Paper short abstract:

By analyzing discourses and singing practices in an Anglican traditional parish church in London, I show how heritagisation of religious music affects the ways in which worshippers fashion themselves as Christian selves.

Paper long abstract:

The space of Anglican sacred music is no longer solely the space of the church. Concert halls, professional musicians and meticulously performed pieces bring in sync both religious practitioners and non-religious music lovers reveling in the beauty and complexity of this music. For members of St Anne's, a 'traditional, middle-of-the-road' Anglican parish church in London, the sacred time and space afforded by this repertoire has now become punctured by an increasingly limited potential for the future. This paper addresses how, in trying to ensure a future for their church, worshippers seek to integrate sacred music within a secular framework by appealing to the aesthetic qualities of the repertoire.

I illustrate that for members of this church, the process of heritagisation of musical repertoire becomes a problematic dimension when seeking to appeal to new potential members as much of the decline in the numbers of 'traditional' Anglican churches stems from a reaction of new generations of worshippers and Christians from other ethnic backgrounds against a 'mere' enactment of Anglican ritual and music heritage. At the same time, for these church members, this process also effaces the 'sacred' in sacred music. By analyzing St Anne's worshippers' discourse, the music choices and choristers singing practices, I show that heritagisation of religious music affects experiences of the sacred by shaping how worshippers fashion themselves as Christian selves.