Around Town: Good Noise, What is Love?, Christianity and Literature

For some guaranteed joy between Canucks games, you might want to head down to Christ Church Cathedral this Saturday afternoon (May 11):

Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir celebrates its 20th anniversary in a gala concert sure to raise the roof and get the audience up on their feet and joining in the celebration, singing along with the choir, dancing and clapping their hands to the music.

This gospel-infused concert will feature the glorious voices of Good Noise, the Good Noise Gospel Band, guest artists, Crystal Hicks and Timothy Fuller, and a mass gospel choir to close out this musical celebration with a dynamic good and joyful noise.

Audience members will delight in hearing both traditional and popular gospel music, along with inspired gospel-related songs from the R&B, Soul and Popular music genres.

Artistic Director Gail Suderman has done it all, musically, in Vancouver over the past 30 years. She is “known both for her classical music career as a professor of voice, opera and choral music and her vocal and piano skills as a Pop/R&B/Gospel musician.” As well, she has taught choral music at Gladstone Secondary and Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Here are a few highlights from the first 20 years of Good Noise:

• Live on stage with Barbra Streisand, David Foster, Josh Groban, Holly Cole, Jim Byrnes, Daniel Lapp, Dee Daniels, John Lee Sanders, Dawn Pemberton, Warren Dean Flandez, Maureen Washington and featured Artist In Residence Gospel singer, Crystal Hicks
• Appearances on CBC TV, CBC Radio, Global TV, CityTV, Bravo, Knowledge Network and Vision TV.
• Festival performances at TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, Envision Jazz Festival, Wintersong Festival

Better hurry, there aren’t many tickets left.

What is Love?

A unique demonstration of reconciliation in progress took place in White Rock late last month.

Agnieszka Ruck wrote about it for The B.C. Catholic; she began:

If anyone expected to hear the White Rock Pride Society and the Archdiocese of Vancouver clash over love and sexuality on April 26, they would have been disappointed.

Both organizations hosted 200 people in an auditorium in Surrey for an event titled What is Love? In place of heated debate, there was dialogue and laughter, and considering the groups’ disagreements over LGBTQ+ and religious issues that have sometimes descended into incivility, the gathering was remarkably civil.

In fact, it was friendly.

That’s true, it was. I was there, part of a full house at Earl Marriott Secondary School. It was a positive event. 

An article leading up to the gathering in the Surrey Now-Leader noted:

Both the society and the archdiocese acknowledge that it comes as the result of the resolution of a conflict that arose some five years ago.

In June 2019, after Star of the Sea parish refused to rent its White Rock hall to the society for its annual Pride fundraising gala, the society lodged a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, alleging discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, contrary to Section 8 of B.C.’s Human Rights Code.

The complaint was resolved in June 2022, after the archdiocese and the parish issued an apology to the White Rock Pride Society for “homophobic and transphobic approaches to dialogue” with the LGBTQ2+ community.

Ernie Klassen, President of the Pride Society, and James Borkowski, Archdiocesan Delegate for Operations, opened the discussion, each stating they were glad they had been able to avoid the legal route and instead focus on building relationships. 

Klassen said his group had chosen reconciliation over retaliation, while Borkowski said, “We have much more in common than we thought,” adding “We hope to model what we’ve been learning.”

They were followed by a panel of three: Viisha P. Souza, a PhD student in mental health with a MDiv from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary; Janice Young, an ordained United Church minister; and Father Bryan Duggan, a Catholic priest and registered psychologist.

Part of the reason for the positive atmosphere, no doubt, was the fact that none of the participants really discussed the traditional (and current) Catholic views on homosexuality.

The B.C. Catholic article stated:

The event was not styled as a debate, and, as such, it was able to bring together 200 people with different ideas about love, morals, sexuality and religion, who sat down to listen rather than argue, offering some hope for those who wonder if there is still room for civil conversation in today’s polarizing world.

Organizers hope their goals of starting conversations, listening and encouraging relationships will continue smoothly, although during the question-and-answer period it was clear that some audience members were looking for more substance. Some suggested the event was a missed opportunity to explain certain beliefs or that it left the impression that the Catholic Church is ready to budge on some of its moral teachings.

The organizers made it clear that disagreements weren’t on the evening’s agenda, focusing on shared beliefs such as the inherent worth of all people. The new collection of friends hasn’t said whether a second public event is planned and if it would find ways to address more challenging areas on the subject of love. Some of the audience clearly seemed ready to go there.

It will be interesting to see where the initiative goes from here.

Christianity and Literature

The Conference on Christianity and Literature is “an interdisciplinary society dedicated to exploring the relationships between Christianity and literature.”

Each year it hosts several regional events; the Western Regional Conference will be at Trinity Western University starting this afternoon (May 9 – 11).

Here is how they describe the gathering, which has this theme – ‘ConVersing / ConServing: Care, Creation, Communion’:

Keynote speaker Marilyn McEntyre teaches and writes on topics including literature and the natural world and relations among spirituality, language and healing.

In ‘Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies,’ she presents literary art and the study of literature as a form of stewardship. Caring for words is akin, she says, to environmental concern and action, for we hold both language and the land in common.

We invite presentations and conversations exploring the relations between literature and conservation, of serving together creatively to keep and pass on what has been given to us. Our theme is intentionally broad as we seek to encourage and celebrate the creation, interpretation and appreciation of literature from across historical periods and genres.

Other special guests include: Loren Wilkinson, professor emeritus, Regent College and expert in Christian environmental ethics and earthkeeping; Leah Kostamo, Spiritual Care Counselor and co-founder of A Rocha Canada; and Bob Ekblad, Co-Founder & Co-Director of Tierra Nueva and New Earth Refuge in Burlington, Washington.