The Blessing – how many languages will it be sung in? May 10, 2020

A new song based on an ancient blessing has quickly becoming the anthem of 2020 for virtual choirs around the globe. I first heard the “UK Blessing” performed by a virtual choir from 65 churches and received almost 2 million views in it’s first week.
The UK Blessing wasn’t the first and definitely not the last attempt to bring churches together from a single country.

I like the song and love the significance of so many people coming together to sing (or sign) it. This same concept has been repeated in many different communities and countries so I went looking for how many different languages I could find it in and began adding them to a playlist.

To start with I found English (a few varieties), French, Spanish, Hebrew, Tagalog, Farsi, Italian, Malalayam, Hindi, (and another in both Malalayam and Hindi) Nepali, Romanian, Polish, Papiamentu, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Luganda, Mongolian, Lingala, Thai, Mandarin Chinese, Nigerian Pidgin, Tamil, Amharic, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Swahili. I’ve since added Shona, Ndebele, Xhosa (each part of The Blessing – Zimbabwe), Rukiga, Haitian Creole, BSL, ASL, Makaton, and Filipino Sign Language (There are 380+ sign languages in the world). One artist sings in Portuguese, French, English, Lingala & Korean. The Malaysian Blessing includes singers from 80 churches and includes English, Tamil, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Dusun, Kelabit and Iban. Then came Ukranian, Fijian, Ekegussi, Afrikaans , Vietnamese, Burmese, Mauritian Kreol, and Hungarian , and the list kept growing. I almost stopped counting at 70 but then I heard the Nigerian and Ghanaian versions and more recently a version for India with 31 different languages. So here is the full alphabetical list so far:

Albanian, Afrikaans, Ambon, American Sign Language (ASL), Amharic, Ao Naga, Arabic, Armenian, Assamese, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, Batak Pakpak, Batak Simalungun, Bali, Batak Karo, Batak Toba, Bengali, Benin,Bhojpuri, Birom, Bisaya, British Sign Language (BSL), Bulgarian, Bundeli, Burmese, Cebuano, Chhattisgarhi, Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese), Cilacap, Dari, Dayak, Duala, Dusun, Dutch, Ekegussi, Ende, English, Esan, Farsi, Fijian, Filipino Sign Language, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hakha Chin, Hausa, Haryanavi, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Iban, Ibibo, Igbo, Ijaw, Italian, Japanese, Jawa, Kalabari, Kannada, Karenni (Kayah), Karina, Kelabit, Khasia, Khmer, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Kokborok, Konkani, Korean, Kutai, Kyrgyz, Lampung, Lingala, Luganda, Macedonian, Makaton, Maithili, Malagasy, Malayalam, Malaysian Sign Language (BMI), Manado, Manipuri, Marathi, Mauritian Kreol, Mexican sign language, Mizo, Mongolian, Nagamese, Ndebele, Nepali, Nias, Nigerian Pidgin, Nishi, Norwegian, Odia, Okrika, Oshiwambo, Otjiherero, Papiamentu, Papua, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Rukiga, Russian, Sadri, Scottish Gaelic, Shona, Sinhala, Spanish, Sunda, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Teluga,Ternate, Thai, Tiv, Tongan, Toraja, Turkish, Ukranian, Ukrainian sign language, Urbohobo, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Waray, Welsh, Xhosa, Yoruba, Zomi and Zulu.

…which brings the count to over 140 in 126 days! (as of June 2)

This also includes versions in 8 sign languages (so far)

According to Billboard.com the song, “The Blessing”, was written by Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes on Feb 27th and first recorded in Charlotte, North Carolina on March 1st. The main chorus is much older, based on Numbers 6:24-26

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”
(NIV)

These verses have been translated into at least the 700 languages that have full Bibles. It is available in at least 400 of those via bible.com and bible.is and others that can be found via find.bible and scriptureearth.org

In the weeks since I first posted about this I’ve added several updates, each ending with the same question:

In how many languages could be it be sung by the people connecting online to your church?

This final video is from one congregation in London, UK, in a city where well over 300 languages are known to be spoken (and others are yet to be counted).

Global(ised) Worship June 3, 2019

83 widely translated Worship Songs

Each of the songs below has been translated into at least 10 languages with the translations available on www.weareworship.com . To find exactly which languages click on the links. Sometimes using the translated song title or first line may find a recording on YouTube and one song may lead you to a whole playlist of songs you already love, and songs that you’ve never heard.

These 83 songs represent contributions from 54 different songwriters most writing in English and having global reach. While it is good that these songs can be sung in many languages it is also good to recognise that around the world songs are sung in hundreds and one day thousands of languages each with its own distinct style and unique expression.

Over 1300 of the nearly 8000 songs listed have been translated into at least one other language (not counting UK and USA English as separate). with 360 being available in 4 or more languages.

2020 update: Several of the songs are available in many more languages than mentioned below and since researching this in 2019 one new song, “The Blessing” has already been sung (and signed) into over 70 languages.

(There are a wide range of other sites and tools for Multilingual worship which I’ll add to in the #multilingualchurch tab)

*Counts of languages from early 2019.

Five ways to use other languages (a bit) in your church June 1, 2019

How many languages will be heard in and from your church this Pentecost?

Do you know how many languages are spoken by the members of your church? (it could be a good time to find out)
Do you know how many languages are spoken in your local community? (it may be more than you think)
And even if everyone can understand English (or the language used most in your church) is that their only or their preferred language? Would people welcome hearing and using the other languages they speak on a daily basis at home and in their community?

