(Relevant) One church in Boston has come up with an innovative way to pay for the use of spirituals. Late last year, the United Parish in Brookline announced that it will take up an offering when using spirituals during service, with collections going to support a nonprofit youth music program in Roxbury called Hamilton-Garrett Music and Arts. The organization is dedicated to the preservation of spirituals for future generations.
The church’s minister of music Susan DeSelms told the congregation that this is their church’s way of honoring the work of the enslaved Africans who originally wrote the spirituals churches still sing today. “Today, we as a church will begin the practice of collecting ‘royalties’ …for the spirituals we sing and worship,” she said, according to WGBH. “Whenever we sing Negro spirituals, we will collect an offering that will support the development of Black musicians.”