Raising the Bamboo Curtain: A Visit with Asian Congregational Song (2012)

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) The faith of a community comes to life in its music making ... In music, faith and life of a people take flesh. The musical doing of a people is so potent and so expressive of its being. Paul Westermeyer1 The twenty-first century has often been described as Century * by commentators in various disciplines, particularly in geopolitics and economics.2 Given current economic situation of world, it is not surprising that this century will significantly be influenced by politics and culture as geopolitical center of world shifts. Given this trend in both economics and culture, it is quite unsettling to observe that we in North are minimally engaged with church in Asia, even as Philip lenkins reminds us that the center of gravity in Christian world has shifted inexorably southward, to Africa, Asia, and Latin America and that this trend is likely to continue.3 While much progress has been made to purposefully sing songs from Africa and Latin and to include these in musical repertoire of our churches, this same hospitable treatment cannot be said of congregational songs. While songs may find their way into official hymnals in present time, they are rarely used by local churches in their worship services. Clearly there is a disconnect between church polity of including these works in a denominational hymnal and local liturgical practice that stays away from using this resource in worship service. In this author's view, this phenomenon is manifestation of an inherent trepidation and lack of understanding of songs from Asia on part of worship leadership. Therefore, this essay intends to unveil congregational songs and to help our churches draw from this rich resource that can help deepen our worship of God. Rather than simply seeing congregational song as one homogenous form, this author offers that there are three distinct types. This investigation will describe their distinctive features and their status within church in Asia; it will offer a clearer view of congregational songs in Asia and their intrinsic function as conveyer of Christian tradition in a sociocultural landscape where Christianity is not dominant faith tradition. Having this understanding can help us in North as we confront increased secularism in our midst and as our faith tradition is increasingly marginalized by our society. Background of Asia According to Britannica Online Encyclopedia, Asia is largest landmass of world bounded by Arctic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Its western boundary with Europe, running roughly northsouth along eastern Ural Mountains, is bounded by Caspian, Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean seas, Suez Canal, and Red Sea. Its southern boundary is marked by islands of Sri Lanka and Taiwan and archipelagoes of Indonesia (excluding New Guinea), Philippines and lapan. With a geographical area of 17,226,000 square miles (44,614,000 square kilometers), this region houses a population (at 2004 estimate) of 3,879,659,000, approximately 60% of world's population.4 Aside from its significant size, Asia is home to four out of five ethno-musical systems, namely, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, and Persian; fifth being western notational system. In field of religion, Asia is cradle to several of world's major faith traditions such as Buddhism, Christianity, ludaism, Hinduism, and Islam. In fact, Christians in India, particularly Saint Thomas Christians (Mar Thoma Christians), have consistently claimed their direct lineage to missional effort of Thomas Apostle from Jerusalem.5 Describing various types of congregational songs found in this part of world, it is important to understand that there is no single Asian congregational song form in terms of common musical characteristics. …