Samir Selmanovic, Founder and Christian co-leader of Faith House Manhattan, an interfaith community in New York City, ends the whole debate on faith vs works. Samir is the author of It’s Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian.
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Psalm 45 – Nadia Bolz-Weber
August 26, 2009
Nadia Bolz-Weber, the Sarcastic Lutheran, discusses Psalm 45, the nerdiest love song in the Bible. Nadia is the pastor of the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver and the author of Salvation on the Small Screen: 24 Hours of Christian Television.
Also, for those who didn’t know, all the sheet music from the book and podcast is available for free download at Church Publishing.
If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml
If you want to to listen to it on iTunes: click here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=322056809
If you’d rather just download it, the link is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/epp045.mp3
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Psalm 130 – Todd and Angie Fadel
August 4, 2009
Agents of Future
Todd and Angie Fadel, members of the Bridge, an emergent community in Portland, discuss hope, participatory music, and being Agents of Future. Go buy their new album at Proost.
If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml
If you want to to listen to it on iTunes: click here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=322056809
If you’d rather just download it, the link is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/epp130.mp3
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Psalm 14 – j. Snodgrass
July 21, 2009
This week, one of Transmission’s founding members, playwright, lyricist, and songwriter j. Snodgrass discusses Psalm 14, justice, and the prophetic tradition. If you’re interested in checking out some of Snodgrass’s other work, check out Captain Crash and the Loose Bricks.
If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml
If you want to to listen to it on iTunes: click here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=322056809
If you’d rather just download it, the link is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/epp014.mp3
If you want to stream it from the site, click the big gray button below.
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Psalm 89 – Ana Hernandez
July 13, 2009
Musician and author Ana Hernandez discusses Psalm 89 and the difficulty of praying from places of sadness and anger. This episode also features her song, “Kosi R’vaya” from her album, Inside Chants, written by Shefa Gold and sung with Ruth Cunningham.
If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/emergentpsalterpodcast/podcast.xml
If you want to to listen to it on iTunes: click here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=322056809
If you’d rather just download it, the link is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/epp089.mp3
If you want to stream it from the site, click the big gray button below.
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Psalm 24 – Stephanie Spellers
July 7, 2009
Well, we’re back with episode 2 of the podcast, and just because I’m posting it at 1:30 in the morning on Tuesday doesn’t mean that I missed my self-imposed Monday deadline. Honest. It doesn’t.
In any case, this week we’re featuring Stephanie Spellers, author of Radical Welcome and pastor of the The Crossing, a very cool emergent community in Boston. We talk about Psalm 24, the idea of welcome, and the difficulties of trying to have an open table.
If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaa
If you want to to listen to it on iTunes: click here: http://itunes.apple.com/
If you’d rather just download it, the link is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/epp2.mp3
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Kadosh, Sanctus, Holy, etc
July 4, 2009
One of the things I really love about mystical eucharistic theology is the idea that there is only one bread and one cup across all the world and throughout all time. The idea is that since each eucharist is mystically linked with the unique event of Christ’s death on the cross, every eucharist that has ever been celebrated (or ever will be celebrated) happens simultaneously. Mind-bending, huh?
I’m not sure that my own eucharistic theology is quite that high, but I am in love with the idea the eucharistic table is something bigger than the food that’s on it and the people sitting around it – that’s an act that unites us with all Christians everywhere and everytime.
This is one reason why so many liturgical traditions sing a sanctus as part of the liturgy, and why it’s important that it’s sung by the congregation and not just by the minister or choir. Isaiah had a vision of angles singing this song without ceasing, and so when the people sing it at communion they are singing along with the seraphim – when the minister says something like:
Therefore, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising You and saying…
Or, at Transmission sometimes:
With strangers, neighbors, saviors, ravers, saints and angels, raise a song
As one with some whose work is done and others here or yet to come
This is what’s being referred to.
Angels aside, it is pretty amazing that this song has been song so often, so consistently, and in so many many ways throughout the millenia. Folks have never stopped singing it, but they’ve also never stopped coming up with new ways to sing it. Here’s a playlist of this song through the ages for your listening pleasure:
A sephardic cantor singing it in perhaps the oldest version of it I know:
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Deborah Van Dyke singing it as a meditative chant (kadosh):
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In Dulci Jubilo singing it as Ambrosian Chant (santus):
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Helen Shapiro singing as full-on gospel melodrama (kadosh – the Lord He reigns):
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The Psalters singing it as only they can (hosannah):
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Rachel Cole singing it as Christian pop (kadosh):
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Adom9 singing it as trance electronica (sanctus):
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All of the above are available on iTunes, so if any of them struck your fancy, go buy them!
Emergent Podcast Episode 1!
June 30, 2009

Writing about music is really difficult, especially when isn’t enough room in the book to include all the accompaniments you wrote. Since a lot of people who pick up the book will have no idea how the music sounds, and since Psalms are awesome and deserve to be talked about, I’ve decided to start a podcast! Each Monday I’ll bring on a guest, and we’ll discuss the psalm for the following week and read it with an antiphon from The Emergent Psalter.
This week, Bowie Snodgrass and I dissect Psalm 48, which is in the lectionary for next Sunday, July 5. Bowie is the co-founder of Transmission and director of Faith House Manhattan.
Enjoy! If you’re podcast savvy, the XML feed is here: http://www.isaa
If you’d rather just download it, the link is here: http://www.isaaceverett.com/audio/epp1.mp3
If you want to stream it from the site, click the big gray button below.
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San Diego workers for Justice
April 14, 2008
A friend sent me a link to this. A bunch of USCD hospital workers are struggling and demonstrating for fair compensation, and a bunch of church folk (including the Interfaith Council for Worker Justice) got together to wash their feet. Awesome.
So here’s a video chronicling the event. Observant folks will notice that the music is the track Lamentation, from my first album! It’s pretty nifty when you chance across cool people who are using your music, and this is exactly the kind of prophetic work I would want to be associated with.
Epiphany Ritual
January 3, 2008
Thanks for everyone who came out last night to celebrate Epiphany a few days early. The ritual went well, and I wanted to post it in case any readers wanted to mine it for ideas for this coming Sunday, which is the actual day of Epiphany.
The idea for the ritual came from my experiences riding the subway, watching my fellow riders create privacy for themselves by listening to portable music. Music is recorded with artificial reverb, an effect which makes the music sound as if it is taking place in a large space. Different kinds of reverb create different kinds of “virtual space” for the music so that concertos sound like they’re being played in concert halls, arena rocks sounds like it’s being played in an arena, and folk music sounds like it’s being played in an intimate coffee shop. A subway is a public space and during rush hours people are packed into them as tightly as possible with no room for personal space. At the same time, however, each person listening to music bring a virtual space with them, and any given subway car will probably have at least a dozen personal, virtual spaces packed in to it.
Church is another place in which personal space and public space interact in interesting ways, and I thought it would be interesting to see how portable music would affect ritual. Epiphany, a feast day which celebrates a journey, seemed like the perfect opportunity to ritualize my commuting experience.
I set up five stations along a walking route which wound its way through four rooms. Each participant was told to bring a portable music player (i.e. an iPod, a discman, or something comparable). I created five tracks of voiceover layered on top of music and loaded them on to each person’s player, and we began the ritual. Details below: