HallamPhil wrote:There are so many generalisations in NT's comments aimed at catholics and protestants alike.
From the specific context of a Catholic cathedral in Sheffield I would say that Catholics do indeed sing. Every week I step out in front of the congregation and invite them into the song which is rightfully theirs and they respond to this invitation. Sometimes I can see them singing more obviously than hear them. Our buildings are not intimate places but often rather cold and intimidating and responses spoken or sung can be affected by this and subdued. Admittedly there are a very few who remain tight-lipped when I offer them music from particular stables which they may determine to be akin to the anti-Christ but the intransigent and ignorant have always been welcome in our churches!
If it is your experience that Catholics do not sing then thank God for the refugees from many parts of the world who now grace our worship spaces! Not only will many of these sing but, in my experience, they will also improvise harmonies at will (not always mine .. but there you go!). The Poles can hardly be said to be silent when it comes to singing the Mass. If they were not instructed to worship in their national grouping then the volume level of even my context would surely rise beyond measure!
If these recent arrivals are not in your church then perhaps it may be because they might not feel welcomed. I was recently in an Anglican Cathedral for choral evensong. I was one of two persons in the 'congregation' as the magnificent choir of 30 persons went about their business. It clearly was not intended to be mine and perhaps that may be why people might appear to have voted with their feet?
I believe in people's ability to offer their praise to God in song. Perhaps when we embody that belief as Cantors and animators we bring out the best in folk?
Phil,
I think your comments reinforce my point, in what you say and what you don't. You fail to address my argument that the difference between our congregations' approach to singing and that of Protestants is due, in some degree, to the different function and nature of our respective liturgies. I hope we can agree there is such a difference, because the sacrifice of the Mass and the liturgical tradition through which it is given to us lie at the heart of our religious life in ways that don't have a Protestant equivalent. It would be surprising if this were not reflected in the manner of our individual approaches to worship.
That's not to deny other cultural influences, such as you remark upon from your own multi-cultural experience, but to suggest that your experience dictates a general solution to the perceived problem that Catholics can't sing is simply another one-size-fits-all approach that is insensitive to others' experience and culture. You may think that a little harsh, but I'm afraid it's evident in you comments, not least in your accusation that those who can't get congregations to sing must be unwelcoming. I would be surprised if that were true of those who have described the problem in this thread and elsewhere. So, too, your dismissal of a sung cathedral evensong because not many attended shows an ignorance of the nature of that office: it is the daily public prayer of the cathedral community; others are welcomed to it, but it is not justified by their presence. That a Catholic cathedral and diocesan music director either doesn't know this, or does but fails to respect it, is quite shocking. It is, I fear, another example of the insularity and arrogance that bedevil English-speaking Catholicism, and which is a source of the monomania that insists participation isn't active unless it's spoken or sung . I would point to your labelling of those who don't join in the songs at your Cathedral as "intransigent and arrogant", and Alan29's jibe about some fellow Catholics, as other examples.
My underlying point is effectively recognised by others on the thread when they conclude that a quiet, barely audible participation in liturgical song is nonetheless heartfelt. It isn’t far from there to the suggestion that it's time to let our understanding of active participation mature, to the point where it recognises that internal participation can be active, too. A more balanced and nuanced approach to liturgical music will recognise this.
but i think you mean foul - which sounds like some of my congregation protesting at the demise of a certain Gloria that will no longer be sung when the new texts are with us.
