Participation, Attendance, Service (and coffee)

Today’s coffee… was at school. 3 cups was probably too much. But considering the number of mistakes in my translation-work pre-coffee…

Speaking of coffee, it’s been hard to get to a café to write lately, since I’ve been in Japanese class every morning (and there’s a coffee pot always on, hence today’s 3 cups). By the time I get home, I’m too tired for the next several hours to do anything other than sit on the couch and stare out the window. Thankfully, Keith has finished peeling the annoying lace-patterned film off the living room window, so now I look out on a garden full of wildflowers, bamboo grass, boulders, and trees. (I think it was worth renting this house just for the garden…) So by the time I recover enough to go out to a café, it’s too late to drink coffee (and I already had 3 cups… I do want to get some sleep tonight…)

But I have been writing--a lot. Sometimes in my journal, sometimes poems which ostensibly are part of “Japanese study.” I included several poems in a short devotional talk I’m giving at our friend’s graduation from language school tomorrow. The biggest project I’ve been working on (also as part of my Japanese study) is translating my CD liner notes into Japanese. (Japanese version coming soon!!)

Translation work sucks--even though I’m just translating stuff I’ve written myself. I think it’s especially hard for those of us who are decently good at writing. Whereas I’m fairly eloquent when writing in English, in Japanese, I am not. This is frustrating. I know exactly what I want to say, and what nuance I want it to carry, and yet… Japanese is a completely different language, and some things just don’t translate. I found the same to be true when translating Japanese folk song lyrics into English for the CD liner notes.

Today I was working on the story which accompanies Rachmaninov’s Vocalise. (It’s a version of the main article in our February newsletter.) As I was expanding the explanation of what I had hoped to accomplish with my Regent arts thesis project and coming up with a translation for the title, I ran into a slight difficulty. The title is Praise the LORD with Stringed Instruments: Instrumental Music as Participation and Contemplation. After some discussion with my teacher, I translated the subtitle “器楽による礼拝への参加と黙想” which specifies that participation and contemplation happen in the context of worship. But this translation might not stick.

To give you some background, my arts thesis project was my response to a push in North American worship-leading circles for congregational participation. This has always been a big thing for us Protestants--we are the “priesthood of all believers,” so inviting everyone’s participation in corporate worship is hugely important. However, I found the definition of participation in most books I read to be troubling: most focused on doing and completely ignored being. Singing, moving, reading, speaking, and praying (out loud) were okay, but listening (sermon excepted), art which doesn’t communicate propositional truth, silent prayer and just being together in God’s presence with one's church family didn’t rate very high. Furthermore, spoken word took precedence over everything else, leaving little to no space for reflection. Therefore I explored nonverbal means of participation, especially through instrumental music, in my project. Vastly oversimplified, but that’s the basic idea.

The reason the translation of my title (and a lot of other parts of my arts thesis, if I ever get around to translating it) might not work is because, as my teacher explained, in Japanese we do not use the word participation (参加 sanka) to refer to what we do in worship. We use the word which means attendance (出席 shusseki). You don’t participate in worship, you attend worship. The most important thing is that you show up, even if you sleep straight through the service. (There was an interesting article on this phenomenon throughout Japanese society on BBC news recently. Not that I really have any right to complain about this. I was always the worst offender for sleeping in class through undergrad and two master’s degrees.)

And participation? That’s called service (奉仕 houshi), which means more like cleaning the church once a month or teaching Sunday school or taking your turn leading the service or doing your part for the church bazaar. Some kids in our youth group confessed that they didn’t want to get baptized because then they would be expected to do “houshi.”

It seems like a first step for arts ministry in Japan might be to redefine, together with my friends at church, what participation in worship looks like...

Edit: I just want to add that regardless of what it's called, many (most?) Japanese Christians do "participate" in worship. I was moved by the hearty singing at church last week. :) I'm looking forward to many conversations with friends as I seek to understand what worship means to each one.

