The ‘landlord’ of the tent, a stocky man with a gloriously loud and gruff voice, introduced something called hymns and beer: ‘in this place… we sing hymns… and we drink beer!’ A little keyboard struck up, and we were off with And can it be. The Greenbelt powers-that-be clearly had little idea about what this event was going to be like. I’m told it was mentioned somewhere in the programme, but I never managed to track it down even when I was looking for it afterwards. Apparently, it sat under the head of ‘light entertainment’. It was, however, something more.
Within two verses, many voices had been raised in song, harmonies in two or three parts, and people were pouring into the tent to join us. By the end of the hymn, we were packed in like sardines – the canvas of the tent quivering with the sheer volume of the singing. More hymns followed, Swing low, Jerusalem, Amazing Grace and the glorious Guide me O thou great Redeemer. The voices and the harmonies swelled for each one, with the sound getting greater and more passionate as the time went on. Beer glasses were swung in the air. Lungs, at full bellow, pushed their contents through vocal chords periodically lubricated from a pint of St Peter’s Ale. Most people were singing from memory.
What I really hoped, from our conversation is that Paul would blog the reflections he shared, and I am not disappointed. Here's the nub of them.
Firstly, there are not many gatherings of British people these days that have sufficient cultural memory to sing, with harmonies, verse after verse from a shared musical repertoire. ... Secondly, I was struck by the masculinity of the event. Men’s voices are generally stronger than women’s, but in most British churches women significantly outnumber men, ... Hearing these deep voices also alerted me to the kind of lyrics in the hymns we were singing. Stories. Reflective theology. Understated but passionate commitment. There was none of the anodyne lyrics that fill so many contemporary choruses ...
And the latter point prompts a reflection after my own heart, particularly as, like me, Paul has no desire to put the clock back into patriarchy. However ...
I am growing in the conviction that the shape of modern Christianity subconsciously discriminates against most men. ... f the Church appeared to be so effectively structuring itself as to make a particular portion of the population so uncomfortable that they seldom came to know the Good News, a cry would go out at this scandal. Yet little serious, theologically informed or enlightened work seems to be going on to address the scandal of the absence of men in the Church.
\staring into the distance::as far as our eyes can see � Greenbelt, hymns and beer:
Filed in: Greenbelt_06, hymns, singing
No comments:
Post a Comment