pat loughery

Tonight’s worship portion of the main session was led by Brian McLaren and Harp46. Other than slowly building relationsihps here, it was the highlight of the week so far.

I’ll try to describe it for you. Harp46, if you haven’t discovered them yet, is a trio: April Vega on harp; her husband Nuc Vega on percussion (djembes and cymbals and shakers and such), and his brother Posido Vega on bass. They play – uh, Celtic-Jazz-Funk-Tribal stuff with harp as the lead instrument. Yes, that’s hard to imagine. Each of the three is an amazing musician, and I’m not saying that to be nice. Nuc is the best percussionist I’ve ever heard, except for a guy who played the talking drum with the Dead when I saw them at a Chinese New Year show in Oakland a few years back. But I digress. Posido plays bass in a way that’s not simply laying a groove, a progression and a beat. It’s a lead instrument much of the time as well. And April plays harp in a way I’ve never heard. Imagine harp that’s not dreamy, new-agey elevator crap, but real tribal funk. That’s Harp46.

So it’s them, plus Godfather McLaren narrating, and occasionally with a speaker (Rachelle Mee-Chapman, Jen Lemen, another blogger I met just today and want to go read, and a guy I didn’t recognize). Though music, multimedia visual + sound projection onto main stage screens, and Brian’s narration, they told the story of God from Creation through Consummation of the Age, over an hour in which I was enraptured, enthralled, mindblown.

I emailed April tonight to thank her and to tell her that it felt to me like my pores were all opened up, breathing in the Spirit of God, immersed in the Story.

I took a few rolls of photos (alas – film, not digital, you’ll have to wait for photoblogging on this one).

And then more stuff happened too.