Update 2: Big Projects

Here we go again: another update. This was a busy semester, and now you will see why.

Keith took his Old Testament comprehensive exam. He read 9000 pages for the OT and NT exams together (he took the NT comprehensive exam in December), and was tested on all that material. He met weekly with Professor Bob Derrenbacker last fall and with Professor Phil Long this spring to prepare (hooray for awesome professors who take time to meet with students!) That's Phil's book he's reading upside down there. Keith also took classes on the books of Mark and Joshua and continued working as a teaching assistant for two Greek classes.



I spent this year working on my "arts thesis" (officially it was called an "interdisciplinary project in the arts and theology"), which was a huge project with both written and practical components. Having finished my worship internship at our church, I was ready to use what I had learned through the internship and in my classes at school to try something new: contemplative worship services with a rather high proportion of silence and instrumental music.

This was not something my congregation was accustomed to, and there were concerns about how the congregation would be able to participate in a worship service in which they were "observing" someone else's worship. With the help of my two wonderful advisors (Janet Danielson and Maxine Hancock), I set up four worship services with the aim of educating the school and church community in worshiping through music and silence. The first three services progressively had less words, until the only words in the third service were the call to worship and the benediction. I expected that one to be really difficult for most people, but I was surprised that people seemed to respond well. The final service took a more balanced approach, incorporating the passion narrative from the Gospel of John (read by Keith), a few hymns, and a lot of vocal and instrumental music.

I wrote a paper, too. It was very long. I traced the development of thought among Christians from the early church to the present on the subject of instrumental music, and I dealt with possible problems. I actually want to write a book... and Maxine suggested that I might want to start a blog with weekly posts on this subject and other worship-related topics. I'm sure I will have lots to write about in Japan! So... look for that coming soon. And now, pictures.

Part 1: "All Saints Day: Community." Lots of musicians, lots of singing (Genevan Psalms and Reformation-era hymns), lots of scripture. I posted about this service previously.



Part 2: "Advent: Longing." Music for cello and piano (played by Andrea Tisher and me), scripture readings, a few hymns. There was also a chance for everyone to light prayer candles. Most of this service took place in the dark. This was hard for the word-oriented people. Still, using candles as a symbol of hope is not effective unless it's dark.



Part 3: "Epiphany: Joy." This one had no words at all other than call to worship and benediction. Well, that's not entirely true. There were printed words to guide the times of contemplative prayer, but people were free to use them or ignore them. Music was string quartet, piano trio, and string duo (viola and cello), provided by Kathy Kwon, Jon Ng, my brother, Colin Wilson, and me.



At one point in the service, we did "origami prayer." Everyone received instructions to fold an origami star for Epiphany. The sounds of rustling paper became the sounds of prayer.


Here is the string quartet. I also had some wonderful visual elements for this service, including an icon made for Keith and me by a fellow Regent alum (Matthia Langone)! She's still tweaking things on it, and won't give it to us until she's convinced it's perfect. :) Thus you only get a picture of it from a distance.


Part 4: "Lent: Reflection." This service was built around the reading of John 18-19 (read by Keith) and Isaiah 52-53 (read by Maria Beversluis). In essence it was a Tenebrae service, but not on Good Friday (that would have been too late in the term), and we heard an entire passion narrative rather than bits of all four. After each section of the reading, some of the candles on the table were snuffed out, until we were left in darkness. (The sun cooperated too--sunset happened 10 minutes into the service.) Music this time was a variety of ensembles made up of the same crew plus Catriona Day, who teaches cello with me at the Saint James Music Academy. The selection of music was chosen to fit with the scripture. Afterwards everyone had a chance to ask questions about my project.






Oh yeah... when I wasn't busy with my arts thesis (when was that, you may ask), I continued work as a teaching assistant for 2 Hebrew classes and studied Biblical poetry and the Dead Sea Scrolls--in Hebrew! (My update took up much more space than Keith's... there's just not as many pictures to be had from a comprehensive exam. Although he did wear a 3 piece suit with Dutch clogs the day of the exam. That would have been worth a picture...)

