Newsletter

A Message from Roger Davidson, Society President

 

The Society for Universal Sacred Music was founded because there is divisiveness in the world – divisiveness essentially caused by the prejudice, intolerance, attitudes of superiority, and resulting violence among so many adherents of the world’s religions. Such divisiveness, however, has been engendered in large part by the blind acceptance of many scriptural passages which – directly or indirectly – support the denigration or even the killing of other human beings – human beings in some way different from ourselves. The shame for this upon so much of humanity is incalculable – but healable, and the essential remedy is for all of us to work together to bring the following dream into reality: the dream that one day, no one on Earth will identify any longer with a particular religious “label”: “I am a Christian’, “I am a Jew”, “I am a Muslim”, “I am a Hindu”, “I am a Buddhist”, and so forth, will be a thing of the past; instead, every human being will say, “I am a child of God” - and to one’s neighbor, “I love you because you are my brother or sister in our one, universal spiritual family.” We may express our faith in different ways in our different cultures, but no longer will there be separate religions. We will have learned from the best teachings of the past, will recognize the best teachings of the present, and will have amalgamated them into books that express the true nature of God as the source of eternal and unconditional love for all. And perhaps most important of all, we will have let go of those scriptural passages and teachings that have incited us toward division and exclusivity, as well as fear and prejudice, for centuries.

 

One of the great lessons for our spiritual leaders – and, indeed, for all of us – is to learn to embrace that which unites us as children of God, and let go of that which divides us; this applies not only to our scriptures, but to the music we sing in God’s name, and therefore the choices of text made by composers in the composition of what has come to be called sacred music – music that reflects our fundamental unity as children of God, and the reverence we have for God, for the divine within each other, and for the beauty that we can find around us. And when composers make the choice to seek out texts that reflect the eternal and unconditional love of God for all of us, rather than blindly follow their inherited traditions, everyone benefits – as the result is universal sacred music, music that transcends the limitations and prejudices of our existing religions.

 

May God bless us all in present and future lifetimes on Earth, and for all eternity. And may we bless each other, within our families and within every society, not only in the holiday seasons but every day of the year. Let us give new meaning to the ancient prayer, “Peace on Earth, good will toward men!” – bringing these words into reality, that one day we may truly have lasting peace on earth.

 

Roger Davidson

 

In This Quarter's Newsletter

Sunday Afternoon Concert-Be United All Humanity

Festival Universal Sacred Music-April 24th-25th!

Partnership with Amnesty International USA

New CD Release - One God One World

Meet Our Staff -Archivist/Librarian

Membership and Donations

 

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