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Index - Posting 4 May 05 Vol:1-5

"…How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a strange land?..."

Psalm 137.v.4 (NIV)

Last week I participated in a seminar on the nature and origins of black British gospel music. During the discussion, several pieces of music were played to illustrate a point or two. I was mesmerised; particularly as I was having difficulty in recognising the difference between Jamaican and black British styles of inspirational music. Songs long forgotten, buried under mounds of "hymns" surfaced and I heard sounds from my youth, echoing back to the future. My heart lifted!

When I returned to England in the late 90s, after being in the Caribbean for fifteen years, it was difficult finding bearings. The comforting reference points from previously living in a predominantly West Indian part of London, were absence. In Bournemouth, a small city on the south coast, I rarely saw any one of my ‘complexion’ as I started the process towards ordained ministry with the welcoming, local congregation. Apart from the sea as a constant reminder of the ocean that touched the Caribbean, I was bereft of connections. In a country, surprising at that time, with no black national television or radio stations, I was grateful for the familiarity of MTV and subsequently MTV Base in providing a link to ‘back home’ and the opportunity to see black faces, to hear black voices and to sing black songs

I cherish my first book of Church music "The English Hymnal"– the 31 st impression, printed in 1959 - it contains some hymns that I know by heart. They still fill me with a profound sense of the beauty and awe of God. In moments of gratitude for Her loving kindness to me, they erupt from my memories and I sing with my heart and lips. Decades later, in Jamaica, Redemption Songs, a slim, red volume of 1000 hymns and choruses, became a staple of worship. It moved me on to a different level of appreciation of inspirational music, that academics call "hymnody" and we call "gospel". Songs, hymns and choruses have the power to help in centring one’s self; to enable identification and participation in a "community of faith".

In 2002, I attended the MCC Conference of People of African Descent. I remember how comfortable I felt, linked arm in arm, along a street in downtown Atlanta, with four African-American sisters, whom I had literally met several hours before, singing songs from the Wizard of Oz - "Follow the Yellow Brick Roa"’. I felt at "home" and I was with family. A common heritage of music and songs is a powerful cohesive, that cements a feeling of identity and belonging. I have a favourite CD that never fails to move me and to set my spirit dancing. It transforms traditional hymns and choruses through the use of Caribbean rhythms of reggae, soca, rock steady, ragga, calypso, junkanoo and revival. I can "Jump and Wave for Jesus" or be peacefully reflective to the reggae version of the Hallelujah Chorus. It moves me, it revives me, it puts "a new song in my heart".

Familiar songs (and tunes) are instrumental for making the "strange" appear less so, for saying we have membership and demonstrating an open door of welcome. There is so much in life that puts us off balance - that unsettles, disturbs and makes us feel we do not belong. It may be living in a land where we feel unaccepted, being "out of place" in our immediate community, worshipping in a church that doesn't reflect who we are, living in a family that is not our own, or inhabiting a body that is at variance with how we see ourselves. Or just being in a situation that doesn’t feel as comfortable as a favourite shoe. Sometimes we need to assess our situation and look for means to adapt, to enable a more comfortable fit; to smooth over the differences to allow a blending in. If this is not possible or desirable, then possibly, we need to move on.

So where are you? Whose tune do you sing too? Are they your words, but their tune, or are you fortunate to be in a situation where the words and the tune fit you as a spiritual being of God? And yes, round pegs can fit in square holes. We adapt as we are able and as we want too. But sometimes we need to ensure that we are in balance; that our spirits are at peace with our minds.