“Carols and hymns are amazingly succinct theological statements,” says Eileen Guenther, professor of church history at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. “There is more theology in a few words of poetry than you can possibly imagine. You can have a whole sermon in four lines.” More →

December 2, 2016

“When a monk gives his life to God, he has to express that in a physical way, not just an intellectual way, and singing involves the whole body and the mind and the soul, and so it’s a wonderful way of keeping this relationship between God and the monk,” says Father Cassian, prior of the Benedictine monastic community in Norcia, Italy that was damaged extensively in Central Italy’s recent earthquake. More →

September 2, 2016

“It’s a very painful situation that we find ourselves in, of looking at where we’ve been and perhaps making the wrong assumption that so much progress has been made, when we see ourselves retreating right back to some of the same behaviors,” said Sweet Honey in the Rock member Nitanju Bolade Casel.
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January 14, 2016

“Jerusalem is a place historically if there is something different about us, let’s fight about it. That’s basically the vibe. And so we and the chorus are trying to create an alternate reality,” says conductor Micah Hendler. He founded the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus, an ensemble of Israeli and Palestinian high school singers. More →

October 2, 2015

“To me, the choir is really a microcosm of what a community ought to be. People are not worried about status within their social position or their family hierarchy. What they are worried about is all together singing D major,” says John Maclay, music director of the Choral Society at New York City’s Grace Church. More →

July 17, 2015

“I don’t see how you can have a relationship with God that doesn’t involve a state of receptivity—and a receptivity to lots of stuff, because God does show up in all kinds of odd ways.” More →

January 23, 2015

“I’ve been singing the Messiah for a long time, so it’s very familiar music to me. We do our rehearsals, and we also then reflect ourselves individually about what the music means to us,” says Kenneth E. Chadwick, a member of the Fairlington United Methodist Church choir. “The singing is an important part of my experience of my faith.” More →

December 19, 2014

“Music has been, in a sense, my religion, and it is what brings me closest to God or truth or whatever you want to call it.” More →

October 10, 2014

“We encourage people to have conversations,” says Reverend Rosa Lee Harden, producer of the Wild Goose Festival. She finds that sometimes people “who weren’t raised in Christian families, who follow other faiths more deeply understand the message of Jesus than sometimes we do.” More →

June 27, 2014

The elite St. Olaf Choir is considered a pioneer in America’s a capella choral tradition, and for more than 100 years St. Olaf College, a small Lutheran college in Northfield, Minnesota, has held a Christmas musical festival that is known and loved around the world. More →

December 20, 2013