{"id":2667,"date":"2008-05-08T18:56:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/05\/countering-the-performance-culture\/"},"modified":"2008-05-08T18:56:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-08T18:56:00","slug":"countering-the-performance-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/05\/countering-the-performance-culture.html","title":{"rendered":"Countering the Performance Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I will be in Aiken, South Carolina on Saturday leading a day workshop and lecture on worship. The first session is The Meaning of Sacrifice, \u00a0<\/span>the second, The Meaning of Mystery.<\/span>\u00a0Then a workshop session, How Shall We then Worship?<\/span><\/p>\n


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It seems to me that within American Catholicism one of the things we need most to counter attack is an underlying performance culture. Everything in modern America seems to condition people to expect a performance. Whether it is the canned performance of our politicians, the ubiquitous television and film screens, the polished performance of the trained sales personnel or the performances of our preachers and televangelists, we have come to expect that if we are involved in public speaking or teaching or leading worship that we must perform, and if we are in the seat, the pew, the bench or the easy chair, we expect a performance.<\/div>\n
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This underlying assumption in American culture is insidious. Because it is an underlying assumption it is very difficult to challenge. It pervades everything. When it comes to sacred music, for instance, it is clear that the composers and lyricists themselves have been trained in a musical culture that assumes that it is all about performance. Whether their area of performance is classical, pop, Broadway or whatever\u2013music is about performance. As a result, sacred music, from the ground up, is written for a performance culture. The choral music is all c cleverly arranged so the composer, the conductor and the performers can \u00a0all put on a good show.<\/div>\n
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This creeps into the sacred music too, so that the music we are being offered is conceived within a performance culture, created within a performance culture and is therefore practices and performed within the same performance culture. It is very difficult, therefore within church, to convince people involved with the music that it is not really about performance at all, and that their job is to do just the opposite of what they have been trained to do\u2013that is, to fit in, to blend in, to fade away, to complement the liturgy and never to draw attention to the music, and certainly not to the performers.<\/div>\n
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Priests, also must realize that the liturgy is not a performance. We don\u2019t have to bend over backward to be relevant, cool and with it. Of course homilies should be well prepared and there is nothing wrong with keeping people\u2019s attention and using oratorical skills to preach God\u2019s word well, but the liturgy is greater than us, and the priest is not a performer. He is enacting and bringing into the present moment the one, full final sacrifice.<\/div>\n
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Everything else submits to that.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I will be in Aiken, South Carolina on Saturday leading a day workshop and lecture on worship. The first session is The Meaning of Sacrifice, \u00a0the second, The Meaning of Mystery.\u00a0Then a workshop session, How Shall We then Worship? It seems to me that within American Catholicism one of the things we need most to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCountering the Performance Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I will be in Aiken, South Carolina on Saturday leading a day workshop and lecture on worship. 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