A video clip from a meal at our Two Week Intensive the other week. From dear friend and greatheart Naomi Lippett.

Alright, this is way too fun. Hang drums, the precious dulcimer, and now this. Maybe the future of music is found in instruments that evoke a sense of mystery when played - or when simply looked at!

Marcodi Releases Harpejji - Guitar / Piano Hybrid |

Here are some shots from the ancient/future concert the other week at the Gothic Arches on Facebook.

Thanks to Jen Jewett, organizer, percussionist and wildheart extraordinaire.

Facebook Photos at Gothic Arches.

Song As Sacred Action: Learning From Native Americans
Dan Wilt

In a small, Native American community center in eastern Maine, a group of friends gathered from towns on both sides of the Canadian/US border. A potluck and music-sharing evening had been arranged between the communities on the Pleasant Point reservation, and an air of joy and festivity filled the room. By the time I arrived with my children, the music had started and we were soon serenaded with a guitar and fiddle weaving together reels and jigs – engaging the whole, ethnically-mixed group in contagious humming and irrepressible foot-tapping.

Songs And Sacred Acts
Our hosts were from the Passamaquoddy tribe (part of the Wabanaki confederacy, meaning “people of the dawn”), and they warmly welcomed us to the gathering. After a few more songs, a group of young men began to gather in a sacred drum circle for the next expression of the night. They seemed to be both chatting and offering prayers as they prepared themselves to play, enrobing their hands and large drum in smoke from a smudge pot, while they breathed in the strong vapors.

Video cameras and audio recorders were poised, ready to capture the thundering beauty of the energetic native sounds we had come to know and appreciate. Then, a young man from the circle stood, and walked over to the microphone. His eyes and face revealed the striking characteristics of an ethnic heritage that is said to reach 600+ generations into the story of this area.

“The songs we will do are sacred songs of our people,” he proudly said. “For that reason, we ask that there be no video-taping or recording of what we are about to do.” My immediate response was to sigh with sadness. For anyone who has ever been stirred by the communal, impassioned performance of a native drum circle, capturing it in some form of media for others to behold is a rare opportunity.

I turned off my recorder, honored his request, and lingered in the raw celebration of tribal history and spirituality embodied in their intricate melodies and rhythms.

Music As A Shared Experience
The next day, I spoke with a good friend who had organized the non-native contingency of musicians. He had spoken to one of the drum circle leaders, and discovered a fascinating truth about their view of the sacred music they played, and why we were asked to turn off our recorders.

In the eyes of the tribe, it seems, their sacred music is not a commodity to be somehow captured and passed around for enjoyment or spectating after the performance. The very essence of the music arises from those participating in the live, sacred moment. The sacredness of the music is intimately tied to the shared, live experience of praying its themes together, and both the music and the focus of the music may be dishonored when we seek to document the event for a second-hand listener.

The tribal “pow-wow songs” (i.e. the ones we were allowed to record) were historically written to make money for the tribe – by playing them for the white man. Pow-wow songs were created, in effect, to be a loophole in the native vision of music. They are a necessary accommodation, enabling the tribe to survive in a system ordered against them.

In ceremonial music, the music is sacred because of its focus, and our shared experience. In fact, the music is the shared experience for the players and those gathered – our fellowship is an essential instrument in the offering.

For the Passamaquoddy, the playing of the music, and the community praying with it, creates a sacred space not meant for mass consumption. In ceremony, the beating of prayers to the sky becomes more important than the actual musicality of the playing. In summary, the music is not the center point in the experience, but rather the playing of that music. In many ways, Passamaquoddy sacred music is all about the moment of encounter, and the community’s participation in that moment, together.

The High Goal Of Communal Worship
While we may not fully embrace this view of intentionally sacred voicings of music, there is an insight here to be gleaned from our native brothers and sisters. In today’s contemporary Christian music experience, the gift of documenting music in media is that it multiplies a powerful message, and to some degree extends to us the experience embodied by the recording. However, our view of worship, employing music that is explicitly directed toward interacting with God should possibly undergo some reflective scrutiny.

According to this native view of sacred music, the fact that this past Sunday our church connected with God, through shared songs, may have been the highest goal to which our gathering could attain. As the worship leader, I am deeply aware that our band sounded great in some moments, and similar to a train wreck in others. And yet, without veiled spiritualized attempts to justify a flawed performance, the fact that we shared a common voice through those songs may be a higher goal to be celebrated than the pristine execution of the music (have you ever been to a music execution before? I sure have; I’ve even led the proceedings!)

Connected In The Music Of Worship
The next time you gather with a body of believers to sing the songs of faith, consider this view of sacred music brought to us by our native brothers and sisters. The music that you jointly make with the group gathered is the gift itself, offered exuberantly to God, in that moment. See yourself as an integral part of this sacred experience, whether you sing on the stage or from your seat, and share the vitality of the music with those playing and singing near you.

