This week in our online class for kids we start in the Pacific Islands and look at the way that church harmonies appear all over the world and take the character of the people who sing them. Church hymns spread everywhere that European missionaries ventured from the 16th through the 20th centuries, unifying observances worldwide. Over time the “locals” took this music to heart, blending the shared liturgy, and a way of engaging religion with song, into their own beloved cultural traditions. (Don’t worry, friends! We don’t mention anything religious in class! We focus, very secularly, on how “locals” take “international” music and make it their own.)
