WCC NEWS: IEPC theme song, one for the masses

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World Council of Churches - News

IEPC THEME SONG, ONE FOR THE MASSES

For immediate release: 12 May 2011

For Jamaican singer/songwriter Grub Cooper, music is not only the
universal language but also the fastest way to reach people and touch
their emotions.


And for Cooper, the music has to be accessible to all.


During the past 40 years Cooper has reached deep into the heart of
Jamaicans with more than a thousand musical compositions, many of them
written and performed as a member of one of Jamaica’s top performing
acts, the Fabulous 5.


Now Cooper is bringing his gift of songwriting to the world through a newly
recorded composition written specifically for the upcoming World Council
of Churches (WCC), International Ecumenical Peace Convocation, which is
being held in Kingston, Jamaica 17-25 May.


The convocation promises to bring together some 1000 people from churches
around the world for a week of learning and sharing about peacemaking. The
event is the culmination of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence
(Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=2316150ed695879f7505 ). It will
feature the presentation of an Ecumenical Call to Just Peace.


The WCC, the Caribbean Conference of Churches and the Jamaica Council of
Churches are jointly hosting the peace convocation, which will be held on
the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies near Kingston.


The song, Glory to God and Peace on Earth, is a song about peace. Borrowing
the convocation motto as its title, the 4-minute tune offers a Caribbean
flavour with a chord structure allowing for easy arrangement, Cooper said.


“I tried to achieve a simple melody because simplicity is always best,”
he said in an  interview in Kingston. “I left it sort of open ended that
persons who would wish to put a particular idiom to it, suppose there was
somebody from Spain, they probably could do it at a beat that they are
comfortable with, without changing the melody. So the arrangement is not
cut in stone.”


Cooper’s group, the Fab 5, will be the headliners at a peace concert in
Kingston on 20 May sponsored by the Jamaica Council of Churches and the
WCC.


While the peace convocation will be filled with speeches, workshops,
seminars and presentations, Cooper is certain the song will have an impact
and invited those attending the convocation to learn it before coming so
they can sing it together.


“From time immemorial music has always had more power than the spoken
word,” Cooper said.  “Whenever you want to reach a population in a
hurry and in an effective way music is obviously the most logical way to
go.”


Listen to the interview with Grub Cooper and the song (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=43ea49c25fcc6c5905ec )




Sheet music to the song (pdf, 1.4 MB) (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=3a60fa6d327fff65c824
)


IEPC website: www.overcomingviolence.org (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=b9ab39c5bc0d8a0e34d0 )


The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness 
and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of 
churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, 
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, 
from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.



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