God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family,
and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.
I’ll make you a great nation
and bless you.
I’ll make you famous; you’ll be a blessing.
I’ll bless those who bless you;
those who curse you I’ll curse.
All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:1-3
Harp, banjo, piano and guitar are classic instruments for a folk singer. Toss in some calming lyrics about a real or made up journey and you have a song worthy of any coffeeshop. The same could be said for a pop song. A cute beat, some high energy words sung by a teenager in a half shirt and you have a hit. It’s an almost foolproof formula for success as long as you don’t mind being undisguisable from the other hits that week. This is a temptation that producers from every genre of music face and many embrace it as a quick and easy money maker. Inspiration absent, it’s one of the reasons why when country music lovers listen to rock, rap lovers listen to folk, hip hop lovers listen to classical they all say they don’t like it. To them it all sounds the same.
A year ago, Pharrell Williams taught a master class at the NYU School of Music and a video of one student quickly went viral. Her name is Maggie Rogers, a quiet, folk musician from a small town in rural Maryland. She sat rather uncomfortably as she told Pharrell she was a banjo player and went to school to study folk music because that was her soul. After a year, she stopped school and making music to “go through some things”. She spent a lot of time hiking and being outdoors. She went to France to study and while there she had a spiritual experience with dance music, a style she had always thought synthetic and had previously despised. In that moment she could see its power, its purpose and its draw. When she returned to school she resumed making music, mostly what she still called folk but with the backbone and energy of dance music. In the video you watch as she and Pharrell, sit side by side listening to a song she wrote while backpacking through Alaska. The lyrics are quintessential folk but set to a hypnotic dance beat. Pharrell was blown away and he commends her for doing her own thing. He goes on to say we all possess that ability to be different, to find our own voice but we have to be willing to seek it, to journey out on our own. We have to be willing to be honest and brave enough it share it with others. He talked about the temptation to make music that sounds like everything else, it’s easy and will probably sell but then everything all sounds the same. Music is no longer an art form.
When people outside of the Church see worship, regardless of the denomination or worship style, to them it all sounds and looks the same. That’s because it is. We often look at one church that is successful or the worship style that seems to be drawing in those highly desired young people and we try to copy it thinking it will make us an instant hit. This is simple, uninspired, lazy way of worshipping God that is no longer an art form. As a priesthood of believers we need to be willing to take some time, slog through the tough stuff of faith, seek our voice as a congregation, and then honestly and confidently embrace who we are.
Click here to watch the YouTube video of Maggie Rogers and Pharrell Williams.
~ Upcoming Events ~
Thursday October 12
Partnership for Awareness
The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn To Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed.
7 pm | Huntington Middle School Auditorium
New York Times bestselling author Jessica Lahey will provide solutions and a plan to help parents learn to step back and embrace their children’s failures so they may learn and mature with confidence.
(Books will be available for purchase and signing post event)
~
Friday, October 13
SENS Fall Festival
3:30-6:30 pm
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Sunday, October 15
Team 3 Acolyting
Family Worship
10 am | Chapel
Sunday School
10:30 am | Sunday School Classrooms
Teaching: Allison, Antonio and Heather
~
Sunday, October 22
Team 4 Acolyting
Family Worship
10 am | Chapel
Sunday School
10:30 am | Sunday School Classrooms
Teaching: Rebecca, Shawna, Antonio and Heather
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Saturday, October 28
Haunted Hayride
7 pm | LA Zoo
$30 per person
Take a seat on a tractor pulled hay wagon as you slither through the genuinely haunted woods of Griffith Park’s Old Zoo. Meet a legion of vicious clowns waiting with more psychopathic fun than any wagon can handle. And if you think you know clowns… just wait until you meet these clowns. The evolution of demonic possession that live within those woods have created a darkness that will leave with you, sleep with you and dream with you. You will wander through unforgettable life-sized sets set to an all original narrative and cast of characters from the safety of the wagon, that is until you disembark on foot to experience the winding, weaving Corn Maze smack dab in the middle of the ride!
Please RSVP Here by Monday, October 16
~
Sunday, October 29
Confirmation Sunday
Visit from Bishop Bruce
Send Off for the Smythes
Please join us as we celebrate our confirmands and
as we say a very hard “goodbye” to Father Colville and Sylvia.
Family Worship
10 am | Chapel
Sunday School
10:30 am | Sunday School Classrooms
Teaching: Heather & Antonio
~
Sunday, November 5
Team 1 Acolyting
Family Worship
10 am | Chapel
Christmas Pageant Rehearsals
10:30 am | Sunday School Classrooms
Teaching: Antonio and Heather
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Sunday, November 12
Team 2 Acolyting
Family Worship
10 am | Chapel
Christmas Pageant Rehearsals
10:30 am | Sunday School Classrooms
Teaching: Shawna, Antonio and Heather
Harvest Craft Fair & Goat Yoga
Noon | The Close
Spanky and Pippen are two Nigerian dwarf goats
who want to come to St. Edmund’s!
Photo ops and petting zoo will be available after church,
followed by an hour long class starting at noon.
Please RSVP, class is $25 per person.
Spaces can be purchased online
https://saintedmunds.org/st-edmunds-goat-yoga/
While you wait for class to be begin, enjoy our harvest craft fair out on the Close with local artisans, food, face painting and games for the kids.
