Latino-Diversity and Its Implication for Music in Worship In Episcopal Church

Latino-Diversity and its Implication for Music in Worship in Episcopal Church

Introduction

Latin-Americans in the USA are over 30 million, or about 10 percent of the population. Most Latin-Americans are Roman Catholic, but many belong to Episcopal churches and charismatic or fundamentalist Protestant churches. Although Episcopal churches have diverse beliefs and practices, they are commonly rooted in the Anglican tradition. The Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA), with more than 2.3 million members, is affiliated with the worldwide Anglican Communion, a consortium of churches recognizing one another as legitimate representatives of Anglicanism in their respective countries.

The religious music that is commonly considered Western had its beginnings in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, as did Western religions themselves. As that music developed over the centuries, it shaped and was shaped by a variety of musical cultures, most notably those of Europe and North America. Primarily Jewish or Christian in character, Western religious music has also been influenced at times by Islamic practices. This paper discusses Latino-diversity and its implication for music in worship in Episcopal church.

Discussion

Different groups of Jews and Christians have been identified in the West partly by the kinds of music they have cultivated or prohibited. Much music, however, has crossed denominational and religious lines. Furthermore secular and sacred styles have been mutually influential, even if sometimes controversially so. Since the late eighteenth century Western music of a religious or spiritual nature has often appeared in a relatively secular guise.

As descendents of the Anglican tradition, Episcopal churches have a direct lineage with the Church of England. King Henry VIII in 1531 declared the English church separate from the papal authority of the Roman Catholic Church, culminating a wider English dissatisfaction over matters of authority, discipline, and practice. Elizabeth I set forth the notion of via media for the church, meaning "middle road" between Roman Catholic and Protestant influence. Subsequent Puritan and Anglo-Catholic movements produced a turbulent history for Anglicanism.

Latin-American Episcopal music has undergone an extraordinary transformation in the late twentieth century. Most of the major religious communities have made important changes in their music cultures since 1965. Virtually all of the mainline Protestant denominations have issued controversial new hymnals, while the Catholic church has endured the failure of an ambitious liturgical reform and then turned to traditional Protestant hymnody and new Pentecostal praise music to find effective songs for worship. American Jews have embraced the renewal of traditional synagogue music as well as a revival of old Hispanic music. Latin-American nations have shared their music traditions with outsiders, while New Age movements have given music a central place in their beliefs and rituals. And while the number of religious works by major composers has continued a century-long decline, anthems for local choirs appear at unprecedented rates and concert hall performances of classical sacred works have never been more popular.

External forces have also shaped Latin Episcopal music, none more profoundly than its commodification and popularization through the mass-marketing of recordings ...