Streetlight Presentations
Revisiting The Old Hymns: A Sacred Piano Recital by Rebecca Brown
Upcoming Dates
- To be announced
About the Program
I have been in ministry with adolescents and young adults since 1984, working for 25 years at Trinity United Methodist Church in Gainesville, Florida. In 2006, with the help of 17 UF honors students, I created a Palliative Care program for chronically and critically ill teens at Shands at UF. I called the program Streetlight, which was the title of my thesis at Pacific School of Religion, where I received my MDiv. My inspiration for this work came from my fumbling attempts at ministering, years earlier, to a young woman in my youth group who had cancer. She taught me. Dr John Graham-Pole taught me. And now my patients continually teach me.
Together with 60+ UF volunteers we listen, partner, play, cry and “carry” these young people through the “valley of the shadow of death.” And in that valley I have found the hymns of my childhood returning to me with new and deeper meaning. I have been a composing church musician since the age of 12. My hymn arrangements, of late however, reflect my recent experiences with young people who deal daily with suffering, and fear of early death. In contemplating their courage and my own faith, I have found myself at the piano writing again; found myself revisiting the old hymns. It is this I wish to share with you – through stories and my piano arrangements.