From my reading of Church history there have been periods when all musical 
instruments were taken out of the churches and the only music was the sound 
of the unaccompanied human voice and that singing only the psalms!!!!

but thats just my interpretation of history i have no doubt others will see 
the historical record in other ways......

each to their own...

even tho i disagree with my adversary i will die the death for his righ to 
speak it.....

voltaire.....( or so i am told....)


"Adam Funk"  wrote in message 
news:40dqj5-9bj.ln1@news.ducksburg.com...
> On 2008-06-15, Mark Goodge wrote:
>
>> Yes, that's the usual argument against such an interpretation. The CoC
>> argument is that the use of instruments as an aid to worship was,
>> along with the use of incense and other such things, part of the OT
>> and not reinstated in the NT. Early church practice, as far as we can
>> tell, does seem to have been not to use instruments, and this was the
>> norm for a considerable part of church history.
>>
>> Although I'm in the musical instrument camp myself, I do think there's
>> an interesting debate there - do we dismiss the lack of
>> instrumentation in the early church as merely cultural, or is there
>> some theological significance to it? Or, to put it another way, to
>> what extent should the practice of the early church form the pattern,
>> or even be the norm, for us today?
>
> Are there any writings from the early church suggesting that they had
> a theological reason for not using instruments?  (I'm not aware of
> any.)

In article <OCpbk.142634$P83.91366@newsfe20.ams2>,
 "Michael Falconer" <hermeneutika777@(no spam)ntlworld.com> wrote:

> From my reading of Church history there have been periods when all musical 
> instruments were taken out of the churches and the only music was the sound 
> of the unaccompanied human voice and that singing only the psalms!!!!

History clearly includes the modern day.  Head for the Free Church of 
Scotland now and you'll find exactly this.

Sam

Sam Wilson wrote:
> In article <OCpbk.142634$P83.91366@newsfe20.ams2>,
>  "Michael Falconer" <hermeneutika777@(no spam)ntlworld.com> wrote:
> 
>> From my reading of Church history there have been periods when all musical 
>> instruments were taken out of the churches and the only music was the sound 
>> of the unaccompanied human voice and that singing only the psalms!!!!
> 
> History clearly includes the modern day.  Head for the Free Church of 
> Scotland now and you'll find exactly this.
> 

And a capella hymn and psalm singing can be very beautiful. It does, 
though, require a good cantor and a knowledge of tunes by the 
congregation; though "new" tunes can be introduced easily enough, 
perhaps by a session before the main worship starts.

Singing is always unaccompanied at the Methodist Conference. It can be 
quite unnerving and moving hearing a thousand or more people singing 
this way.


-- 


Revd. Eric Potts

"Go in peace, in the power of the Spirit
to live and work to God's praise and glory."