We said yesterday that our interest is not so much in the “style” of singing but in the “need” for singing by God’s people. But in case you are wondering, the issue that has plagued many churches (style, contemporary vs. traditional, etc.) is not new. In the mid 1650's the Society of Friends abandoned worship orders in favor of sitting quietly until the Spirit moved someone to speak or sing. I have been in a “Brethren” church that practiced this. It may seem odd, but if you attended the church regularly it was a “style” that seemed to work just fine. In 1850 the Church of Christ side of the Campbelites abandoned all instruments, especially the organ, in their worship. During the Reformation Ulrich Zwingli (one of my favorites, but not for this reason) took an axe to the organ at Grossmunster Church in Zurich. I cringe thinking about this. But he didn’t do it because he hated all musical instruments but because he objected to the opinion he had that the music was more like entertainment than worship.
Listen to these minutes from a
July 2, 1736 business meeting of the First Church of Windsor, Connecticut &
see if it rings a bell...
Society
meeting, Capt. Pelatiah Allyn Moderator.
The business of the meeting proceeded in the following manner: The
Moderator proposed consideration of what should be done respecting that part of
Publick Worship called Singing, whether in their Publick meetings on Sabbath
day, they would sing the way Deacon Marshall usually sung in his lifetime
commonly called the "Old Way" or whether they would sing the way
taught by Mr. Beal commonly called "Singing by Rule," and when the
Society had discoursed the matter the Moderator proposed to vote. But when the vote
was passed there being many voters it was difficult to take the exact number of
votes in order to determine on which side the major vote was; whereupon the
Moderator ordered all the voters to go out of the seats and stand in the alleys
and then those that were for Deacon Marshalls way should go into the men's
seats and those that were for Mr. Beals way should go into the women's seats.
The Moderator asked me how many there was (for Deacon Marshall's way), I answered
42 and he said there was 63 or 64. Then
the Moderator proceeded and desired that those who were for singing in Publick
the way that Mr. Beal taught would draw out of their seats and pass out of the
door and be counted. They replied they
were ready to show their minds in any proper way where they were if they might
be directed thereto but would not go out the door to do the same and desired
that they might be led to a vote where they were and they were ready to show
their minds which the Moderator refused to do and thereupon declared that it
was voted that Deacon Marshall's way of singing called the "Old Way"
should be sung in Publick for the future and ordered me to record the same
which I refused to do under the circumstances thereof and have recorded the
facts and proceedings. (From On This
Day, devotional book, July 2 reading)
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