Psalm-Singer from Pakistan

From The Forum Magazine, Winter 2015 - view the full issue here

Eric Sarwar did not come to Calvin Theological Seminary in 2014 to begin his study of theology. He had already graduated from a Presbyterian seminary with an M.Div., earned a second master’s degree in Islamic history, planted a church, founded a school of church music and worship, translated two books into Urdu (including John Witvliet’s The Biblical Psalms in Christian Worship), and produced national psalm-singing festivals—all in his native country of Pakistan. He has also produced CDs of psalms and children’s songs that are known widely throughout his country. So what brought him to Calvin Seminary? Therein lies a story.

The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (CICW) hosts many international participants each year at our annual Symposium on Worship and also develops partnerships with international leaders for the purpose of co-hosting worship conferences in their home countries, where we learn at least as much as we teach. In 2009, I represented CICW at two conferences in Pakistan at the invitation of Rev. Eric Sarwar. A familiar Reformed/ Presbyterian tradition in a very unfamiliar culture was an ear-, eye-, and heart-opening experience! CICW then invited Eric to speak at our Symposium on Worship, and in January 2014 he stayed on to begin a master’s in worship at Calvin Seminary. While he is learning from us in our North American context, he has been preaching, teaching, and opening more eyes, ears, and hearts to what it is like to be a Christian in Pakistan.

Consider these comparisons between the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC) and the Presbyterian Church in Pakistan (PCP). Both denominations started in the mid-19th century: the CRC with Dutch immigrants in a new culture, the PCP in an ancient culture by missionaries from the United States and Scotland. Calvin Seminary was founded in 1876; Gujranwala Theological Seminary (GTS) was founded just a year later, in 1877. Both denominations started out as psalm-singing churches, and the first English-language psalter for the CRC was completed in 2012, with the 150 psalms divided into 410 songs, while the Punjabi Psalter was completed in 1891, with the 150 psalms divided into 405 songs. However, both denominations gradually lost their heritage of exclusive psalm-singing.

But major contrasts exist as well. First, the CRC is part of a majority Christian culture in North America, whereas the PCP, even when combined with all other Christian churches in Pakistan (and there are several denominations there, Protestant and Catholic), is a very small part of the dominant (97 percent) Muslim culture in Pakistan.

Second, the Dutch immigrants forming the CRC were at first rural and poor and then, after World War II, often more educated. On the other hand, Pakistan has experienced a huge “brain drain” in the last twenty years, with many very well-educated people leaving (for example, Eric’s in-laws received asylum in the Netherlands), and there are many “Indo-Pak” immigrant communities and churches now in major cities in Canada and the United States. Meanwhile, the remaining Christians (still several million) are often poor and struggling in an increasingly hostile environment under radical Islamic influence.

Finally, North America is a literate culture, and we use musical notation in hymnals. But most Pakistani Christians are illiterate and sing by rote. In fact, the entire rich raga tradition of song, so different in sound from Western music, has no notation; Eric learned the raga tradition from his grandfather as an apprentice. While in seminary, Eric learned about the history of psalm-singing in his country and felt a burden to help revive it for the sake of his brothers and sisters in Christ. The psalms are once again becoming a source of spiritual encouragement and strength among Pakistani Christians. What was so amazing to me is that the Pakistanis sing in their ancient, raga-based tradition, not in the Western-influenced, translated hymns or worship songs I so often hear in other countries. They sing out of a deep and ancient heritage of song that speaks to their hearts in ways that Western music cannot. When I heard the Pakistanis sing, my heart was deeply moved by the passion with which they cried out to God through the psalms. I’ll never forget especially Psalm 18, which I heard sung from memory in a youth group, at GTS, and in the church Eric pastored.

In addition to studying at Calvin Seminary, Eric continues to stay connected with his family, school, and church as well as other worship leaders through Skype. For more information about this gifted servant of God, Google his name or read a two-part interview with him in Reformed Worship (issues 115 and 116, available at www.reformedworship.org).

(Emily Brink, former Adjunct Professor of Worship and Church Music)