Vancouverites are famously among the least religiously affiliated people in Canada — possibly the world. But I bet there are plenty among us who secretly love gospel music and keep this to themselves, fearful of betraying theological recidivism.
Gospel and other spiritually based music speaks to our souls for the perfectly good reason that the people who crafted it knew what they were doing. Those who may feel it is inappropriate to be moved by religious music, or by music from another faith tradition, should probably loosen up. That’s the approach I’ve taken in recent years. And now I’ve discovered what might be the perfect compromise: the Universal Gospel Choir.
The Universal Gospel Choir is 70-voice multi-faith choir that throws a huge amount of spirit into songs from diverse religious and cultural traditions. It’s been around for more than two decades and I have no one to blame but myself for not discovering it sooner.
The choir’s music director Lonnie Delisle says they do a lot of songs that are not religious at all, but which speak to larger ideas of humanity, social justice and love.
B.C. has a strong tradition of social justice, Delisle says, some of it founded in faith and some not, but events like the pipeline protests on Burnaby Mountain recently speak to respect for creation and perhaps to First Nations’ concepts of connectedness to the earth.
“People might not necessarily couch it in religious terms always, but I get the sense that people, even if they don’t necessarily have a specific spiritual path or deity, there’s an openness to spirituality.”
Some of the choir’s selections are from contemporary music, like Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love.”
“It’s a pop tune, but when you look at the lyrics it’s about everybody longing for something bigger than themselves, a love that goes a little deeper than the typical, say, shallowness, somewhere where we have to make a bit of an effort for one another,” he says. “There are so many songs that we do that are not religious at all but just call to celebrate humanity and our wiring to be connected to one another. That connects with everybody and it’s not a religious thing.”
There’s no denying, though, that gospel music stems from Christianity and, while the choir did not emerge from institutionalized religion, the music did.
Yet even the overtly religious pieces can speak to non-believers, he says.
“It’s very metaphorical,” says Delisle. “Even if they might not believe in the literal Jesus, they see the metaphor of someone — kind of like Martin Luther King — who stood for something. And then the music is so fun, people can really get into it.”
At performances, like the Yule concerts Dec. 13 and 14 at the church where Delisle doubles as music director, Canadian Memorial United at Burrard and 16th, expect a huge variety of styles. There will be a Chanukah song in Hebrew, the Huron Carole in Inuktitut and two other aboriginal languages, some pop tunes and “Good King Wenceslas,” which is a seasonal Christian song but, Delisle notes, one that has a strong social justice message.
Also expect a Southern gospel men’s quartet, an urban gospel big choir sound, the women’s ensemble doing a song in Swahili, and an especially challenging version of “Ave Maria.”
The singers in the choir may be nearly as diverse as the music.
“It feels a bit like it’s a microcosm of our society,” Delisle says. “A lot of people would not categorize themselves as any individual faith and then there are people from New Age, Christian, Jewish and … actually I don’t even know all the faiths that are represented, it’s such a mixed bag.”
Yet the music hits the perfect pitch where good things come together.
“When you look at the main tenets of religion,” he says, “it’s some really good stuff. And where they intersect is where the good stuff is.”
Appropriate to the name, the Universal Gospel Choir brings an uplifting message that transcends denomination and difference.
“The message [is] hope, that we’re all in this together. We can make the world a better place. We humans together are actually really great, especially when we band together for something bigger than ourselves,” he says. “That can be, I hope, inspiring and encouraging and, at the very least, somehow nourishing for people.”
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