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/ 19 November 2015

Hey Sister, Soul Sister

Alison Beck Gospel Singer

Creatives Network member, Alison Beck, discusses what led her to be a gospel singer and how joining a choir helped her reconnect with God, in an urban setting. Today her choir Soul Sanctuary, helps Anglican and Catholic churches find the beauty of soul music, in a traditional liturgical setting.

Why should I feel discouraged / Why should the shadows come / Why should my heart feel lonely / And long for heaven and home?… His eye is on the sparrow / and I know he watches me…”                                              (His Eye is on the Sparrow, traditional gospel song)

Musical Roots

Growing up as a shy, white, Church of England girl in the north-east of England during the 1980s, you won’t be surprised to hear that I didn’t meet many gospel musicians in the flesh.

In fact, my first real exposure to gospel music – like a lot of people my age, I think – came through watching Whoopi Goldberg and her singing nuns in the famous Sister Act films.

In Sister Act 2, there’s a moment when Lauryn Hill’s character and her school-friend are sitting at the piano in the chapel, thinking deep thoughts about the meaning of life, but unable to find the words to express how they are feeling. When Lauryn starts to sing the famous lines from His Eye is on the Sparrow – “…and I sing because I’m free” – and it gave me goosebumps (it still does, every time I watch it!).

There’s something about music – and gospel music in particular – that has the capacity to take me to a place beyond words. It connects me to the divine in a way that nothing else can. If my heart is heavy and my soul weary, gospel music can help to heal me.

Or to put it another way, “music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us.”¹

When I was in my twenties, I moved to London and began to feel very disconnected from Christianity as I understood it then. God didn’t seem real, or feasible, or particularly interested in our ordinary human struggles.

Then I joined a gospel choir.

At first, I did it for the amazing music, and for the camaraderie. But after a few months, I started to feel something akin to ecstasy when we sang in church services.

Around this time, I was reading books by the theologian Karen Armstrong and was very struck by her description of what the ancient Greeks called ekstasis – those moments in life where humans are struck by sensations that transcend their mundane experience, moments when we leave ourselves behind and step into something larger.

I came to realise that the feelings of ekstasis I was experiencing when I ‘lost myself’ in gospel music were times when I was connecting fully with God. “We are, the great spiritual writers insist, most fully ourselves when we give ourselves away, and it is egotism that holds us back from that transcendent experience that has been called God, Nirvana, Brahman, or the Tao.”

This was the beginning of a long journey towards becoming the person of faith that I am today. I can honestly say that without gospel music, I’d be lost in the tall weeds.

“Beautiful, Powerful”

I’m still part of the gospel choir that I joined 10 years ago. Every month, Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir provides gospel music – as part of structured liturgy – for an evening Eucharist at St James’s Piccadilly (Church of England), and a Catholic Mass at Farm Street Jesuit Church in Mayfair.

Members of the congregation have described these services as “beautiful”, “uplifting”, “powerful”, and “[it] would even get Pope Benedict XVI’s toe-tapping”.

Our mission is to help spread gospel music further into Catholic, Anglican and other non-Pentecostal churches. We want to share the joyful, soulful grooviness of contemporary gospel music with people who wouldn’t normally get a chance to experience it.

Why? Well, in my view, any church trying to follow the radical, bold, adventurous teachings of Jesus should think about being a little bit adventurous with its music within worship, too.

Gospel music is a fantastic way of reaching out to people on the fringes of church. I know; I used to be one of them.

Gospel workshops for churches

Recently, I’ve been developing a Soul Sanctuary ‘toolkit’ – a menu of resources – which other churches can use to create their own home-grown gospel choirs. It’s been very exciting for me to go into churches and lead gospel-singing workshops with them.

One of the participants, Corinna, said:

“When I first saw the invitation in the [church] newsletter I questioned whether or not my singing ability would be able to rise to the challenge of Gospel singing. I decided to push aside my apprehension and go along anyway with an open mind. A short time into the workshop I started to relax and my doubts were completely put to ease…

“As the sessions take shape I take moments to glance around the semi-circle to enjoy people’s smiling and happy faces. The collective joy and glow really is tangible and in turn lends itself beautifully to worship and being receptive to God’s presence. The hour and a half seems to pass quickly due to having such fun. I always come away feeling really uplifted and fulfilled and looking forward to the next session. I highly recommend giving it a go.”

We’re really keen for a bunch of churches to try out our toolkit, during the pilot phase and give us feedback. If you think you might be interested in having a gospel workshop, a visit from Soul Sanctuary choir, or anything else from our menu of resources, then please get in touch – I’d love to hear from you.

Find out more about the toolkit resources on Soul Sanctuary’s website If you’re curious to hear the choir sing, you can catch Soul Sanctuary live at the Jazz Café in London on 6th December, when they will be performing ‘Nine Lessons and Carols’ with gospel arrangements of traditional carols, spoken word poetry, and readings from Mel Giedroyc (presenter of Great British Bake-Off). More information and details of booking tickets are on the Diocesan website.

Alison Beck is a jazz and gospel vocalist, choir director, workshop leader, composer, arranger and session singer.


 

¹Karen Armstrong, The Spiral Staircase (2004)


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