Saturday 2 January 2010

Music and Worship: introduction

MUSIC and WORSHIP…

…was the title of a 52-page book published by the Parish of Chandler’s Ford in 2007. The 23 articles appeared first in Parish News, the monthly magazine of the parish of Chandler’s Ford and its churches of St Boniface and St Martin in the Wood, beginning in 2004. See the parish website http://www.parishofchandlersford.org.uk/.

The articles centre on the music and worship of a large and mostly well-to-do suburban parish in Southern Hampshire during these years. Church music (wherever it falls on the scale that extends from formal/traditional to happy-clappy) can easily become inward-looking and self-satisfied. So it was good to take some time to think about why we in Chandler’s Ford were worshipping and making music in the ways that we were. The readership was mainly members of the Chandler’s Ford congregations, and the idea was to write material that would be easily accessible rather than specialist or academic.

The original articles have been edited slightly for posting online.

I should like to thank Christine Clark and Nigel Barker for their support and encouragement when the original book was published in 2007. Profits went to support the work of St Anne’s Hospital, Liuli, Tanzania.