Topic: Theology
Baptist theology dates back to the Anabaptists in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1525, who first considered recreating the primitive church with the Lord’s Supper as a central rite. Only adults who had professed their faith and been baptized by being immersed in water were recognized as members. [1]
John Nelson Darby recreated [2] the cultural construct in 1826 with a group in Dublin. They absorbed ideas from others seeking to reform the Anglican church. Quakers influenced their elimination of musical instruments from services. [3] The banishment of Christmas celebrations came from the Free Church of Scotland. [4]
The fellowship did not organize a denomination with a centralized body to adjudicate differences in interpretation. Assembly leaders soon divided into Open and Closed or Exclusive schools, as had the Anabaptists, [5] over the appropriate relationships with non-believers and the use of shunning as a means of maintaining discipline. [6]
Darby lectured in Geneva in 1840. He later made five trips to New England and Ontario, Canada, between 1862 and 1877, [7] where his speeches sowed seeds for Charles Parham’s attempts to recreate the apostles’ church. Robert Cleaver Chapman distributed pamphlets in Madrid and Catalonia after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1868. There the fellowship became the Asambleas de Hermanos. [8]
The Open Brethren believe in evangelizing non-believers. Juan Herique Ewen arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from England in 1882. [9] At the time, British investors were building railroads, while the government was encouraging immigration to the newly opened areas. [10] The first converts were Italian immigrants. By 1911, Pablo Deiros said there were 38 active Brethren missionaries in the country using tents and open-air meetings. [11]
Ewen may have traveled as far as Catamarca [12] in the semi-arid Andes, which had been reached by a rail line in 1888. [13] In 1914, its total immigrant population was 674 Spaniards, 568 Italians, and 469 Arabs. [14] The last likely were from the Mount Lebanon region of greater Syria. Their numbers increased after World War I, [15] when Britain and France divided control of the Ottoman Empire. [16] Many who joined the brotherhood were Christians fleeing a revolt by the Islamic Druze against French occupation. [17]
In 2016, the meeting hall in Catamarca was plain. The only trim on the white wall on the right side was a chair rail. A book shelf stood on the left side, with a platform covered by a white cloth at the front. Single doors opened behind it on the left and right. Between them was an arched opening or mirror through which that most pagan of symbols could be seen, a decorated tree.
On the Sunday before Christmas three woman and a man stood in front of the platform and sang "Silent Night," "Aleluya," and two songs about the birth of Jesus in Spanish. [18] The women also performed "Kumbaya" in English. While the Spanish-language songs were accompanied by a sound track, the man played an acoustic guitar for this.
Their words and melody suggested they had learned the song locally, rather than from the mass media. They only knew two verses, and did not include the kumbaya one. The conjunto vocal did not sing the usual last line which ends with "kumba" sung on one note, and "ya" a note lower. Instead, they said the last note higher.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: three women
Vocal Director: one of the women
Instrumental Accompaniment: man played acoustic guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: "kum" pronounced with soft initial consonant and long vowel; it was accented. They strongly emphasized the first syllables of singing and praying, and did not pronounce the final g’s.
Verses: singing, praying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: two-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: repeated "Oh Lord, kumbaya" three times
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: moderately slow, with retard at end
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: chordal harmony, with one syllable to one note except for final Lord
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: guitar played arpeggios while they were singing
Notes on Performance
Occasion: 18 December 2016
Location: YouTube identified the hall as Iglesia Cristiana Evangelica Catamarca at Caseros 214. Some directories on Google associated that address with Iglesia Cristiana Evangelica Bautista. The local Brethren website indicated its assembly met at the junction of Manuel Ponferrada and Caseros ("Junín 1180 Manuel Ponferrada y Caseros.")
Microphones: the three young women had hand-held mikes; a floor mike stood in front of the guitarist.
Clothing: the women wore sleeveless black tops and black slacks. Two had long hair that was loose, and one had her hair pulled back. The man wore a white shirt, black slacks, and no tie.
Notes on Movement
They all stood reasonably still and looked straight ahead. When they began the amen ending, one girl put her arm out in front of her where the others could see her direct the progressively slower pace of the final "Oh Lord, Kumbaya" phrases.
Notes on Audience
Congregants sat on straight-backed chairs set in rows with two aisles. Some got up or returned, and children moved about. Most were dressed up a little, neither in suits, nor in jeans. All the women and girls had long hair that hung down their backs.
They only applauded at the end of one song, presumably the last.
Notes on Performers
Noche de Paz" (silent night) featured harmony by the women on the first and third verses, with a solo by the woman who had acted as director between. She also was the only one who spoke at the ends of numbers.
"Aleluya" featured the female soloist.
"Nació Jesus" (Jesus was born) featured the male soloist. The female soloist sat in the first row.
"Nacio Jesús, Su amor se derramo" (Jesus was born, His love spilled) featured the female and male soloists. This may have been the last song, since it was followed by applause.
They had music stands in front of them, and changed the music once between songs. A man sat in front of a projector that displayed the verses on the screen. He also may have been handling the recorder that played the instrumental accompaniments.
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by pianos pianos on 20 December 2016.
End Notes
1. Wikipedia. "Swiss Brethren."
2. Multiple inventions occur when scientists are working from the same set of data to solve similar problems. The same thing would happen in religion when individuals restricted their source of information to a few verses of the Bible.
3. Rex A. Koivisto. One Lord, One Faith. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2009 edition. 320.
4. Roger Hutchinson. Aleister Crowley. New York: Random House, 2011. No pages in on-line edition.
5. Wikipedia. "Mennonite." When the Anabaptists were being persecuted, Jakob Ammann introduced shunning to maintain loyalty to the group. They separated from the Mennonites of Menno Simons over this and other issues.
6. Wikipedia. "Plymouth Brethren."
7. Wikipedia. "John Nelson Darby."
8. Spanish-language Wikipedia. "Asambleas de Hermanos." The group’s Argentinian website used the expression Iglesias Cristianas Evangélicas en Argentina de las Asambleas de Hermanos.
9. Carlos Alberto Bisio. Nuestros Primeros Pasos. Buenos Aires: Libreria Editorial Cristiana, 1992. An extract, "Juan Herique Ewen," available on-line.
10. Wikipedia. "Argentina."
11. Pablo A. Deiros. "Protestant Fundamentalism in Latin America." 1:142-264 in Fundamentalisms Observed. Edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. 1:152.
12. Basio said that while few details of his campaigns survived, it was known Ewen had been to Córdoba, which abutted the far southern boundary of Catamarca province.
13. Wikipedia. "Catamarca Province."
14. Jill Hedges. Argentina: A Modern History. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2011. 234.
15. Eliane Fersan. "Syro-Lebanese Migration (1880-Present): ‘Push’ and ‘Pull’ Factors." Middle East Institute website. 19 April 2010.
16. Wikipedia. "French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon."
17. Clifton L. Holland. "A Directory of Religious Groups in Latin America and the Caribbean: Argentina." San Pedro, Costa Rica: Programa Latinoamericano de Estudios Sociorreligiosos, 25 May 2002. 19.
18. All were uploaded to YouTube by pianos pianos on 20 July 2017 with an indication they were recorded in 2016.
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