Sing a New Song

By Andy Stanton-Henry

As many of you know, earlier this month, the Quaker Leadership Center and Pendle Hill collaborated on a conference called “Publishers of the Truth.” The last couple of years, their Quaker Institute and our Quaker Leadership Conference happened around the same time, so we decided to experiment with a joint conference on the Pendle Hill campus.

Over the course of the four-day conference, there was much content, conversation, and wrestling with the overarching query of how we are being called to be “publishers of Truth” in our own day and time. We did this through panels, workshops, small groups, affinity groups, meals, worship times, and more. I left refreshed and grateful for so many Friends doing beautiful things in the world.

There is much I could share, but the primary invitation I left with was the invitation to “sing a new song.” That phrase, drawn from the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible (e.g. Ps. 40:3; 96:1), was ringing in the ears of my heart on my long drive home.

This may be because my favorite part of the conference turned out to be our times of singing together. One night we heard from the Pendle Hill Chorus and were led in a hymn sing with piano accompaniment. Another night was a “coffee house” time in which many shared their talents and lack of talents (playfully) through skits, readings, joke-telling, and singing. It was delightful.

As I have taken this invitation home with me to “sing a new song,” it has taken on multiple layers of meaning. When we “sing a new song” together, we are doing several things together:

We are uniting with one another. Studies show that singing in groups has numerous benefits to our physical and mental health. But it is also a potent tool for nurturing unity. One psychologist calls communal singing a “mega-mechanism” (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/dec/15/a-mega-mechanism-for-bonding-why-singing-together-does-us-good) humans use for bonding, triggering a “massive endorphin uplift” that is rare when singing by ourselves in the shower, for example. In addition to being a “social tool,” maybe it is also a spiritual gift which brings together groups like ours at the conference (from different regions, theological perspectives, political persuasions, and worship styles). Maybe the Divine is trying to reach us and bind us together, inviting: “How about a little more singing?”

We are celebrating diverse voices. Singing together reminds us that harmony doesn’t mean everyone singing the same note at the same time. Harmony is a celebration of the sound and Spirit that comes when we are each lifting our unique voices and embracing our particular “vocal parts.” Now more than ever, we need reminded that unity doesn’t mean uniformity. One body, many parts was the vision of the Apostle Paul and our Quaker ancestors. Perhaps it’s possible to sing a new song among Friends by embracing a new harmony that doesn’t demand a “uniform” voice or uniformity of beliefs and behaviors.

We are adding our voices to a much bigger song. The Nazi-era theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his classic book Life Together:

It is the voice of the Church that is heard in singing together. It is not you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song. Thus all singing together that is right must serve to widen our spiritual horizon, make us see our little company as a member of the great Christian Church on earth, and help us willingly and gladly to join our singing, be it feeble or good,

to the song of the Church.

Whether or not you identity as a member of the capital-C “Church,” the wisdom of Bonhoeffer’s insight remains. When we raise our voices in song, we are joining a long line of “singers,” a great Chorus of saints across space and time. We remember who and whose we are, and sing along to enduring songs of survival, praise, and protest. Whether our singing is “feeble or good,” it widens our “spiritual horizon” until we see the bigger picture and tune our hearts to a greater Song.

We are co-creating the future of our movement. We are not only called to sing the old songs; we are also called to sing a new song. To do so, we don’t simply eschew or renounce the old. We enter a process of renewal that Friend Wess Daniels calls “remix.” We learn to appreciate and apprentice with the old songs then we remix it in contemporary styles. We mix the old/traditional with the new/emergent to co-create a “Convergent” spiritual movement. Singing a new song, means singing the old songs, listening to new ones, and creating a new creation in Christ.

Interestingly, some of the people who put together the Worship in Song hymnal were present at the conference and made reference to that dynamic process; such a project requires a good deal of discernment in deciding which songs to include and when to replace outdated or troubling lyrics. I’m glad that we had a nice mix of Friends with different personalities, perspectives, and traditions at the conference to allow for a little remixing to take place. I’m convinced this is the way forward for Friends.

We are sustaining our work. During our gathering, many Friends were wrestling with the current condition of our country and the world. In these deeply troubling times, what is our work and witness? What song should we sing? I couldn’t help but the think of the Psalmist’s query in Psalm 137: “How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land?”

It’s hard to hear the music sometimes but we are called to “Rise up singing.” As we were lifting up our hearts and voices in song, I was reminded of how important music was to the social and spiritual movements of history. Indeed, God sends us songs in dark times (Ps. 42:8) and we can say: “I remembered my songs in the night” (Ps. 77:6).

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dear friendship with gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. She sang at civil rights events but she would also sing to King over the phone when he was struggling with doubt and discouragement. Interestingly, it was also Jackson who shouted to King during his March on Washington speech: “Tell them about the dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!” The music sustained the movement.

In the end, music is only one way we “publish” the Truth in our day, but it is one particularly lively and powerful way. Singing is an ancient practice that reaches a deep place inside us, awakening our soul, drawing us together, sustaining our loving labors, and reminding us of what it means to be human and holy.

A song by folk duo MaMuse summarizes these reflections better than I could in their song called “We Shall Be Known” (which the Pendle Hill Chorus happened to sing during the conference).

The lyrics are as follows:


We shall be known by the company we keep
By the ones who circle round to tend these fires
We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
The seeds of change alive from deep within the Earth
It is time now
It is time now that we thrive
It is time we lead ourselves into the well
It is time now
And what a time to be alive
In this “Great Turning” we shall learn to lead in love