change is gonna come

October 30, 2019 by Paul Vasile in Music, Social Justice

This summer I had the privilege of traveling and working in British Columbia, where I hiked close to several massive glaciers. Though they were retreating in the warm weather, they were a formidable force. Their size and presence took my breath away, as did the volume of water that flowed from them into swollen streams and rivers.

Glaciers are slow-moving agents of transformation that have shaped and re-shaped the planet for millennia. And they reminded me change is natural and inevitable. Resistance is also natural and inevitable. And while it may take a very long time to notice the slow, shaping force of a glacier or river or wind, it’s happening in ways we may never fully recognize or see in our lifetime.

songs for the holy other

July 19, 2019 by Paul Vasile in Music, News, Worship, Social Justice, Congregational Song

So grateful to have my song God Calls You Good included in The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada’s new collection titled Songs for the Holy Other: Hymns Affirming the LGBTQIA2S+ Community, released at their annual conference this month.

songs of praise and protest

July 27, 2018 by Paul Vasile in Social Justice, Music

This list of congregational songs and online resources is for communities seeking to be more intentional about singing both praise and protest in worship.

praise and protest

July 27, 2018 by Paul Vasile in Social Justice, Worship

As someone who has participated in marches and civil disobedience with my faith family over the past years, I don’t intend to minimize the power in acts of solidarity or the need for voices raised in public protest and resistance. But I don’t want us to miss the seeds of change sown through songs we share in sanctuaries, fellowship halls, and faith formation spaces, as well as on the streets. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to sing with Mary, whose prophetic aria of praise and protest gives us courage to “sing a new world into being.”

pray with our feet

March 14, 2018 by Paul Vasile in Social Justice, Music

Pray With Our Feet is a protest song written a few days after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Based on a quotation by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, it speaks back to the shallow 'thoughts and prayers' and inaction of American politicians in face of ongoing mass shootings and gun violence.