Anglican Church in Jamaica Adds Marley, Tosh to Hymn Books

[petertoshsghost]

Has anyone attended an Anglican Mass in Jamaica? I just read that Angelican churches added Marley's 'One Love', and Peter Tosh's 'Psalm 27' to the collection of hymns. That would be fun to experience. I wonder how popular they are as church hymns.

[El_Jeffe]

Hmm this is interesting news. The two songs in question would perhaps make wonderful hymn choices in a church gathering, & the thoughts & ideals shared within each song reflects a lot of the same ideologies the church supposedly puts forward into the community. However, the background of both musicians will likely cause some uproar among some of the more devoted of the Anglican faith. As we all know, both Marley & Tosh practiced Rastafarian-ism, a religious movement founded by descendants of slaves in response to black oppression in Jamaica & parts of Africa. Along with this movement came a strong move away from the church & it's structured way of teaching faith. Both artists were of strong faith & big believers of God & religion, but strong critics of the church & it's mannerisms of teaching.

While I personally believe the messages in his music to be that strong, to be the voice of the people like no other artist has ever done before, I can't help but wonder if this is just another church making an attempt to reconnect with the youth of the community as church numbers continue to dwindle.

[atarirockstar]

I lived in Jamaica for a summer and attended several different churches, and not a single one had any sort of hymnal. A lot of the smaller congregations seemed to sing common songs that everybody (Jamaicans, not so much Americans) knew already. I imagine this is due to lack of funding for the hymnals and a lower literacy level. Bob is huge down there. Any Jamaican can sing you Bob's discography, so it makes sense to sing One Love in a church service. I don't think many church officials or anybody religious would object to singing Bob's songs, just because they were all raised listening to his music, and they embrace what he did for the music.

I wasn't able to attend an Anglican church while I was down there, though there was a sweet looking Anglican church about a half mile from where I lived. i know the Anglican church is a bit more structured than these small independent churches are, but I still wonder if they only sung it once or twice or if it was added nation-wide to their hymnals.

Where did you read this at? I'd love to check it out.

[El_Jeffe]

Upon reading & posting in this thread, I too looked for some sort of media verification, the BBC seems to have reported it several times.

Bob did more than create music for a nation to be proud of, his music goes far further than that, it took on a much greater meaning. It gave the people a voice, respect, pride & hope. But while I still have no doubt his music is of the stature to be used within a formal religion (because lets face it, it already has been since he wrote those songs), I still can't see many of strong Anglican faith agreeing with both artists move away from the church & the preaching that a relationship with above is a personal journey, not one of structured church rules, like I began to say above. But it is interesting to see how this plays out.