SEPTEMBER 2020


leadership, be they religious, music or lay leadership, thus resulting in the marginalization of communities that possess their own “native genius” and unique gifts—telling them that their unique gifts are not “Catholic.” When in fact, the intentional and willful act of dismissing the unique gifts of the faithful is antithetical to the written designs, doctrine, polity and philosophy of the Church and therefore, “not catholic.” In some cases, this willfulness has risen to the level of pastoral “bullying” and intimidation.


Let the Church Be the Church


O, let America be America again— Te land that never has been yet— And yet must be—the land where every man is free.


—Excerpt from “Let America Be America Again” (Langston Hughes)


I call on the Church to be the Church. I call on the Church to live up to the things it says that it is, to what it declares in its documents, and to be the Church for and to all its members.


Let the Church be the Church. Let us be unified, but not uniform. We ought not be monochromatic, but polychromatic. Not monophonic, but at least homophonic (or homophonous), if not most times, polyphonic.


In her Wednesday presentation, Lynné Gray spoke about a tapestry, many different colors coming together. I would like to add to that imagery. In his book Te Power of Black Music, Samuel Floyd proposes the term, “tonal mosaic.” Floyd posits, “Africans’ overwhelming preference for timbres that contrast rather than blend and their adoration of the resulting ‘tonal mosaic’ [is] ideal for their culture. Together, drum, rattle, bell, voice, and hand claps not only contrast but commingle—harmonize, in their own way—in a heterogeneous fusion that is unequivocally African. Such exclusive focus on this kind of mosaic was carried into the diaspora . . . ” and can thereby be interpolated in the music of African Americans.


If we, the many different ethnic groups that comprise the Church, are indeed to become one body, I offer this bit of wisdom and modality from African and African American culture as “gift to the church.”


Donna Grimes Dr. Kim Harris M. Roger Holland, II


If we become a tapestry, a “tonal mosaic,” we may truly be able to enact a just and equitable way of honoring the native genius of our varied cultures in this universal church and in so doing truly become “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”


I therefore challenge us, as pastoral leaders, to consider the following:


A. In the culture of the Church and in our music making, let us embrace harmony (many different pitches/sounds voiced at once, rather than multiple iterations of one pitch/ sound—unison, that represents exclusivity)


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