Abstract
The Consultation on Black Worship, sponsored by the Interdenominational Theological Center, in Hampton, Georgia on November 21-23, 1985, spent a significant segment of the two and one-half days addressing one of the elemental ingredients of Black worship-Black sacred music. Most of that deliberation was prompted by “The Black Gospel Music Tradition: A Complex of Ideology, Aesthetic, and Behavior,” a paper presented by Dr. Mellonee Burnim, and “Biblical Characters, Events, Places, and Images Remembered and Celebrated in Black Worship,” a paper presented by Dr. Charles Copher. These two papers are included in this present volume, and herein is summarized the dialogue they generated. The two fundamental components of gospel, its music and its lyric, both came under scrutiny. Rev. Marvin Chandler, himself a composer and gospel performer, complained that it’s commercialization has caused fallacious musical expectations in youth, such that, when he sings gospel to his own piano accompaniment, they question the absence of drums, synthesizers, and other electronic instruments. The discussants were in consensus that the commercialization of this “church music” has resulted in the debasement of what Dr. Samuel Proctor, in his presentation, termed “sincerity” and “simplicity” in worship. When this occurs, stated Dr. Proctor, the quality of community life that ought to emanate from worship is not realized.