Carlton “Sam” Young publishes autobiography
At age 96, the Rev. Carlton R. “Sam” Young has published an autobiography, I’ll Sing On: My First 96 Years (GIA Publications, 2023), chronicling his career as a composer, arranger, scholar and editor. Young edited The Methodist Hymnal (1966) and The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) and directed the music for nine General Conferences, including the 1968 Uniting Conference that created The United Methodist Church. He was also Director of the Master of Sacred Music Program at Perkins and associate professor of church music from 1964-1975, Read a profile of Young and his book by C. Michael Hawn, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Church Music at Perkins, for United Methodist News Service here.
New Book by Hal Recinos
Harold J. “Hal” Recinos’ latest book of poetry, The Looking Glass: Near and Far was published by Wipf and Stock in January. The poetry “searches voices in the cities of a divided America faced with an unraveling democracy and across borders where people negotiate the fragility of life offer a vision of transcendences through recovery of our common humanity,” according to the jacket description.
Recinos said he drew inspiration from one of his favorite poets, William Carlos Williams, a pediatrician, writer and friend of Ezra Pound. His father was from England, raised in the Dominican Republic and his mother was from Puerto Rico. William wrote in English, but his first language was Spanish. “I discovered him in Middle School along with Langston Hughes, and especially identified with the idea present in the identity of both poets of life on the hyphen,” said Recinos. “Moreover, William Carlos Williams wrote these words that I have kept with me: ‘There is no beginning nor end to the imagination but it delights in its own seasons reversing the usual order at will.’”
Recinos is professor of church and society at Perkins.
Column by Robert Hunt
Robert Hunt, director of Perkins’ Global Theological Education department, wrote a column entitled “Spirituality versus religion in our neighborhood” in the Lake Highlands Advocate.
The column explored how a growing number of Americans are describing themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”
“Recent polls … show the number of Americans who identify as Christian (by far the dominant religion in the United States) has declined from 90% to 64% in the last 50 years,” he writes. “When we look closely, religion in our city isn’t going away. Instead, it’s going to look different than it has in the past.” Read the column here.