Religious Music

Religious music comes easily to Dave Weston--and well it should after 50 years. Last month, Weston, 69, celebrated his golden anniversary in gospel music at a dinner reception hosted by friends and family. "We have a saying in our group that we're trying to give him his flowers while he can still smell them," said Clyde Smith, 46, a member of the Dave Weston Singers for 32 years. Recognition of Weston is coming from other quarters as well, including California Gov.

An eclectic group of people sat on floor cushions in a Los Feliz home earlier this month for a concert to mark famed sitar player Ravi Shankar's 90th birthday. In the same room where Shankar played in the 1960s sat atheists and believers, guests who were raised Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and evangelical Christian. They came together at the home of Shankar's longtime friend Jan Steward to hear Paul Livingstone, a Los Angeles-based virtuoso sitar player who, in the last year, has adapted various world music styles to church worship.

Catholic churches should no longer be used for concerts of secular music, the Vatican said in new guidelines published in Rome over the weekend. The instructions, drawn up by the Vatican department responsible for religious services, state that only religious music should be played in church and that no entrance fee should be charged.

NASHVILLE -- How many songwriters does it take to write a hit? A group of big names from the Christian recording industry is hoping it's a lucky 13. Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Chris Tomlin and others are scheduled to gather for a retreat Jan. 7 to 11 in Perthshire, Scotland, with a plan to collectively write 10 to 12 songs for charity. Any money the tunes generate is designated to help the poor for as long as the songs are around.

Probably the biggest of the many misconceptions surrounding gospel-rock band the Mercy Seat is that singer-guitarist Gordon Gano formed the group as a side project to his regular band, Violent Femmes. That notion is corrected faster than you can say Zena Von Heppinstall . That's the name of the Mercy Seat's songwriter and lead singer--and the person who put the band together. "It's something I dreamed up, I imagined," she said.

All ye who think of church music as ancient choruses from some dusty hymnal, take note: All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena is singing a different tune. Premiering tonight is "Musica Mundial," a concert of culturally diverse, modern- day religious music for a new world. "We're suggesting that our music is the answer to the question, 'What is the current-day religious music?'

Even if I hadn't been stuck in downtown traffic Friday morning, I probably would have been glued to the radio. Political reporters pressed special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald to reveal more about his investigation of a White House leak that outed a covert CIA agent than was included in his short report. He resisted, saying that he did not enjoy keeping secrets but that he was constrained by law.

As the president of Operation USA, an international relief organization, I take strong exception to Franklin Graham's cheery description of Samaritan's Purse, his evangelical relief group set up as an adjunct to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn. ("No Strings Attached," Commentary, April 3). Graham raised more than a few eyebrows some months ago when he opined that Islam was a "very evil, wicked religion." That he would think he'll get a friendly reception in Iraq is sheer fantasy. More telling is Nicaragua's experience with Samaritan's Purse, which came in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch.

His smiling visage appears as computer screen savers. His lectures sell out within minutes. His books have just made American publishing history when, for the first time, a religious leader landed two tomes on national bestseller lists at the same time. His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, perennially describes himself as just a "simple Buddhist monk."

"THE gangs have the right idea!" A-Man shouts from the flatbed of a semi-truck trailer serving as the stage for Hip Hop Church America outside the Crystal Cathedral on a hot fall afternoon. "But instead of killing each other they should be out there killing witches! When they're out there slaying other gangs they should be slaying demons!"

Before the advent of the 15th century printing press that eventually made books available to the masses, Christian priests, monks and nuns in the Middle Ages relied on rare, handmade and colorfully illustrated choir books to preserve their music generation to generation. Music in the religious world in Europe had been passed down orally until the 800s, when monks began to transcribe their melodies onto the parchment of their choir books.

The lucky ones learned spirituals as children, from grandmothers whose own grandparents may have been slaves. Not only did they memorize "Wade in the Water," but they heard how fleeing slaves trudged through rivers and creeks to escape search parties and their dogs.

"THE gangs have the right idea!" A-Man shouts from the flatbed of a semi-truck trailer serving as the stage for Hip Hop Church America outside the Crystal Cathedral on a hot fall afternoon. "But instead of killing each other they should be out there killing witches! When they're out there slaying other gangs they should be slaying demons!"

Regina Kennedy prides herself on being a good Christian, so when the pastor at her Pentecostal church in Delaware called it a sin to download gospel songs without paying for them, her heart began to race. The out-of-work driver went home and stared at her download collection, which included artists such as Yolanda Adams, Kirk Franklin and others. "The songs are so beautiful, and I couldn't afford to buy them all," the 43-year-old said. "I just didn't know what to do."

On a recent Monday at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, about 35 nuns gather in a dim chapel to chant, as they do every day at noon. Making their way through Psalm 118, the nuns sit or stand; some face different directions, while others bow steeply. Throughout, their voices remain in unison. Pope Benedict XVI would approve. After a concert of 16th and 17th century music recently, the pope said he would prefer to hear Gregorian chant and other traditional types of music play more of a role during Mass.

Joshua Nelson doesn't want to hear the Sammy Davis Jr. jokes. He's heard them all. "I actually used to get offended by them. People would say, 'Oh, you're a black Jew, just like Sammy Davis, right?' " Nelson said. "That fact is that I didn't convert to Judaism. I was born Jewish." As a Hebrew schoolteacher, he wants to educate. As a singer, he wants to entertain. Nelson did both at a recent performance at Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford, N.J.

An eclectic group of people sat on floor cushions in a Los Feliz home earlier this month for a concert to mark famed sitar player Ravi Shankar's 90th birthday. In the same room where Shankar played in the 1960s sat atheists and believers, guests who were raised Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and evangelical Christian. They came together at the home of Shankar's longtime friend Jan Steward to hear Paul Livingstone, a Los Angeles-based virtuoso sitar player who, in the last year, has adapted various world music styles to church worship.

Joshua Nelson doesn't want to hear the Sammy Davis Jr. jokes. He's heard them all. "I actually used to get offended by them. People would say, 'Oh, you're a black Jew, just like Sammy Davis, right?' " Nelson said. "That fact is that I didn't convert to Judaism. I was born Jewish." As a Hebrew schoolteacher, he wants to educate. As a singer, he wants to entertain. Nelson did both at a recent performance at Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford, N.J.

Even if I hadn't been stuck in downtown traffic Friday morning, I probably would have been glued to the radio. Political reporters pressed special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald to reveal more about his investigation of a White House leak that outed a covert CIA agent than was included in his short report. He resisted, saying that he did not enjoy keeping secrets but that he was constrained by law.

Apart from the tolling of church bells, the sound most associated this week with the death of Pope John Paul II has been the singing of Gregorian chant. Millions heard it Monday, when the Polish-born pontiff's body was carried from the Apostolic Palace into St.