The Witness Cantata - Program notes
WITNESS is an ambiguous word, encompassing present experience as well as future testimony. The breadth of that word leaves room for the polarities of religious experience: the deeply personal and the proclaimed.Witness. Within the word lies a fullness that speaks of all life and living. In an ongoing story we carry forward what we have already witnessed — as we bear witness to the future.
In the Christian faith, Good Friday was the paramount occasion of the passion of God. Those who were at Calvary witnessed a suffering not trivialized by any confidence that Christ’s agony had a purpose…or that all that was lost would be restored. This mystery of God crucified is a central symbol of Christian faith. However hard the church has had to struggle to be faithful to the depth of that symbol, the truth of this mystery is witnessed daily by women and men, believers and non-believers alike, whose lives are rich in tragedy and hope—lives that carry forward the story of Good Friday.
Collected from the synoptic gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — the “seven last words of Christ” are spoken anew here. The King James texts are pronounced by Reverend Mikelson, then interpreted through the texts of five modern writers. These words speak of political oppression, racism, marginalization, mental struggle, and profound loss. But, though the words are heavy, they carry with them a persistent hope: “something not known to anyone before, but wild in our breast for centuries.”
In the past, people of all faiths have found this piece to be a meaningful time of reflection on hope in the face of despair, of inner light confronting outer darkness. The Witness Cantata is a reminder that suffering is an inescapable and even rich part of life — not simply to be avoided, but to be integrated into a whole understanding of what it means to be human. In this troubled time, it is fitting to pause and connect to the experience of suffering that we as a people have both inflicted and, hopefully, alleviated.
