A more than half-year provincial training course in divine music has finished in Hunan province.
Hunan CC&TSPM held a graduation ceremony and concert for the sacred music training class, according to CCC&TSPM.
The training course themed “Adhering to the Principle of Promoting Christianity in the Chinese Context” starts from November 2021 to July 2022, including six phases. There are 122 key members of choirs enrolled from 62 churches in 13 cities.
The graduation ceremony was hosted by Rev. Du Wenwu, president of the Hunan Province Christian Council, followed by a speech "Giving Play to Functions of the Community and Composing the Sinicized Sacred Music in Hunan" given by Rev. Xu Yongbin, chairman of Hunan provincial TSPM. She said that the localization of hymns had gone through nearly a hundred years and Chinese Christians had valued the editing and creation of hymns. With the idea of "seminar, works, training, and singing", Hunan CC&TSPM would take the hymns localization as the starting point to foster a group of high-quality professionals, focusing on the annual target of "comprehensively and strictly governing the church and building a strong talent team".
After graduation certificates were issued, the 122 students performed in the concert with the theme ‘Love Fulfills Hunan’, including the classical Chinese sacred music works in the Chinese New Hymnal, such as "Fair Name of Jesus" and "I Love the Chinese Church". The concert also featured the solo performance of "Ode to the Cross by Emperor Kangxi" and "You Are Jesus", which were played by Tan Xiaosi with Erhu, a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument.
- Translated by Stella He
