Nowell, Nowell

What a wonderful concert! Not what Nowell Sing We Clear would have been, but darn good. No one will ever replace Tony Barrand, but he was well-remembered Tuesday night and it was great seeing and hearing a new generation in his wake. Nowell Sing We Clear was Tony Barrand, John Roberts, Fred Breunig and Andy Davis. They had a 40-year + run - amazing in its own right. The program was always in two parts: Christian and Pagan. I.e., Christmas Carols from the British folk tradition, and secular carols of the season, also British. Both Tony and John were British in birth and upbringing. The program always included a Mummer's Play. Tuesday night was a much bigger group but with strong connections to the original NSWC. Andy Davis and Fred Breunig were there. John Roberts is still living, but did not feel well enough to come over from Albany, NY where he lives. Just as well! It was a lousy, wet, foggy night, and Searsburg Mountain, which lies between Albany and Brattleboro, could have been icy for sure. There were nine other musicians Tuesday night: the group Windborne, composed of Lauren Breunig (Fred Breunig's daughter), Jeremy Carter-Gordan, Lynn and Will Rowan; and also Keith Murphy (who lives across the street from Tony and has collaborated with him often in the past; Arthur Davis (Andy's son), Emma Schneider (Arthur's wife), Donal Sheets and Guillaume Sparrow-Pepin (whose mother, Lisa Sparrow, was pastor of the Guilford Community Church for 20 years - where Tony and Margaret Dale were pillars. Lynn Rowan also grew up in the GCC). Lots of connections! Windborne are very tight harmonically. They performed an Occitan Carol Medley that was breathtaking. I would say that 90% of the repertoire Tuesday was drawn from NSWC. There was a marvelous parody - also a NSWC tradition, this one a parody of the Cutty Wren Carol. Katie, Savanna and Brendon joined us, and we had seats in the front row on the left side. Great for taking pictures!

Windborne: Jeremy, Lynn, Lauren and Will

Andy, Arthur, Emma and Fred

Guillaume, Arthur, Emma, Donal

Finale - Keith Murphey is front and center. *************************** Yesterday I attended a Zoom session from Chicago Theological Seminary featuring feminist theologian Carter Heyward, who has just published The Seven Deadly Sins of Christian White Supremecy, and who was being interviewed by Susan Thistlethwaite, former CTS President, who was pres. back in 1999-2001 when I was at CTS as Pastor-in-Residence. That was a very timely and sobering interview. Then a couple of hours later I led a Zoom Bible Study on the topic of Modernism & Postmodernism which actually went very well, I think. The group has settled down to 12-14 regulars. A very nice group.

Carter Heyward

My Bible Study Group