SONGS OF PLACE
Music plays a vital role in the way we gather during Parish Collective events. As we join each other from many neighborhoods and regions, bringing together our unique stories, common songs of worship animate our collective imagination, give voice to our theological hopes, and help shape our actions as the church in our parishes. In each of our particular neighborhoods, we are being invited by Jesus to reflect the love of God and to see the face of God in our neighbors. As we live in these rhythms of reflecting and seeing, we are building a resistance to hate and harm from the ground up.
May these songs make a home in your neighborhood as they have in ours.
LISTEN TO SONGS OF PLACE
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MORE ABOUT THE ALBUM
Every time we converge, our common songs of worship help to strengthen our resolve to honor God by seeking the wellbeing of our neighborhoods. They are Spirit-inspired and rooted in place. For many of us, they are a balm for our weary souls, pointing us back to the hope we share in the unity, justice, and peace of Christ. These songs also strive towards honesty in the ways they acknowledge sorrow, lament, and our need for ongoing repentance and restoration.
Over the last decade, we have gathered an eclectic, diverse group of songwriters, worship leaders and musicians to co-create these songs together as Parish Collective Music. Many of these songs have been written by our longtime friend Tom Wuest who, after a formative decade in Vancouver, BC, now lives with his wife Karen and their two sons on wilderness land in Adams County, Ohio. Tom can be reached for chords or conversation at brasstrumpetpublishing@gmail.com. His music can be downloaded at Bandcamp and streamed on all major streaming platforms.
The Songs of Place EP was recorded live at our Cultivate gathering on September 30, 2022 at Normal Heights United Church in San Diego. Our host venue has created an intimate space for worship in the round, and we remember this night fondly, singing together as a way to unify our voices and engage our bodies to collectively express our love for Jesus as we cultivate the dream of God in our neighborhoods.
We are incredibly grateful to members of our community who donated to make this album possible by helping to cover the costs of supporting the artists, paying our production team and covering all the basic expenses of pre- and post-production.
San Diego-based artist and Parish Collective bandmate, Milton Campbell created our album art. Check out his work at Brokin nglish Design.
THE SONGS OF PLACE SONGBOOK
Share these songs with your church or faith community, singing them in your homes and on your streets.
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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT SONGS OF PLACE
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“This music is deep and soulful, giving me hope for a kind of faith and church that actually makes a difference on the ground.”
Zach Rudulph, musical director for the Parish Collective band
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“Hearing these songs live caused me to weep from a combination of relief, joy, and exhaustion from the last couple of years. These songs are so healing.”
Chrissy, Cultivate Attendee
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“Lately it’s been hard for me to really connect with live worship music, but these songs of unity and lament really hit different.”
Seth, Inhabit attendee
MORE ABOUT THE SONGS
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I wrote the opening phrase for this song, “Stay close my child through this dark night. Rest in the shadow of these wings,” as a deep lament in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in December 2012. What can be said to children suffering such terrible pain? How can we approach the most challenging moments in our lives and histories with both honesty and hope? While songs, as prayers, cannot change the past, they can inspire who we are becoming and, in this way, help us sow seeds of love into the world. - Tom Wuest
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This song, inspired by a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, proclaims that each one of us is a beautiful creation of God and that we have all been invited into “A boundless communion in God’s wide embrace.” We can take courage that “we will never walk alone when we see the wonders that we are—each one a gift, each color, each feature.” - Tom Wuest
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In our time of such destructive divisiveness, this song seeks to cultivate a world in which, by the love of God, we move beyond the posture of “us versus them” and recognize that the gifts of creation are meant to be shared by all. As we recognize that we belong to one another, God begins to gather us at a wide table and “tear down the barrier walls between us and them.” - Tom Wuest
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We wrote this song from our neighborhood of Golden Hill in San Diego, reflecting on the presence and purpose of God in our place. Scripture tells stories of a placed humanity within the whole of creation, woven together so that we may see God in our interdependence. Amidst the forces of displacement and disconnection, we sing this song as a declaration of who we seek to be - “we are your church, your body in this place.” - Christiana and Derek Rice
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This song explores how both our individual and collective stories invite us into a journey of ongoing discovery. When we live with a posture of curiosity and openness to God and each other, we shed our rigidity and grow in compassion and understanding. Rather than calcifying, we become as wet clay in the hands of our maker. In this dynamic place, we “stand at the portal and search the horizon” as we long to discover the love of God. - Tom Wuest