More updates coming. Look forward to it!

Singing Psalms in the Living Room (and also at church)

Well... everything went off without a hitch! (Let me know if you disagree, because chances are, I will want to hear from you. I'm gathering feedback for my "field research"!) I refer, of course, to Arts Thesis Part I, the All Saints Day service we had at church last Saturday.

Here are a couple of pictures. One highlight in the process was playing and singing Psalms in the living room. Yes, playing and singing at the same time! I have to say, Sarah is very talented. She was singing alto and playing bass. I just was singing and playing the same part... I really think this is just what Calvin intended for at-home Psalm singing. It was so fun! We had 4 viols, harpsichord, and baroque guitar. Mom and Keith came upstairs to sing too. We sounded good. :) Incidentally, this took place on Halloween, so I put on my costume. I guess I was Anne Boleyn. I wonder if she played the viol?


There were a lot of us! That's what I wanted for this part: lots of congregational involvement. I invited people from church, school, and from the local music community to be involved. It did my heart good to have a worship service with viols. :)


The next one will be November 30! That's a Sunday night. Same time and place. This one will be Advent themed, with 19th and 20th century music. There will be less emphasis on congregational singing, but more silence, scripture, and instrumental music (this time, it will be cello and piano stuff). I hope to see you there!

Part 1, coming up!

Part 1 of my IPIAT/"arts thesis" is right around the corner... less than a week to go! Wow, I have a lot to do this week. This first worship service is much less cello-intense than the others will be, but there's still a lot to do, a lot of people to organize, etc. There will be a lot of people involved in this one--4 viols, 4 singers, guitar, harpsichord, and organ! We're sticking with the theme of Reformation-era music... although Calvin would be rolling over in his grave. Genevan Psalms... played on VIOLS??

So, I wanted to give a few details about this worship service. Although my project is on instrumental music in worship, I wanted to start with baby steps in that direction. Thus, instrumental music in this service will be interwoven with hymns, sung psalms, scripture, and times of silence. Also, I would like to help my church learn to worship by listening, by allowing others to pray on their behalf through music, and to pray with them. Basically, I want to have music played as an offering by a small group, without losing the sense of corporate worship. Then in the next several services I will remove more of the words from the service, but for now they stay as a reference point.

Well, I'm looking forward to this! I just hope that I will not be so busy that I can't enjoy it. That can definitely be a problem.

I have posted the invitation, which has dates and details for all 4 worship services! Everyone is welcome to come (and bring friends)! There will be coffee, snacks, and discussion afterwards... and that's also a great time for you to give feedback, since these worship services are somewhat experimental. I hope you can come!

Mark your calendar!

Greetings! I have dates for my Arts Thesis events. Details are below. This is my promotional picture. Cool, yes? It features me (playing the cello), my cello students, a mom of a cello student, and my co-teacher, Cat!

Praise the LORD with Stringed Instruments:
Instrumental Music as Participation and Contemplation

Praise the Lord with Stringed Instruments explores the use of instrumental music in Christian worship, especially in the Protestant context, through a series of three experimental worship services, each with progressively less words. Praise the Lord with Stringed Instruments seeks to challenge the nature of participation; the congregation’s involvement will be encouraged in listening and in contemplative prayer. Wordless music will become a means of being silent before God. Each worship service will be followed by a time of coffee discussion. The fourth worship service will serve as a reflection on the previous three services.

All events will take place at Vancouver First Christian Reformed Church, 2670 Victoria Drive, Vancouver, BC, at 7:30 p.m.

I: All Saints Day: Community
Saturday, November 1

II: Advent: Longing
Sunday, November 30

III: Epiphany: Joy
Sunday, February 22

IV: Lent: Reflection
Saturday, March 28