Psalms Enchanted- An Interfaith experience

"The society has become privatised, people have become individualistic, and people don't connect and have lost what it means in praising God in the community."

This was the view expressed by Reverend Mike Clarke of St Margaret Church, Edgware on the 3rd of July at the Psalm Enchanted event held to unite the Jewish and minority community at the London Academy, Edgware.

The event which received a grant from the Department of Communities and Local Government and was managed by the Community Development Foundation under the Faiths in Action group in the local community of Barnet, stemmed from previous collaborations with Rabbi Smith who extended to do something together on music.

In Rabbi Smith's words, the event was about "reaching the community at large , promoting interfaith community, increasing understanding and contacts, helping others see different faiths for who they are and promoting dialogue which is a commandment from God and the right thing to do."

The event commenced with a moving poem from psalm 23, followed by Unify Band,formed from three different churches in the community who meet regularly to praise and worship God.Other groups were the Edgware and District Reform Synagogue Choir, St Thomas Indian Orthodox Church Choir and the Tribe of Judah from Jesus House. The groups sang from different books of psalms. A solo performer, Ian Whiote from Scotland, also sang from a different book of Psalms.

The event experienced a paradigm shift in unity as the praise of the different choirs enchanted the whole congregation and had them clapping,dancing and learning new music from different communities, backgrounds and faith. For more about this event, click here

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