Interfaith Kirtan
with Rev. Will Burhans, Rev. Katherine Silvan and Kevin Makarewicz
Interfaith Kirtan blends the practice
of Hindu Kirtan ( call
and response chanting )
and the Christian spiritual tradition
to
awaken us to the Divine
and align our hearts
to the Heartbeat of
the World.
Come sing of Sophia, the Wisdom of God.
Come chant in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus.
Come pray with your breath, voice and own opening heart.
The Chants
MANY NAMES
Many are your names, O heavenly Sophia
Mother
Mercy
Silence
and Holy
Wisdom
Tree of Life
Breath of God
Jesus Christ
And My Delight
Awake north wind,
and come south wind
Blow on my garden,
And let my lover come
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
Toubeh
Bidet
Schlomo
Blessed are the peacemakers
LET THERE BE LIGHT
Nehweh
Nohro
Let there be light
OH SOPHIA
Oh Sophia come, O Sophia come,
Oh Sophia come, O Sophia come to me
Her ways are pleasant ways
And all Her paths are peace
She is a tree of life to all who embrace her
Oh Come, Oh Come, Oh Come
Sophia, come to me.
What is a Christian Kirtan?
One of the oldest sacred music traditions of the world, the kirtan, which is call-and-response chanting, comes to us originally from India and is usually sung with ancient Sanskrit mantras, calling upon sacred energies which serve to quiet the mind, remove obstacles, and bring us back to the center of our being.
The word 'Kirtan' comes form the Sanskrit
root 'kirt' which means 'to name, to communicate, to celebrate, to praise,
to glorify'. In Yoga, Kirtan is the
practice of devotional singing and repeating
the name of God in community with others.
By repeating simple mantras over and over, at varying speeds, the kirtan is an easy way for people to experience some freedom from the daily chatter of the mind. And while it is true that we can sing these chants in the solitude of our own home, there is nothing like the magic of chanting live with musicians and other participants -from kids to seniors - all contributing their energy to the moment.
Something about the kirtan experience goes beyond the music itself to a deeper experience of vibration. We all resonate at different frequencies, and these frequencies change according to what we are doing and thinking. So when we are all doing the same thing-chanting, breathing, and moving to the same rhythms-our vibrations begin to synchronize and the resulting experience is very powerful. Vibrations tend to align themselves to stronger vibrations, so even if you're having a truly rotten day, it may be difficult to hold onto those feelings during the chant experience. Even if you were to sit in the room without participating you could still feel the shift taking place.
Although the kirtan involves music, chanting in the kirtan is not about musical ability or training. It is about opening the heart through the voice. By opening the heart, we become vulnerable to one another and to the presence of God in our midst. It is a prayer form that expands our awareness to include our awareness of what is happening in our bodies, - our belly, and our heart. it is significant that modern science has come to recognize what many spiritual traditions have already known; the heart and the gut are both deeply intelligent organs. By chanting we are able to access more of this body based intelligence.
Typically, each chant can last for 7-12 minutes. The longer chants allow for a deeper experience of the effects, and the simple, repetitive (and sometimes foreign) lyrics encourage the chanters to focus less on the meaning of the words and more on their effect in the spirit.
The words chosen for these chants come significantly from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Some words are in English and others in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke. However, departing from traditional mainline Christian worship, these chants, like those of the Hindu tradition, encourage devotion to the divine feminine also, which is an authentic but often marginalized part of the sacred scriptures (i.e. "Sophia" is the feminine Greek word for wisdom in Proverbs, Psalms and elsewhere). Given that Jesus did not promote a particular religion but rather promoted awareness of God and a whole-life response to God, the chants are not exclusively Christian but occasionally draw from other spiritual traditions. To my way of thinking, the original Kirtan is when a infant makes his or her first sounds and his/her mother responds back with her love and sound.
The kirtan encourages the mind to become quiet, the heart to open and the body to feel and it is in that space that we can best hear the beauty in all our voices, including our own, and recognize that such beauty is nothing less than the very image of God within each of us. We hope this kirtan experience will awaken you this evening and enable you to meet again the divine within you and in all those around you.
Our format is simple, we use call and response chants, generally easy lyrics and accessible melodies which allow participants to deeply feel into the music.
There is space of harmonizing and improvising.
Most importantly, this is a place for the Heart to Sing!!