We may not want to skip recordings all together, but if we are attentive to the living moments of worship we share with others in our churches, we may find ourselves more present to our community’s shared moment of worship ¬– and more fully engaged with the One we adore.

Gifted writer, artist and communicator Joel Mason (SSU) offers his poem on the voyage of St. Brendan, and Garrett Viggers backs him up on hammered dulcimer.

It starts about halfway through the mp3. It’s breathtaking - a beautiful spontaneous work of art between the two of them. The poem and the journey it represents is a reflection of our postmodern wandering.

St. Brendan’s Voyage by Joel Mason, Music by Garrett Viggers

Again, in the midst a world that bases human value on so many insubstantial measurements, Derek Paravicini gives voice to the glory of God in the human image.

Especially watch the 1 in a Million clip - a gift. When I think of how many today diminish the spiritual and transcendent in such anomalies of hard-wiring, I’m amazed at the amount of faith they must exercise.

By the way, this man is blind, and by tests thinks in the manner of a three-year old.

Thank you God for for Derek as a living ensign to things beyond - thank you Derek’s parents for giving him the chance to live.

Derek …on 60 Minutes; Exclusive Video Only on Yahoo! News

And, for good measure, another man who they call “The Human Calculator.” Daniel Tammet has no visible disabilities that go with his talents.

Indeed. The songwriting process. Not a complex vid, but interesting for songwriters on the creative process.

Okay. Now I’m just having fun. For all my fellow contrastlings who know the joys of color deficiency, this one’s for you (and a few others).

colorblind what colorbydanwilt
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Earth Day. Lights out. 8-9 pm.

My children are lighting candles everywhere. Very nice.

I’ve just launched the beginnings of a full product gallery for Wild Pear Creative. The goal is simple - to create products that celebrate themes of hope, love and beauty among human beings.

WILD PEAR CREATIVE product lines:

Three Words To Live By. Simple, 3 word, text-based clean design that grabs the eye and awakens the heart. T-shirts and mugs. Ex. “See Beauty Everywhere.”

The Color Of Eden. Original poetry to stir the soul, emblazoned on t-shirts made by edun LIVE, an ethical t-shirt company launched in 2005 by Ali Hewson and Bono with a mission to drive sustainable employment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Brainwaves. Silly storms going on in the noggin, justa weepin’ for some air time.

If you have the time to browse, make a comment, or buy a product or gift certificate for the birthday of someone you love, I can promise that the proceeds will be handled with care and gratefulness!

If you’re up for promoting the gallery on your blog, Facebook, site or by email, just copy and paste this in: http://www.zazzle.com/danwilt

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One of the central values in the world of emerging churches is that of creativity, and especially that of “user creativity” - i.e. taking the creativity out of the hands of a few and putting it into the hands of the many (we, of course, see the gift of both).

So, welcome to the hip, hot, rich new world of user creativity on the web.

According to Wired magazine, this instapreneurs are guiding us into the next phase of the internet.

I’m always amazed at how intriguing these things are to me personally, though one shouldn’t be amazed. We are children of our age, engaging its joys and seeking to challenge its idolatries.

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Along with the Good Friday responsive reading in the previous post, I want to add (in the spirit of mentor George Herbert), a new reading I’ve written for Easter.

WHISPERS OF NEW CREATION
Dan Wilt

We hear a voice, now sweet, now strong,
Now fading into days to come
Compelling us to listen.

We hear a voice, now sweet, now strong,
Now fading into days to come
Compelling us to listen.

(c) 2008 The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies
St. Stephen’s University
www.theworshipartisan.com

This Good Friday responsive reading is meant to embody a number of different biblical approaches to the work of the cross, namely the work of the cross related to love, redemption, sacrifice and victory.

It also seeks to affirm the apostle Paul’s perspective, that the work of the cross is incomplete without the resurrection.

It’s my prayer that, if you choose to use it, it serves you and/or your community well in your Good Friday worship experience.

GOOD FRIDAY READING: IN YOUR CROSS

All: In Your cross, we truly see

All: Your love has won the day. Amen and amen.

written by Dan Wilt
The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies
St. Stephen’s University
www.ssu.ca/theinstitute

The essential ideas it seems that Wright is covering in his new book, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church have been central to much of our thinking here at the Institute. Tom Wright has been a good friend of the Institute over the past few years, welcoming our interviews, magazine solicitations and more.

His exploration of these ideas, biblically, seem to be creating a fresh groundswell of scholarly and intellectually credible thinking related to the redemptive cord that the Scriptures weave into the human story.

I’m delighted this book is out, and even without having read it in specific, can recommend it based on his other writings on the topic. It’s a privilege to recommend this book to worship thinkers around the world as a necessary part of one’s library.

Thanks, Max.

And… a sweet percussion vid from the days of yore: