Music for Stewardship, Calling and Community Engagement

Vol. 2: Music for Stewardship, Calling and Community Engagement

By Elizabeth Alexander & Saunder Choi

“Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law.” – Rev. James Vila Blake (1894)

 Thus begins one of the earliest congregational covenants in Unitarian Universalism, words that continue to resonate in our congregations today. Blake’s vision reminds us that love finds its fullest expression in service to others and in caring for the wider community. In this newsletter we’re delighted to share songs that give voice to that calling, songs that offer inspiration, challenge and comfort as we work to build a more just and compassionate world. 

SAUNDER: Jocelyn Hagen’s lyrical, intricate layering of wordless voices gave primal expression to our most basic need: community and togetherness through song. Although the piece is intended to be performed with staging and movement, the great irony of my experience with Jocelyn’s “Hands” is that I programmed it as a virtual choir piece with UUSM at the height of the pandemic (late 2020). Yet that constraint made it all the more meaningful — the music became a way to “hold hands” digitally at a time when we couldn’t be together in person.

Hands
Jocelyn Hagen
SATB a cappella choir & 2 soloists; also SSAA
Difficulty: 4
3-5 min.

ELIZABETH: I don’t know which I love more: Stuart Kestenbaum’s poem “Holding the Light” or B.E. Boykin‘s breathtaking setting of it. Boykin handles the words with extraordinary tenderness, cradling the voices in an ethereal piano texture. Her quiet confidence as a composer is evident in her use of unison, two-part, and four-part writing, musical choices that deepen the text without ever overwhelming it. Each new harmony unfolds with grace, allowing us room to contemplate the core message: “In our imperfect world / we are meant to repair / and stitch together / what beauty there is….” This warm, deeply human song is nothing less than a blessing. 

Holding the Light
B.E. Boykin
SATB choir and piano
Difficulty: 4 
3-5 min.

SAUNDER: Elizabeth Alexander‘s “Kindling” was one of the first long-form works I programmed at UU Santa Monica — and it checks every UU box, weaving through all six sources of the Unitarian Universalist faith. The choir loves it because it speaks directly to the values UUs hold dear. “Pages” honors the courage our community draws on in times of hardship, while “Chosen People” traces our journey toward chosen community, drawing on stories familiar to anyone raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition. There’s also something that always moves me personally: whenever we sing “the next chapters are ours to imagine,” I’m transported to one of our beloved hymns — Rumi’s “Come, come, whoever you are — wanderer, worshiper…” Both feel like open invitations, reminding us that the story is never finished.

Kindling: Small Reflections on a Limitless Faith (conductor’s score)
Elizabeth Alexander
SATB, flute, horn, violin, cello, piano; also SATB & piano
Difficulty: 4
20-30 min.

Individual movements: “Pages” & “Chosen People“

SAUNDER: I first encountered Tracy Wong‘s “Sehati” at the Southeast Asian immersion choir at ACDA National 2025 and was immediately struck by its pure joy — a celebration of coming together and finding belonging, especially after being separated during the pandemic. Tracy wrote “still here together” to celebrate the commissioners first in-person concert post pandemic. This macaronic work, blending Malay and English, speaks directly to our choral community’s deep need to unite in song. The infectious refrain “Setia, sehati” and the shuffle-like rhythmic drive of the joget style had me leaving the reading session with an earworm that lasted for days — and I have no doubt your singers will feel exactly the same once you program this piece.

Sehati (One Heart)
Tracy Wong
SATB, piano, percussion; practice tracks available!
Difficulty: 3
3-5 min.

ELIZABETH: Up until now we’ve been highlighting songs about what we do to enrich the wider community. Dale Trumbore’s “You Find Yourself Here” looks at this from the other side, reflecting on the experiences that shape us in return. There’s a sense of ease in the unhurried triple meter, with a hint of an introspective, lilting dance. The arching refrain, “You carry it home,” returns in successive waves, each time feeling more grounded and assured. Trumbore builds the climax in an organic way, through a succession of personal milestones: “You sit…you stay…you watch…you see…you learn…you live…you find.” And the last moment feels just right: a welcome outpouring of gratitude.

You Find Yourself Here (SATB)
Dale Trumbore
SATB a cappella
Difficulty: 4
3-5 min.

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Composer and lyricist Elizabeth Alexander grew up in the Carolinas and Appalachian Ohio. Her love of music, language and challenging questions is reflected in her catalog of over 150 compositions, many of which were written with liberal religious worship in mind. A Unitarian Universalist for over 40 years, she is an active member of Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul, MN.

LA-based Filipino-Chinese composer Saunder Choi brings the totality of his life experience to his work as a professional singer, immigrant, LGBTQ+ advocate. In addition to his role as Director of Music at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Monica, he was Music Coordinator of the 2022 Virtual Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly and Music Director of the 2024 public worship service of Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM).