Publisher's Synopsis
The Sri Lankan culture is rich with art, music, and design, nearly all of which have been excluded from Christian use for centuries. The Protestant Church in Sri Lanka almost exclusively looks, sounds, and feels Western. Local Christians have, however, in recent times begun to see the need that they have for making their times of worship relevant to the people in their communities. Among the aspects that could be 'contextualized' is the music used by the Christian community for times of worship. Though it is still by no means the norm, leaders in churches of various denominations have indeed been striving towards a more culturally relevant time of musical worship.The purpose of this study is to give possible practical ideas as to how one can incorporate local styles of music into the Sinhala-speaking Sri Lankan church. I look at ideas that have been tried, and report the stories given by Sri Lankan Christians as to what their church/organization has done in the area of incorporating local styles of music. ***For files from the accompanying CD, after purchasing the book, please contact the author at michaelbalonek (at) yahoo (dot) com***
