All posts in In Song

Christian worship has always been renewed and energized by the arts, by the challenging, leavening, questioning work of artists. This is because liturgy itself is both an act...

Linnea Good and Bruce Harding are two Canadian song-writers who pursue that elusive middle ground between musty traditional and trendy contemporary: a middle way, but definitely not middle-of-the-road....

I first met California singer-songwriters, Jean and Jim Strathdee, at the Naramata Centre, near Penticton, B.C., when I was writing for the church curriculum The Whole People of...

There’s an album, now 20 years old, that keeps popping into my conversations. It came up most recently in a planning meeting for the Emmaus Project, a long-term planning...

When I was seven years old, I lost my faith in organized recreation. My problem wasn’t physical activity: I played pick-up hockey, skied, swam, canoed, hiked and competed at...

It happened again. Someone in a position of worship leadership said recently, “Wow! What a great hymn. I had no idea that was in the Book of Praise.”...

Quick. Where do these lyrics come from? “Amazing love, how can it be That you, my King, should die for me?” Or, what about: “O, for a thousand tongues to sing.” No,...

In last month’s confession, I forgot to include one other theft. It slipped my mind, okay? I stole it from Alice Parker. "Where congregations do sing well, it is...

I steal ideas. Ideas about worship and worship music are a particular favourite of mine, God forgive me. I’ve spent a lot of time hanging around organists, composers,...

There they were, Haitians singing, dancing and drumming what CNN Guy called “religious songs” as they patiently waited for basic necessities. Here I was, safe inside my home,...

Room 217 CD series: Music for Life’s Journey Produced by Carmon Barry and Bev Foster at Emmanuel Recording Studios, Toronto. Room 217 is a series of CDs designed to offer musical comfort...

Want to get to know someone? Watch them at play. Where are they playing? What are they playing? How do they play? What makes their eyes light up,...

When the tour is over, or the concert season wraps for another year, a church choir can have more than happy memories. CDs preserve the musical moments. Well-edited...

Ruth: A Musical Drama (1996) Libretto: Roger Bayley Music: Ronald Beckett Performed by Arcady Composer Ronald Beckett’s opera Ruth (1996) is the first in a trilogy of biblical musical dramas. It was...

Churches are always in need—and sometimes in desperate need—of renewal in their worship arts. Congregational song is one strand in the tapestry of our church life that is...

It’s summer in the city, hot and humid. A streetcar rumbles by, followed by a Harley. We wait, standing as still as we can in the sanctuary. All...

Credo Cameron Strings Cameron Strings is a duo of guitar and vocals, hailing from Merrickville, Ont. Tara and Scott Cameron, originally from Toronto, lead music at Holy Trinity Anglican in Merrickville....

A Presbyterian minister told me—back in the early 80’s—that the Presbyterian Church is not known for its music. Being both true and not true, the statement stuck with...