That’s part of what I am currently looking at for my MA dissertation and for a paper I will present in July as part of the London School of Theology’s one day conference “Sounds of Heaven and Earth“.

I’m exploring a lot of the ways churches are or could be using languages other than English as part of their services and outreach. Here are just five very simple ideas.

1. A multilingual welcome sign, plus other signs and posters.
   With text projected on the screen, used into printed notices, and used on the walls in various parts of the church buildings it is easy to add content in a few more languages. (Translations of Bible verses easily available using Bible.com but verse numbers are sometimes mid sentence and in some translations verse numbers vary. You can double check with speakers of the language or for languages covered by Google you can translate the verse back into English for confirmation)
2. Saying “the grace” or a blessing in other languages
   Saying ‘the grace’ to one another’ seems to be the only bit of liturgy my own church uses but there are many other options of single verse greeting.
   “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  Cor 13:14 NIV
   You can put a few others on the screen or just invite people to say it in their own language.
3. Playing familiar worship songs in other languages.
   Many of the songs you sing are already available in other languages. Whether or not you sing (or play them) in other languages you can add the lyrics on the screen in another language.
   I’ve compiled a list of 83 worship songs that are each available in 10 or more languages (available soon). Over 1300 of the nearly 8000 songs listed at https://www.weareworship.com/ have been translated into at least one other language with 360 being available in 4 or more languages.
   Be aware that versions in other languages are often not direct translations.
4. Introduce songs with a verse of scripture in the languages spoken in your community.
   Simply display translations of a Bible verse that introduces the theme or is directly quoted in a song. eg 10,000 Reasons starts with and takes several phrases from Psalm 103 .
5. Introduce worship songs from another language and culture
   Newcomers may appreciate songs that are not only in their preferred languages but also in their preferred musical styles. If you want a mostly English congregation to join in singing in a language they don’t speak pick something simple or just teach one line of the chorus. Sing the song, explain the significance.
   Some songs available at worshipleaderapp.com and https://songs2serve.nl, http://hmworship.com has songs in Latvian, English, Ukranian, Russian, Turkish, and Estonian. Also see twonineteen.org.uk/multicultural-worship-top-tips/

I could add other ideas but so can you. Add comments here or on the accompanying Facebook post. What has worked well in your church or what ideas would you like to see tried?
Other Pentecost post coming soon.

The Worlds Favourite Worship Songs? January 31, 2019

This is no longer a new CD, so many of the songs might already be among your favourites, but are they really the World’s favourites?

“Possibly the best worship collection ever made featuring over 50 of the finest modern worship songs sung the world over.

With songs that cross the nations and span the generations The World’s Favourite Worship Songs showcases what the world’s churches are singing today.”

Really?

I like lots of the songs on here (as do many people around the world) but watching the video you’d think the church only sang in English.

I am pleased to see that the team at weareworship.com , recognises that and are inviting subscribers to submit translations of many popular songs. (eg there are 29 translations of “Here I am to Worship” and scroll to the bottom of the list and it gives you a link to provide a translation if there isn’t one in your language).

Sadly they don’t (yet) have the built in ability to search by language, but it is possible to use Google to do that for you. eg

My hope however is that in addition to the globalisation of worship where everyone sings to the same tunes we will have truely global worship where we get to hear more songs from other cultures and musical styles both traditional and modern. WeAreWorship are contributing to that too with a platform called SongShare and there is another emerging community at proskuneo.org.

Meanwhile if you look for it there is a lot of worship happening in different languages, some of which is shared on YouTube. Here’s 70,000 people singing in Arabic

And another Arabic Christian song that seems quite popular

How many languages are actually being used to worship God? Heaven knows.

I know that there are over 3350 languages into which some part of the Bible has been translated and would hope (but don’t know) that songs are being sung to God in each of these and perhaps even more.

I also know that there are well over 300 languages spoken by people living in my home country of the UK but suspect that far fewer are used in our churches. So I hope you’ve enjoyed some of the singing. Here’s some worship leaders and theologians talking in 2015 about their hopes for the future of worship in the UK.

…and a plug for a Multicultural Worship day on Feb 23 at All Nations

Coming soon… Multilingual Worship June 25, 2017

There are a number of powerful multilingual worship videos where people unite in singing the same song in many different languages. It’s good practice for when you get to heaven.

If you’ve never heard this, listen, and be moved.

– Revelation song in multiple languages.

This can be repeated in many large events and even in smaller congregations.

Here’s the same song sung by teens in 14 languages

Katelin Hanson asks whether attempting multilingual worship is worth it. She concludes it is. Would you feel the same if it was you in a new church in a new land? http://churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-blogs/161669-katelin_hansen_multilingual_worship_is_it_worth_it.html

Worship is not only multilingual, it is multicultural – even when it’s in English!

Think of music that you associate with the Lords Prayer. I introduced a few people to Cliff Richard’s version “the Millennium Prayer” recently and told others about a somewhat slower version sung by Beach Boys (1964).

Personally I prefer this one sung in English by Shreya Kant (live in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. This song is from the album Thy Kingdom Come where it also available in Urdu and Punjabi.)

I’ll be writing more on this concept later including some tips on how to be more multilingual in your ministry (in simple manageable steps), and seeing what sites and apps exist to help you find good song and strategies.

Stay tuned!