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Recently published
Julian Davis Reid: Black music is a form of God’s grace
A jazz musician and theologian reflects on the lessons that Black music can offer the church and the world.
Jazz doesn’t just teach leaders the importance of improvisation. It also teaches the necessity of imitation
Imitation lays the foundation for improvisation, a lesson for leadership as well as for music.
Link to author L. Roger Owens
By
L. Roger Owens
Hugh Thomson Kerr Professor of Pastoral Theology, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Kevin Dean: The theater is an “empathy gym” that can help people connect in divisive times
In Houston, a Christian theater company has been premiering original content and performing internationally known plays for almost 60 years. It continues to adapt, serving an increasingly diverse audience.
Link to author Holly Beretto
By
Holly Beretto
Writer
A musical about Frederick Douglass explores the prophetic
“American Prophet” connects spirituality and the arts at a profound moment in history.
Link to author Stephanie Hunt
By
Stephanie Hunt
Journalist
A missing story finds its way to the stage
A new opera explores Islam’s largely unsung role in the history of enslaved Africans in America as it expands cultural and spiritual understanding.
Link to author Stephanie Hunt
By
Stephanie Hunt
Journalist
Pride and pressure: The Easter speech
A tradition rooted in Black excellence has served as a celebration of the resurrection and a training ground for generations of children.
Link to author Cynthia R. Greenlee
By
Cynthia R. Greenlee
Journalist
Remembering the enslaved Black creators of Negro spirituals
A Massachusetts congregation will be paying “royalties” to local arts nonprofits to acknowledge the musicians who were never compensated.
Link to author Susan DeSelms
By
Susan DeSelms
Music director and organist
Mel Williams: Singing our way to hope
Singing draws people together, comforts the grieving, motivates and inspires. But most of all, it gives us hope, writes a Baptist pastor emeritus and singer.
Link to author Mel Williams
By
Mel Williams
Activist & Baptist pastor emeritus
Gretchen E. Ziegenhals: This Lent, turning again and again to God and one another
When a church turned away from musician Steve Bell and his family, inmates at the federal prison where his father was a chaplain turned toward them, welcoming their brokenness and helping Bell discover a gift from God and a vision for what church can be.
Link to author Gretchen E. Ziegenhals
By
Gretchen E. Ziegenhals
Spiritual director and retreat leader
Luke A. Powery: Spirituals teach us about suffering before God
African-American spirituals have given voice to people for whom “Lent was life,” says the dean of Duke Chapel, who has written a new book called “Were You There? Lenten Reflections on the Spirituals.”
