“Let all the World…….” at Guildford Cathedral

You couldn’t help but be inspired at the recent ecumenical gathering for musicians on 1^st October at Guildford Cathedral entitled ‘Let All the World …’.  You had a choice of experiencing at least 3 of the 8 different worship leaders, through specialist workshops and a chance to get to know some of the more than 500 people attending throughout the day.  The day worked really well and ecumenism was experienced in action.

Why was I there?  Well, rather selfishly, I wanted to experience a variety of different ways to worship God through my role as a Parish Musician.  I suppose over time, you can get stuck in a rut, or keep playing and singing the same old tunes!  Supporting liturgy in your parish can involve quite a bit of giving and unless you go and experience some alternatives, there’s a danger that you can grow stale and forget that you need to receive new input too.  

I chose to start the day with a workshop with Bernadette Farrell a well-known Catholic composer.  Wow!  She was extremely inspirational and suddenly so much of her music made sense.  She spoke about liturgy as a potent force for change and a need to ‘connect’ the words we use in liturgy to our lives.  ‘Liturgy is a public proclamation of good news and we need to connect worship to our lives and faith which then connects to our world.’  She gently reminded us of the roots to our music, often embedded in struggles for justice like the Abolitionist hymn and the national anthem of South Africa.  We need to ‘Sing our way into a new future, be prophetic and speak out as individuals and as a community.’  The music which she’s composed and which we sang such as ‘Christ Be our Light’ suddenly came to life and had more context and richness.  Her life is one of service and an example of how to live out our Christian calling for love in our faith and action.

My second workshop was with Alison Adams, who gave us insights into working with John Bell of the Wild Goose group and also the Iona community.  Her direct approach ensured that we were entertained and quickly singing in harmony.  One technique she used was for us to hum the tune while she sang the first verse, and then we sang the second verse together, to allow a new song to be taught.  The tradition underpinning this type of music is embedded in a passion for congregational singing and a need to support youth work in the 1980s.  We should ‘Sing as the Body of Christ’ and therefore there’s a strong emphasis on global songs too as they’re also part of the body and we pray in solidarity with them, for example during the apartheid era in South Africa.  We sang some favourites such as ‘A Touching Place’ made popular through one edition of Songs of Praise, as well as Shona songs from Zimbabwe like ‘Jesu Tawa Pano’.

My final workshop was with Pat Bilbrough who focused on having fun with percussion.  She helped us to use body percussion before taking up a variety Samba rhythms on Latin America and West African instruments.  I’d brought my panlogo drum from Ghana along and learnt some new rhythms.  Percussion instruments are so often underused in our worship, or looked on as rather embarrassing and out of place, but Pat demonstrated how they could be used creatively in worship and to great effect to suit the mood of the music.  This was a fun workshop and very hands on!

I learned so much throughout the day and so many people, with such different gifts joined together in our final ecumenical liturgy, with Bishop Kieran also in attendance.  We prayed together as the ‘Body of Christ’, united in our diversity and richer for having experienced music from different traditions.  So if new songs and music start appearing in your parish liturgies, this article may provide the reason why.  Don’t be shy, please join in and enjoy the richness of being a part of ‘The Body of Christ.’

Gerard Witham