calling us into Communion, with each other, with ourselves, and with God. The purpose of music in the church is to facilitate this Communion. Music contains the potential of deep listening and deep being, in ourselves and with each other. In other words, Music always contains the possibility of an act of Communion. Circle songs are a form of musical communion. And, they ask us to move into a different kind of music making than perhaps we have experienced before. They also offer incredible opportunities for spiritual experience and community creation.
Before I was called to be your music director, the vestry discerned that one of their key priorities for our music ministry is to continue developing the wide range of kinds of music we create together. As we move forward together as a musical congregation, my hope and prayer is that we will all continue to deepen in our acts of listening, in our acts of Communion. That we will continue to explore the possibilities of creating beautiful musical experiences together. That we will continue to explore how we create a place where all are welcome to sing, fully and deeply. We will continue to sing the great hymns and songs of our tradition. And we will continue to follow the lead of the Spirit as she calls the church ever forward.
— Jack