All Souls Church, a Unitarian Universalist Church in Washington, DC, is well known for its outstanding music ministry.  Their website describes its music as being drawn "from a rich and diverse range of music, including African-American spirituals, traditional Jewish music, music from various cultures, and hymns from the Unitarian Universalist hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition".
 
In celebration of Pentecost Sunday, the Festival Choir, directed by Leonard Sparks, was true to the genuine origin of Pentecost.  Pentecost, explained All Souls' Pastor, Rev. Robert M. Hardies, was "the day when a diverse group of believers got together and each spoke of their faith in their own language, yet was understood by all".  Thus, the Festival Choir sang moving and heartfelt music of various genres from diverse cultures in a variety of languages.   
 
The choir began with Thuma Mina, a South African folksong, singing it in the Zulu text.  The processional selection was Siyahambe, the South African freedom song, singing it in both its native language and English.  The morning anthem was Ubi Caritas, a combination of Khemitic, Yoruba and Latin texts with African melodies and rhythms and a Gregorian chant.  Throughout the service they sang hymns in Czech, Spanish, and Sanskrit (the historical Indo-Aryan liturgical language of Hinduism and Buddhism). They also found very creative ways to invite the entire congregation to join them in the singing of hymns in the various languages. They concluded the service with a powerful rendition of Richard Smallwood's I Will Sing Praises, singing in English, German, Vietnamese and Spanish.  
 
The choirs rich four part, soul stirring harmonies clearly brought joy to the entire ethnically mixed congregation.  Everyone appeared to get pleasure from every song. Bodies were swaying to the slower moving rhythms, folks were on their feet clapping to the 2/4 rhythms of the gospels music, and somehow they figured out the lyrics to the fast paced Arabic hymn and sang it with all their might. No one was locked into their own particular culture.  They openly accepted and appreciated all contributions.  Just as on the Day of Pentecost, everyone understood the message of each song, regardless of its origin.  The music, all of it, was from God and that was all that seemed to matter.  At the close of the service smiles were everywhere and love was in the air. 
 
So what's the Pentecostal lesson?  If we are really in the Spirit, we will be open to listening to others with love in our hearts.  Then and only then will we finally begin to understand one another and peace on earth will become a genuine reality. 

 
 Diane Brenda Williams, D.Min