Multi-cultural evening

Went to the closing event of my city's multi-cultural month. I sing in my church choir (purely a voluntary sort of thing, no tryouts), and apparently every year they take part in this interdenominational multilingual multicultural church service. Very interesting. In some ways, it was kind of bland, since it was trying to find common ground between some very different religious cultures, so everyone kind of steered away from anything they might have strong feelings about. On the other hand, I can't say I've ever been to a church meeting where the two opening prayers were a) a sura sung from the Koran and b) a Bahai prayer, also sung. We heard a Greek Orthodox prayer sung (and I'd never before noticed the similarities between middle eastern music and gregorian chant), too. Then there was a choir from Poland, singing in English, some contemplative guitar music, a guitar-accompanied Korean choir (who looked just like any of my former ESL classes, although they sung in German), various scriptures and texts read in a variety of languages (it was gratifying to understand the Spanish--I lived in Chile for a year and a half a long time ago), etc. We sang "Be Still, My Soul," a poem by Katharina von Schlegel, a 17th-century German woman, which was translated into English in the 19th century and set to Sibelius's Finlandia. The organist translated it back into German (since the original doesn't really fit the music). It sounded all right, except for the delay between the organ on one side of the church and the choir on the other. Hopefully the sounds meshed for the people sitting in the middle. I love, love, LOVE organ music in old German churches, though! I love the way the notes rain over me and puddle underfoot. I love the smell of old stone. I love the way the evening light shines through stained glass and colors the gray pillars inside.

Too bad everyone else is trying to sleep. I'll just have to think Bach in my mind.