Church musical tradition dates to Civil War

[hoosier]

Why does a church in Harrisburg conclude services on Easter Sunday with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic?"

Find the story at
http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriot...300.xml&coll=1

[gary]

Great story for a neat tradition. I could drag my lazy arse to church if they sung Civil War songs - Nawth or Sowt!

[larry_cockerham]

Originally Posted by gary

Great story for a neat tradition. I could drag my lazy arse to church if they sung Civil War songs - Nawth or Sowt!

I'd be willing to bet that if you drug your 'lazy arse' to church, the choir would gladly accommodate your request? Might be worth a try. I actually did it Easter myself. Didn't hurt too badly.

[samgrant]

Since my religion switched from the Latin (and even if one did not understand the words, they conveyed real spirituality), the music became little more than children's songs.

Not to criticize Protestant stuff, I do think that the 'modernization/protestantization' of the American Roman Catholic Church is a major reason many have left the church in recent years. When I do now (rarely, like maybe Christmas) attend, and they add that Protestant "And thine is the kingdom ..." etc. to the Lords Prayer, it just seems so odd, as if we suddenly, in the midst of the liturgy, we just caved to Martin Luther, for no apparent reason.

So not to dwell on the Catholic/Protestant thing, I think that when the R.C. church did switch from the melodious Latin hymns/chants to the vapid English language kind of Hootenanny songs, they missed a great opportunity to do what that Harrisburg church did.

The Battle Hymn is a great Christian song for both North and (despite it's CW conotations) South churches of whatever demomination (as long as we don't use the Jeff Davis and the apple tree verses).

I also really like the "Will the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)", and "Jesus is just Alright", "Amazing Grace", and "I'll Fly Away". Now if the R.C.s used all these songs, maybe the attendance would not have diminished.


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[hoosier]

I'm a Protestant myself, but my wife's granddaughter is being raised as a Roman Catholic.

Some years back, she celebrated her first communion, which I understand is a really big deal in the Catholic church, so we went up to attend the Mass.

I was having a hard time figuring out the order of service from the Catholic prayer book. I continually found myself expecting one thing to happen and then realizing that something entirely different was happening.

Finally, they started the Lord's Prayer. At last, I felt confident that I knew what I was supposed to be doing.

Until I popped out loud and clear with "For thine is the kingdom" as the rest of the church fell into silence.

The priest looked at me, gave a faint smile as if to say, "Well, you're a heathen Protestant, but at least you're trying to be nice," and proceeded with the rest of the service.

Maybe if I had any more Catholic granddaughters whose first communion would be this year, I might get away with it.

[larry_cockerham]

God don't care. Hopefully He loves us all. Martin Luther, who Sam mentioned earlier, is actually my 'uncle' via his brother Jacob, my ancestor. Maybe that why I'm Protestant, but I think my Grandmother dragging me to Methodist services when I was a kid had something to do with it. I was district commissioner for the Scouts a few years back for an extended period and visited many different congregations who sponsored units, ie, Catholic, Mormon, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Church of Christ, etc. All a bit different, but all strangely similar, except maybe for the one's who kept jabbering in Latin! Somehow, I suspect the goals and notions are much the same. The music, which takes many wonderful and varied forms, is a gift from Above and one of the common languages even Ole could understand.