wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 351-Côte d'Ivoire event promotes cross-cultural music

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Côte d'Ivoire event promotes cross-cultural music

>Aug. 21, 2008

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

>By Isaac Broune*

ABIDJAN, Côte d'Ivoire (UMNS)-Cross-cultural sharing to enhance United  Methodist music ministries across the globe was the focus of a week-long  training event at the Methodist University of Cocody in Côte d'Ivoire.

Thirty-five United Methodists from the church in Côte d'Ivoire and an  international team of musicians engaged in reciprocal teaching and  learning Aug. 3-10. The event was organized by the Global Praise program  of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

Global Praise emerged as a United Methodist mission initiative in the  1990s to gather, receive and share the songs of Methodists and other  Christians around the world.

An overarching concept is that the church is indeed global and that all  parts need to be familiar with the gifts of music that various cultures  contribute to the whole. This is especially true for Methodists, who  belong to a Christian heritage born in song.

>Sharing gifts of music

Bettsy Curtis plans to take back to North Carolina the new drum rhythms  and Ivorian Christian songs she learned to use with elementary  school-age students. She directs music ministries at Wesley Memorial  United Methodist Church, Wilimington, and works with fifth-graders in a  performing arts magnet school.

Eloise Bodje, a 20-year-old Ivorian with no previous experience in  music, made impressive progress in piano skills-"the equivalent of six  months of intensive courses," according to Jacques Kangni, a Togolese  organist with 15 years of experience

Ivorian Methodist worship incorporates many musical idioms, according to  Michael Hawn, a professor of church music and director of the Master of  Sacred Music Program at Perkins School of Theology, Dallas.

"There is a wide variety of songs from Anglican chants to traditional  hymns, gospel songs and short choruses, a lot of singing in worship,"  said Hawn. "It is impressive to see how the whole body is involved in  songs, not just the voice, how spontaneously a director can continue and  vary a song longer in the Spirit.

All these are gifts from the Côte d'Ivoire United Methodist Church  that we need in the United States."

At the same time, the Ivorian church is in need of music leadership,  greater skills in teaching the wide variety of songs, and training in  electronic keyboards, which are growing in popularity across Africa.

Global Praise brought 10 electric keyboards to leave with the church in  West Africa. Abraham Arpellet, director of the National Board of Music  in Côte d'Ivoire, has set up a ''strategic plan to do the follow-up in  order to increase the current level so that, in a 12-month time-frame,  all the students can play all the songs in the churches.''

Hawn and the Rev. Debra Tyree, a Global Praise staff member who is  minister of music at Bellevue United Methodist Church, Nashville, Tenn.,  hosted two groups in voice development and choir conducting. They taught  music theory, promoted the use of new songs and shared techniques for  effective leadership during worship.

The Ivorians learned how to sing ''Alleluia'' in languages from Syria,  India, Zimbabwe, Argentina and the Caribbean.

Attie Agovi Lazare, a 25-year-old musician, anticipated the training  will lead to qualitative and quantitative changes in the two choirs he  leads: M'Pouto United Methodist Church with 45 members and Locodjo  United Methodist Church with 150 members in his mother's village. He  also wants to improve the music skills of the children of his local  church.

>Cross-cultural teaching and learning

Visitors from the U.S. and Europe learned about the use of traditional  Ivorian dance in worship. Their teacher was Daniel Konan, an expert on  traditional dance with 11 years' experience teaching at the National  Institute of Music, Drawing and Performing Arts.

Every day, following morning devotions led by the Rev. John Thornburg, a  hymn text writer, participants separated into four groups to attend  various classes.

>The Global Praise team included:

*	Jorge A. Lockward, Global Praise program coordinator and co-founder  and conductor-in-residence of Cántico Nuevo (New Song), a worship and  arts ecumenical project in New York City;
*	The Rev. Debra Tyree, business manager of Global Praise and minister  of music at Bellevue United Methodist Church, Nashville, Tenn.; 
*	Michael Hawn, professor of church music and director of the Master of  Sacred Music Program at Perkins School of Theology, Dallas. in Dallas; 
*	Eileen Guenther, president of the American Guild of Organists,  associate professor of church music at Wesley Theological Seminary and  lecturer in music at George Washington University, both in Washington  D.C.; 
*	Bettsy Curtis, director of Music Ministries at Wesley Memorial United  Methodist Church in Wilmington, N.C.; and
*	The Rev. John Thornburg, an accomplished hymn and anthem text author.

>They were joined by:

*	The Rev. Martin Heider, Lutheran pastor, composer and musician from  Germany; 
*	Godfrey Taylor, author and organist from Jamaica; and
*	Simei Monteiro, worship consultant at World Council of Churches,  Geneva.

>On the Web: www.globalpraise.org

*Broune is a United Methodist communicator for the Côte d'Ivoire  Annual Conference.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or  newsdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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