Comments on: Do UUs do liturgy?

By: chutney

chutney — Fri, 08 Aug 2003 20:02:29 +0000

Excellent!

By: Philocrites

Philocrites — Fri, 08 Aug 2003 18:21:30 +0000

Not to toot my own horn, but my senior project at Harvard Divinity School was writing contemporary hymns. You can read them here; the scores I composed for several are also on-line, but if you'd like a copy of the full set, drop me a note and I'll mail you some. Although I haven't posted a copy yet, Mrs. Philocrites and I also composed a wedding hymn this spring for our own ceremony. (Could Martha Stewart do that?)

By: makingchutney.com

makingchutney.com — Fri, 08 Aug 2003 16:50:06 +0000

What I’m actually missing
After reading the several replies to my post on Unitarian Universalist liturgy, I now know that there is stuff out there, and stuff is still being written. I’m going to chalk my ignorance up to being a (relatively) new UU. But I’ve also realized that w…

By: Peg

Peg — Thu, 07 Aug 2003 02:42:28 +0000

Clif Hardin and Jason Shelton are two younger composers who are writing lively, lovely stuff (both hymns and choir pieces), and I believe Thomas Benjamin is still active. (Full disclosure: Jason’s my choir director, and he’s really good about promoting the work of other contemporary UU composers such as Elizabeth Alexander and Jim Scott and Nick Page. . .) And at GA this year I recognized a fair number of non-hymnal pieces (Brian Tate’s “We Are One,” for instance, along with Durufle’s “Ubi Caritas”) performed by the various choirs. I think as the UU Musicians’ Network builds even more steam we’ll see more and more of a common repertoire emerge, just as there are hymns in _Singing the Living Tradition_ which show up far more often in orders of service than others (though I was reminded the other night – trying to pick hymns for an Emerson-themed service – that some of it simply has to do with singability: somebody needs to tell the next hymnal committee that most mortals aren’t comfortable screeching above high C at a 9 a.m. service).

By: Matthew Gatheringwater

Matthew Gatheringwater — Sun, 03 Aug 2003 19:59:19 +0000

Dear Chutney,

I am fascinated and challenged by your blog and I’m gratified to know you sometimes read mine. It may interest you to know that one of my candidates for a blog name was Gentleman’s Relish. Now, I feel I may have missed my chance to be part of a condiment web ring. Alas!

The connection you make between avoidance of God-talk conflict and cautious use of liturgical forms makes sense, but then I also think that fear of conflict leads UUs to de-emphasize theology for fear of discovering differences in belief. It is remarkable to me, for example, that after a year of seminary I still don’t know the theological orientations of most of my class. I think this is unfortunate, since where beliefs are always implicit they are rarely challenged. And challenging our own beliefs seems to me to be central to the pursuit of truth, which has heretofore been a central value in our religion.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the paucity of original UU liturgical materials is that we are so willing to appropriate and revise the materials of other faiths. I know that recasting words has a long tradition in hymnody, but that doesn’t mean it is a good idea. I like singing unaltered hymns in their historical context or not at all. If we can’t stomach the words of old hymns, it is a signal that it is time to write new ones.

I cannot agree that reason and individualism don’t lend themselves to high poetry. Some of my sacred texts are the Gilgamesh Epic, Byron’s Manfred, and Goethe’s Faust. All celebrate the human striving toward reason and individualism and none are exactly shabby as poetry. If we lack contemporary examples, I think the reason must be something besides the sympathies of the theme.

Thanks for sharing your interesting observations. I look forward to reading more of them.

By: Facilitating Paradox

Facilitating Paradox — Sun, 03 Aug 2003 05:46:01 +0000

UU Pentecost
Chutney at makingchutney.com asks, “Do UU’s do liturgy?” In response, I’ve just posted a UU Pentecost service I did for a class on worship and music. It includes the sermon I wrote much later, but I did the whole shebang…