No sister act
Nuns’ album tops charts in time for Christmas season
ANN ARBOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The members of Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, silently filed into the chapel. Within minutes, they were singing — first in unison, then in a transfixing, layered harmony that reverberated off the marble floors, wood-paneled walls and cathedral ceiling.
The evening prayer service was intended for no audience but the Lord they have taken vows to serve. Still, The Chapel at the Motherhouse on the rolling grounds of the Catholic order’s campus outside Ann Arbor, Mich, is also the place where the members record music that has been heard by millions. Their third and latest album, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring: Christmas With the Dominican Sisters of Mary,” has gracefully muscled its way to the top of Billboard’s classical chart and climbed nearly as high on the holiday chart.
They may be sisters, but this is no act.
“It’s such a part of our prayer life that when we make a CD, we’re just praying,” said Sister Joseph Andrew Bogdanowicz, a founder of the community who has overseen the production of three CDs. “It’s what we do; it’s who we are.”
The album’s 16 songs span from the 5th century to present day and represent the music of 10 countries. The collection includes the wellknown (“We Wish You a Merry Christmas,”) obscure (“Sleep, Little Jesus,” based on a Polish carol) and original (“Snowflakes,” composed by Bogdanowicz). Some songs are a cappella, others contain light instrumentation — all supplied by the sisters.
For them, the music is a gift to God, but also to people who can’t see the sisters perform live. They don’t tour, and only on rare occasions do they sing in public or on national broadcasts. Their evening services at the Motherhouse are
ments, including the roots of evangelicalism.
Making this Top 100 list, he added, seems to be linked to “some kind of prominent position in media or politics or both,” as opposed to “leading successful churches or Christian organizations. … I would imagine all these people believe that Jesus is the Son of God and they may even share some ideas about the authority of Scripture — but that’s about it.”
Even the list’s few pastors and church leaders — such as Tim Keller of New York City or Max Lucado of San Antonio — are best known as popular authors. It’s rather surprising, noted Kidd, that Calvinist scholar John Piper was ranked No. 22 and historian Mark Noll hit No. 37.
“I mean,” quipped Kidd, “would Fox News even know who John Piper is?”
All of this confusion wouldn’t surprise Billy Graham.
During a 1987 interview, I asked him to define “evangelical.” Graham said he wasn’t sure what the word means, since it has “become blurred. … You go all the way from the extreme fundamentalists to the extreme liberals and, somewhere in between, there are the evangelicals.” In the end, he added, one man’s “evangelical” is another’s “fundamentalist.”
Based on his experiences with Christians around the world, Graham said it was important to keep trying to link this term with doctrinal orthodoxy. Thus, he defined an “evangelical” as someone who believes all the doctrines in the ancient Apostles Creed. Graham stressed the centrality of the resurrection and the belief that salvation is through Jesus, alone.
It would be hard, during these bitterly politicized times, to convince pollsters, journalists and political activists to embrace that kind of definition, said David French, a Harvard Law School graduate known for his National Review columns on politics and religious liberty.
In the public square, everyone thinks they know what “evangelical” means.
“The easy answer, which also has the virtue of being true, is that ‘evangelical’ has become the tribal marker used to describe white Christians who vote Republican,” said French, who was an internet lightning rod during 2016 because of his opposition to both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
At some point, “orthodox” Protestants are going to have to find a way to define themselves in terms of faith, worship and ministry, as well as their convictions in public life, he said. This may require new language.
“Liberals used to be called ‘liberals,’ but then that became a negative word so they turned into ‘progressives,’” noted French.
“There was a time when ‘evangelical’ was a positive word, when compared with ‘fundamentalist.’” But those days are gone, he added, because far too many Americans now assume the word “evangelical” “simply means both — ‘fundamentalist’ and ‘evangelical.’ Both terms are equally bad.
“We are going to have to find a way to talk about our faith that doesn’t sound like we are alienated, alone, isolated and angry.”