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Interfaith choir brings gospel music, Juneteenth celebration to Rainier Beach
Resounding Love, a Seattle interfaith choir, uses gospel music to foster healing, community and hope, celebrating Juneteenth with songs of justice, joy and resilience.
By June Williams | For FāVS News
SEATTLE — Resounding Love, a diverse interfaith choir, is bringing a message of love and hope to its Juneteenth concert at the Rainier Beach Community Center in Seattle.
The group offers the most powerful and uplifting elements of church gospel music to people of many faith backgrounds, the Rev. Angela Farrar Small, director of chaplains, said.
A celebration rooted in history
Resounding Love’s Juneteenth performance will center on African American identity, culture, history and social justice.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved African Americans in Texas learned of their freedom, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Now it’s a federal holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States.
African American gospel and spiritual music has brought people together “from the deepest depression to the biggest joys,” Small said.
“What’s really wonderful is African American gospel and spiritual music hits right to the soul. Just how the sound of the music is, it hits straight to the soul. It’s fully embodied, fully committed when it’s performed. It is not just a voice disembodied. It is a whole human bringing themselves to the music and the message,” she said.
That soulful commitment is also what Small tends to when emotions surface during rehearsals.
Gospel music isn’t just about hitting the right notes, Small said. It’s about singing with intense, raw emotion. When a lyric touches on a painful memory, a singer might suddenly find themselves crying or feeling overwhelmed.
“Sometimes emotions come up in the midst of rehearsals. The lyrics touch on feelings or personal histories and people can be really emotional sometimes,” Small said. “Some people come with a religious background, but it was also a place of spiritual wounding — if they were discouraged from asking questions or if they were not included.”
In those moments, Small provides a calm, listening presence, much like chaplains who serve fire departments or police officers.
“A fire department chaplain probably does the same thing,” she said. “They provide a non-anxious presence for people who are feeling deep emotions and just listen.”
Small listens to whatever members want to share.
“By my presence I hope they just know that they’re not alone, whatever they’re feeling. Sometimes the tears are happy and sometimes the tears are sad. Either way, I’m present.”
While Small has a master’s degree in social work, divinity and mind-body medicine, all helpful in her chaplain duties, she doesn’t “lead with that,” she said.
“People don’t care what you know, until they know you care,” Small said. She learned as a social worker to meet people where they are and not “shove people into a place where they’re not.”
This philosophy of acceptance is woven into the choir’s membership process. Directors screen for alignment with Resounding Love’s supportive culture, not just a singer’s vocal range. Rehearsals can involve interactive exercises that help members get to know each other and build trust, such as discussing a prized possession, Small said.
“We get to know one another as people. We practice listening well to one another,” she said.
Once that sense of community formed, Small was no longer the only one offering emotional and spiritual support, she said. The singers began naturally stepping in to comfort one another during difficult moments.
“My motto is I’m a chaplain among chaplains. Everyone is a chaplain in this community. Everyone comforts one another,” she said. “It’s a big joy to be a chaplain among chaplains.”
Songs of justice and joy
Many of the social justice-oriented songs on the setlist were originally written for solo artists. The choir has “very talented arrangers” who worked the solos into choir songs, according to Small.
The Sam Cooke classic, “A Change is Gonna Come,” recorded in 1964 as an intimate, personal plea for civil rights, goes from one voice to “a whole group asserting a change is going to come,” Small said.
The choir will also perform an arrangement of the gospel song, “The Best Day,” serving as a reminder that fighting for social justice must be balanced with the freedom to experience happiness and connection in the present moment.
African American gospel and spiritual music tell the truth, Small said, relating the world is not perfect. Oppression still exists and so does hope and joy.
“We don’t need to wait until the better world comes. We’re also going to enjoy life and enjoy one another now,” Small said. “It’s our right to celebrate what’s good right now. We don’t have to wait until it’s perfect.”
Resounding Love choir performs at 5 p.m. on June 18 at Rainier Beach Community Center, 8825 Rainier Ave South, in Seattle. The free Atlantic Street Center’s annual Juneteenth celebration features food, activities, performances and resources for all ages.
More information can be found online.
