Music - The Faith Conservationist

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Echoing insights from the work of Plato, Scottish politician Andrew Fletcher quipped, “if a man were permitted to make all the ballads he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.” Music not only reaches the heart, but its lyrics embed themselves in our minds, forming our characters and shaping our decisions. In a way more visceral and less reflective than the other arts, it can help us integrate head and heart, reason and emotion, permitting us to recognize the post-structuralist contention that everything is merely an expression of power for the fiction that it is. Conversely, in its degenerate and pathological forms it can become an elixir of irrationality, a prophet of libertinism, a motive to violence, and at worst–in the propaganda and marches of authoritarian regimes–a catalyst for genocide.

It is very important that we have good music.

Unfortunately, my vocation gives me more occasion to think about music than to practice it. I wish I had more time to devote to this hobby, but I give what I can to it. Some of it is for fun, some of it for worship, but all of it springs from the conviction I share with Irenaeus of Lyons that “the glory of God is a human being fully alive,” and so the most spiritual work is always the most self-consciously and honestly human.

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi Contemporary Worship Liturgy

Described as “wonderful,” “inspiring,” and “the best melodies of this kind I have heard for a long time,” this music is designed for congregations who use contemporary worship music but would like the theological depth of the traditional Western liturgy.

Hymnody

Contributions to a genre of church music much-neglected in recent decades… free for any congregation to use with attribution.

Every Knee Shall Bend – The Unity Mass

Whether you style the American cultural experiment a “melting pot” or a “tossed salad,” the different musical vocabularies of the various cultures that landed here in America have been used to powerfully give voice to “the one holy catholic and apostolic” Christian faith. These pieces bring several of these together into an aesthetically coherent worship service.

When I originally conceived this worship service, I was undecideed between calling it “An American Mass” or “The Unity Mass.” I opted for the latter, but among the present day political difficulties besetting The United States, I hope Christians recognize the role they can play in political reconciliation if they can first learn to regard one another’s distinctives as gifts of the Spirit and so welcome “the other.”

Popular Music

Purely for fun, but hopefully more…

Attribution for all music usage: