Dr. Eileen Guenther
Meet God in new ways through a deeper understanding of the music, historical context, and role of the Spiritual tradition and how it can draw us closer to each other and to the love of God.
FBC's annual winter forum will be on Sunday, February 12. Our guest will be Dr. Eileen Guenther who will explore "The Song and the Story," focusing on the music and the context that gave birth to the African-American Spiritual. In worship, she will draw our attention to the role of the Spiritual in the African-American tradition and how it can be important to our faith formation today.
Dr. Eileen Guenther is Lecturer in Organ at The George Washington University and Professor Emerita of Church Music at Wesley Theological Seminary, where she taught music and worship courses and served as Director of Chapel Music. She leads workshops for musical and denominational organizations on music and social justice, Spirituals, and clergy-music relations. Her book, Rivals or a Team: Clergy-Musician Relationships in the 21st Century, has been widely acclaimed with a great deal of media attention, and interviews with Eileen have been published in a variety of venues from blogs and denominational newsletters to The Huffington Post and The Christian Century. A second book, In Their Own Words: Slave Life and Power of Spirituals, has been called “the most comprehensive work done on the Negro Spiritual to date.” The over 100 presentations Eileen has led on this book have taken her from Atlanta, Georgia to Ashland, Oregon and have been called “powerful,” and “life-changing.”
Eileen served as Visiting Lecturer at Africa University in Zimbabwe and a member of the UMC Global praise teams teaching music and worship in Uganda and Ivory Coast. South Africa, too, holds a special place in her heart and she has led nine groups of Wesley Seminary students on intercultural immersion trips there.
Dr. Guenther served with distinction as Director of Music at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Potomac, MD and as Minister of Music and Liturgy at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC, where she led the Concerts for Life, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for organizations supporting people with HIV/AIDS. Her media appearances include a PBS documentary on Christmas Carols with Amy Grant, the EMMY-Award winning film “Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story,” and the video “The Power of Spirituals,” a collaboration with the American Spiritual Ensemble (see below).