Worship
Left: Participants trying out their compositions Right: Participants of TFWS 2023 songwriting retreat
Zachary Yong worships at Wesley Methodist Church. He is part of the Kopi kakis comics team and loves his coffee with milk and no sugar. / Photos courtesy of Kegan Ang
Songwriters gather to craft a new
B
udding songwriters from Methodist and non-Methodist churches across Singapore congregated in Changi Cove Hotel for a songwriting retreat, called "The Faith We Sing" (TFWS), on 22 and 23 April 2023. The 2-day event, organised by the Methodist School of Music (MSM), was centred on the theme of families. TFWS is a platform for local Christian songwriters to share their compositions with others in the faith community. Since 2020, MSM has been inviting local Christian songwriters to submit compositions to be featured at each TFWS event. In 2022, the first songwriting workshop was organised. Before getting into the actual craft of songwriting, participants shared about their various experiences. For instance, some started writing songs inspired by journal entries, while others were commissioned by their church to compose a whole musical! But beyond that, participants were united in their belief that songwriting is a journey requiring humility because of the need to expose their own vulnerabilities. One participant summed songwriting up beautifully as
Alleluia
"something small and broken which the Lord transforms into something immensely powerful". Dr Judith Laoyan-Mosomos, Director for Worship & Church Music of MSM, shared a brief history of congregational singing, discussing how the latest explosion of hymn-writing began in America in the 1960s amidst the backdrop of the hippie movement and civil rights protests before spreading to various places like Canada and Scotland. She proceeded to share the role of music in supporting the liturgy, and why global songs should be sung (illustrating how folktunes have been used for worship in Asia and Africa), before challenging participants to compose songs that the family can sing, and the church is in want of. "We need to sing and celebrate God’s idea of family, lament the brokenness in families, restore the generational divide, and renew our commitment to Christ’s body here on earth. Unfortunately, we lack resources for these themes. It is time we write about them," Dr Laoyan-Mosomos said.
June 2023 Methodist Message 29