in the bleak midwinter
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Enjoy a new setting of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ and on this Twelfth Day of Christmas enjoy a playlist of arrangements and improvisations I’ve shared over the past years.
Read Morewaiting
This jazz-inspired Advent song was written on the plains of Southern Ohio last spring and holds an invitation to reflection and wonder. Rather than assume we know who or what is coming (because we often struggle even to know ourselves), we are invited to look and listen, to be in the present moment, attentive to where and when Divine will manifest.
And it could be in any number of forms - sound, light, touch, a human body, or through the movement of grass on rolling hills. God is always being made known to us, and Advent calls us to heighten our senses, to practice paying attention both individually and in community.
Read Morechange is gonna come
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.
Read Moresinging beloved community in cincinnati
In September 2019, Music that Makes Community returned to Cincinnati to offer a three-day song leader training workshop centered in African and African-American musical traditions and leadership practices. The workshop also included story sharing inspired by Becoming Beloved Community, a national effort of the Episcopal Church to respond to racial injustice and grow a community of reconcilers, justice-makers, and healers.
The combination of paperless music and story sharing was heart-opening, and many spoke of the workshop as life changing. While pictures only give a hint of what we shared together, we're excited to share some highlights with you!
Thanks overflow to St. Simon of Cyrene Episcopal Church, Christ Church Glendale, and the Diocese of Southern Ohio for their hospitality and support. And a powerful team of presenters and amazing hosts helped make brave space where story and song could be shared.
i cannot dance unless you lead me
I Cannot Dance Unless You Lead Me is a layered song based on a saying of Saint Mechtild of Magdeburg (1210-1282), a medieval mystic who shared visions that inspired and shocked her contemporaries for their sensuous, intimate language of relationship with the Divine.
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