Some quick notes from the monthly singing at Beacon Hill Friends Meeting House:
Last time I was in the Beacon Hill Friends Meeting House was in 1999, when I went to meeting for worship and a peace witness just before Easter. I remember thinking then that it is a remarkable worship space: not large, but with a high ceiling, a surprising amount of light for a building on Beacon Hill in Boston, Quaker simplicity with lots of wood and plaster, and wonderful acoustics.
And now I know it is a lovely room for Sacred Harp singing: the dozen or so people who came to sing easily filled the room with sound, and the room warmed and strengthened the singers. I couldn’t help thinking that the residuum of several generations of Spirit-filled Quaker meetings also warmed and strengthened the singers, for it was definitely a Spirit-filled singing. If the monthly singing of Norumbega Harmony is wonderfully disciplined and controlled, this Beacon Hill singing was ecstatic and even transcendent.