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The Unity Church thing after a night's sleep on the subject
Thu, Nov. 17th, 2005 07:02 amIt's taken me a day, pretty much, to parse my own thoughts, consider the thoughts of others, and figure out what it is I'm feeling. Distilled, my discomfort comes down to a couple of things:
First, I was unprepared for the level of participation the chorus would have in these services. We were prepared to sing one song as guest performers and I was completely comfortable with that. Instead, we are an integral part of the service, and apparently will never leave the podium. After some discussion with other people in the chorus not on LJ, I find I'm not alone in my surprise and discomfort. This means that expectations were not properly set. Many of us didn't understand what it was we'd signed up to do. I actually wonder if our director was caught by surprise as well, because the church's musical director took charge of the rehearsal pretty effectively and didn't let go the entire evening. This may have been in a spirit of inclusion but it changed the playing field completely.
Second, because some of the music we're singing reminds me of evangelical worship music, my hackles rose. Regardless of the church's doctrine, its practice feels Christian to me. I don't know what I was expecting, seeing as how we're singing in a church, not a synagogue or mosque, but there it is. Because the practice feels Christian, I feel as though I'm advocating something I don't believe in, even if that's not the case. This feeling stems from the way the church music director directed us throughout rehearsal, as conduits of the message. She has positioned us to be part of the ministry, not merely to be guest performers. I do believe in God (after a fashion, but that's a subject for another post); I have this in common with the people who attend this church. It's the worship style that makes me uncomfortable.
And this is where I pretty much started from the morning after the rehearsal. I'll still perform; despite this being an optional event for chorus members, because it's a promotional thing I feel it's important to be there. (As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kyooverse reminded me: this is about tickets sold, butts in seats. That's a cause I can get behind.) But I'll also be asking some important questions about the gig's origins and the chorus leadership's communication with the chorus itself.
I'll be posting no more thoughts on this subjeect until after the actual services.
First, I was unprepared for the level of participation the chorus would have in these services. We were prepared to sing one song as guest performers and I was completely comfortable with that. Instead, we are an integral part of the service, and apparently will never leave the podium. After some discussion with other people in the chorus not on LJ, I find I'm not alone in my surprise and discomfort. This means that expectations were not properly set. Many of us didn't understand what it was we'd signed up to do. I actually wonder if our director was caught by surprise as well, because the church's musical director took charge of the rehearsal pretty effectively and didn't let go the entire evening. This may have been in a spirit of inclusion but it changed the playing field completely.
Second, because some of the music we're singing reminds me of evangelical worship music, my hackles rose. Regardless of the church's doctrine, its practice feels Christian to me. I don't know what I was expecting, seeing as how we're singing in a church, not a synagogue or mosque, but there it is. Because the practice feels Christian, I feel as though I'm advocating something I don't believe in, even if that's not the case. This feeling stems from the way the church music director directed us throughout rehearsal, as conduits of the message. She has positioned us to be part of the ministry, not merely to be guest performers. I do believe in God (after a fashion, but that's a subject for another post); I have this in common with the people who attend this church. It's the worship style that makes me uncomfortable.
And this is where I pretty much started from the morning after the rehearsal. I'll still perform; despite this being an optional event for chorus members, because it's a promotional thing I feel it's important to be there. (As
kyooverse reminded me: this is about tickets sold, butts in seats. That's a cause I can get behind.) But I'll also be asking some important questions about the gig's origins and the chorus leadership's communication with the chorus itself.I'll be posting no more thoughts on this subjeect until after the actual services.