'A Song For Our Planet' - Hearing the sacred in the environment

Did you know that in just about every sacred text there is a reference to the environment? From the Bible to the Koran, to ancient Buddhist writings, there are passages that talk about how people have either been destroying the Earth or how we need to do a better job taking care of it.

A new coral work performed by Seattle First Baptist and Plymouth Church focuses entirely on the environment. It's called A Song For Our Planet.

Vicky Thomas is the conductor for Seattle First Baptist.

“Music carries a message that in a way simple words don’t. It gets into your heart. It gets into your blood stream. You can see it on the faces of the singers as they perform. It’s a magical medium. Any time you think about social justice, music has been there driving us on and helping us for something better.”

Henry Mollicone, a Broadway veteran who as worked Leonard Bernstein scored the 30-minute piece. One of passages from Exodus in the Old Testament surprised him. He says the words could have easily been written today.

“The idea of, ‘We have soiled God’s creation, there will remain nothing green,’ it sounds so contemporary. ”

The only text that isn’t set to music is from the Koran. The Muslim faith believes that setting the Koran to music distracts from the seriousness of the words. When A Song For Our Planet is performed someone will read passages from the Koran without music.

The performance is Sunday, March 18th at Seattle First Baptist.  It gets underway at 2 p.m. An environmental information fair will follow the event.