March 2007
Church Music in the Unitarian Church, Dublin	Show Menu

Josh Johnston, Organist; www.joshjohnston.com

My first visit to the Unitarian Church on St Stephen’s Green was on New Year’s Day 2006, when I was asked to play the organ for a service. I was subsequently offered the post of organist, a position I jumped at, and it has been a learning experience ever since.

The Unitarian church in the Republic of Ireland comprises two congregations (Dublin & Cork) and is affiliated to both the General Assembly in England and the non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland in the North. With each congregation across the world taking its own distinctive personality, and being encouraged to do so by the General Assembly (an administrative centre rather than a governing body), I soon discovered that their 'musical rulebook' was there to be discovered, read, interpreted, discarded and rewritten if desired. The reason for this is that the Unitarian Church—while its roots are in a small group of Christian people, which dismissing the Nicene Creed and the Trinity, in the twenty-first century has a very diverse theological outlook and is very much about personal faith, where you are on your spiritual journey rather than where the church is. The church's roots are Christian but the members now come from Christian, Atheist, Humanist, and many other backgrounds. The church is there to nurture spiritual growth and to foster tolerance and respect for all religions. The liturgy can be based on the bible but doesn't have to be. For instance, the readings are chosen by individual congregation members, and these highlight the interests of different peoples through the various ways that God (or whatever you want to call the creator) speaks to people through readings.

Because of the differing cultures within many diverse communities, I can't comment on music in general in the Unitarian Church, but rather tell you how I operate in Dublin. Musically, the service is quite straightforward. We have four hymns each Sunday, a voluntary at the end and a few spaces in the middle ideal for improvisation or other pieces. Unitarian hymns have different words and these have been written down the years since Unitarianism started to reflect the differences between its faith and that of other churches. and also to try and accommodate the wide range of backgrounds within the one church. Jesus is rarely mentioned in the hymns; instead, the creator and his influence on the world — nature, the seasons, ourselves—is celebrated. The hymns are collected in an old hymnal (which focuses on Anglican hymn tunes, but with appropriately modified words) and a new book called Singing The Living Tradition which attempts to marry this tradition with that of the American Unitarian Universalist community— which sings a lot of gospel songs and hymns set to folk music from around the world. With the organ as our main instrument in Dublin, we're still using the Anglican tunes most of the time but there's a growing push to test out some of the lesser-known tunes in the new book—giving ourselves a challenge. At the moment, I'm working my way through the book to find tunes that we may not have sung before. Ironically, The congregation is ready for new hymns.

There are three or four excellent musicians in the church and we have musical interludes, on average about twice a month, during the service. Instruments played include piano, voice, flute, guitar, organ and sousaphone (!!) sometimes together, sometimes separately. This allows for a moment of meditation and also for God to speak through media other than the written word. This is usually greeted by a healthy round of applause, not seen as a bad thing in the church, rather as an appreciation of the effort undertaken to contribute to the worship.

There are about ten in the choir, and up to recently just sang hymns in harmony and the occasional anthem at festival services. This has stepped up a notch now with the commencement of regular rehearsals at 10 a.m. on two Sundays a month, to prepare an anthem for the third Sunday. We have a choir director who works on a voluntary basis.

The entire congregation is also instrumental in setting up and promoting concerts in aid of the church restoration fund, and this is a great way of bringing the congregation and the local community together through music.

I feel at home at the Unitarian Church. I have much to learn from them and about them but I think I have a lot to contribute too, in many ways thanks to my multidenominational school education and also my experience on the Archbishops' Church Musician Award (thanks again to my organ teacher Siobhán Kilkelly and the Dublin Diocesan Church Music Committee).

Josh Johnston is a pianist, arranger and composer/ songwriter. After graduating from the University of Salford in 1997 with a degree in Popular Music, he worked in radio and music retail before taking the plunge to try his hand at being a full-time musician. He also accompanies choirs, singers and soloists for exams, rehearsals and recitals. Classically trained and with a keen interest in all forms of popular music, he is a versatile and valuable session musician, equally at home in jazz, folk and rock.

Organists’ Hints & Tips

No ‘Hints & Tips’ were forthcoming for this issue so the Editor must fill the gap himself. What follows hardly constitutes a hint or a tip but I hope it may be useful to readers to draw attention to two volumes that I find very useful

A volume called ‘From Key to Key’, is a collection of 288 easy and effective modulations between all keys of up to four sharps and four flats. I find this very helpful for situations such as the recessional hymn being in, say D, and the recessional voluntary in A flat. Some skilled organists can modulate effortlessly and effectively between any two keys, but for many us very amateur organists it can be a bit of a hit-and-miss situation! This book solves the problem.

Volume No 2 is entitled ‘Liturgical Interludes’, and it contains 100 short pieces (mostly easy and sight-readable) for playing perhaps during Communion or for filling those gaps that occur when for instance the collection hymn is not long enough or the cleric is late in starting the service! There are pieces in most keys, both major and minor.

Both books mentioned are published by Kevin Mayhew, whose contact details are:
Buxhall Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 3BW, 

info@kevinmayhewltd.com,
www.kevinmayhewltd.com

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