Sitar player Imrat Khan of India will appear at Saturday's Festival of World Sacred Music. Photo courtesy Gitana Productions.

“There is something in music that transcends and unites. This is evident in the sacred music of every community . . . music that expresses the universal yearning that is shared by people all over the globe.” His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Music from many of the world’s faith traditions will be played at Saturday’s St. Louis Festival of World Sacred Music,  Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union Blvd. in the city’s Central West End neighborhood.

The festival begins at noon. The last performer takes the stage at 7 p.m. Artists appearing include both local favorites and musicians with worldwide followings.

“Every culture creates music that is sacred, music that
expresses universal emotions. The Festival of World
Sacred Music reflects our commitment to global healing, by bringing
together international and local musicians who represent diverse
spiritual and religious interests,”…

credit: turnbacktogod

When Kathy Nance and other new Civil Religon bloggers gathered at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the other morning, we got to talking about who we were and what religion we represented. When Kathy used the word “pagan” to describe herself, I asked her to define the word. She was good enough to do just that in her first post, A Pagan’s Primer.

Well, what about Catholicism? Who are we and what do we believe? Every Sunday at Mass we answer that question when we stand to recite a summary of our faith, the Nicene Creed. This affirmation of faith occurs after we have heard the first reading, joined in the responsorial psalm, heard the second reading, heard the Gospel and the homily.

We stand to say the Nicene Creed.

The creed I’m introducing  below is the new translation which will come into use in 2011 or 2012. This translation is from the…

…and I haven’t bought it yet. I only mention it because it ends my longstanding tradition of buying each new album by this generation’s greatest rock ‘n roll band on the day it is released. But I have been preparing myself. I’ve been listening to past albums to gear up for the new. Their landmark work The Joshua Tree (1987) was one of my first independent purchases as a junior-high teen, and I’ve owned every album since.

Why am I telling you all this? Just yesterday, I was listening to 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind when I was awestruck once again by the bridge lyrics to the hit “Beautiful Day”:

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
See the bird with a leaf in her…