A glimpse at the “hip hop Mass”

The photo above is now making the rounds on Facebook. It appears to come from an Episcopal liturgy that first became popular in the United States about a decade ago.

Check out this article on the hip hop Mass from 2004: 

It’s a religious form of hip hop which includes the publication of a hip hop prayer book, development of a hip hop Mass and writing of hip hop prayers and hip hop renditions of traditional prayers and hip hop hymns.

After checking out this hip hop-as-the-new-holy spirit movement, I came up with a question: Is hip hop the new Gregorian chant? If the answer is yes, then some of us who grew up listening to Gregorian chants might be able to appreciate Doggy Dog chants – or not.

The Episcopal News Service carried a story by Matthew Davies reporting how the religious version of hip hop had hit the Episcopal Church in 2004. Davies sets the scene:

“Picture this: an altar; an earth-shattering sound system; people of all ages ‘jamming to the groove;’ and an Episcopal bishop rapping and feeling the beat. It’s the revolutionary liturgical outreach unfolding in the Bronx and it’s taking religion to the streets in the language of today – hip hop!

“‘My sistas and brothas, all my homies and peeps, stay up – keep your head up, holla back, and go forth and tell like it is.’ With this proclamation, Bishop Suffragan Cathy Roskam of New York sent people on their way at the Bronx’s third Hip Hop Mass, at Trinity Church of Morrisania.”

Roskam spoke about her hopes and goals for the Trinity Hip Hop Mass.

“We want to sing the ‘new song’ of Jesus Christ in the vernacular and language of our younger generations,” she told Davies. “We hope that the Trinity Hip Hop will serve as a model for other parishes and communities throughout the city and the church.”

Read more. 

It’s hard to tell if this has really captured much of a following.

For Catholics, I think Randall B. Smith was on target with his thoughts on Catholic liturgy and modern music: 

Fads come and go, but the Body of Christ remains.  The Lord Himself must never be put in that “box.”  That’s why as a general rule I prefer a liturgy firmly anchored to the Church and her traditions, rather than one attempting to capture “the spirit of the times.”

It is for similar reasons that I am rather skeptical whenever people claim that they’re changing the mass or doing a certain sort of music “because it appeals to the kids.”

Really?

…Whatever else you do…I beg you, don’t try to appeal to “the kids” by playing music that you think will appeal to their sense of “what’s cool,” because if you do, you’ll lose, you’ll absolutely lose.  You’ll never be able to keep up.  As any advertising executive who deals with teens will tell you, “cool” is something that changes every six-to-eight months.  Within a year, what was “cool” last year will be utterly passé.  Not only will it not be cool anymore, it will be embarrassingly “uncool”:  something to be shunned like the plague.  In fact, you might have better luck offering them the plague.

My final advice about dealing with young people, however, is simply this: If you want to get anywhere with them, you have to start by gaining their respect.  You have to show them that you take what you do in the mass as seriously as firemen and soldiers take what they do.  I don’t necessarily mean “solemn and serious” in the sense of “stiff and joyless.” There’s no point in merely “playing dress-up”; indeed, there are a lot of reasonsnot to.  Teens have a special radar warning them against hypocrisy and “dress-up.”  What has to be communicated somehow in the liturgy (and this can be done in a number of ways, but it must be done) is that the mass has the power to change a life, to draw a person out of the deepest recesses of despair, or to inspire someone to give his or her life for the love of his friends, family, and community.

Read more.