An African American woman told me of a practice she recalled from her childhood that little girls in her church were given flowers to put behind their ears-- my memory is fuzzy buit it may have been at confirmation time-- and that some girls were given white flowers, and some red. The color indicated those girls whose mothers were not living. The little girls were not told in advance what the colors meant; they were codes for the adults to know which girls needed a little extra prayer, and mothering, I think. This was her personal experience as an orphan, shared as an emotional memory, so I did not ask about the cultural underpinnings.


At a workshop on the spirituals I gave last summer, an elderly attendee (an African American and a leader in our denomination) wanted me to know and let others know that the spontaneous, non-arranged musical style of singing them continues "to this day" in what he referred to as "The Black Church." You can hear that, of course, in venues online as I have posted about in other threads for many years. As I have heard them sung in that manner, it has seemed to be more true of the smaller (rural) churches than the larger churches that draw from the larger urban populations. I look forward to discussing that with him further when I next see him.

I have also been told that the style preferences have been connected to socioeconomic class characteristics/cultural preferences.

I saw a comment, in another thread about "Singing Black," that I will address here because my contribution to that discussion is entirely based on the several hymnals I have that were developed for and from "The Black Church." Some of them are absolutely adamant that one must sing the songs in the Black dialect as contained in the book. Some of them are absolutely adamant that they must NOT be sung in dialect. My conclusion is that there is no "right way" but that in different eras there have been different prejudices, and different preferred manners of approaching those prejudices. These are likely to continue to be different in different times, I think.

I'm just grateful that the music itself has had the ability (the power) to transcend ALL of that. And I dearly look forward to an opportunity to attend church next week with friends with whom our parish has a number of connections, which I know they consider a Black Church. The last time I was there (for an ordination), the service was as formal as formal could be, but it still had an air of spontaneity and "let's have some fun here today" that was not hidden under the formality. :~) I also recall the number of small children relaxedly lounging on adults' laps throughout the service; in our own parish of older folks we lack the young-family population this particular neighborhood serves, and we also lack the relaxed welcome and inclusion of children in that particular way.

But I cannot say that it was a characteristic of the Black church-- it was just how that parish was, to me. And it's how our Saturday Night Service is, though it's generally not known to be part of The Black Church.... but I suppose in some ways, it is, since it's got definite strains of the multicultural relationships and experiences Hardi and I have had in our lives.


So I do look forward to being with that parish for a morning. And that leads me to my final contribution to this thread, and that is that The Black Church as I have known it has doors that are wide open to folks who appreciate diversity and who come as friends. Any chance to attend one is bound to be a good time.

~Susan