Central New York: Word of God - as rapped in hip-hop worship
Saturday, July 29, 2006
RENEE K. GADOUA

This week's Newsweek notes that hip-hop is being heard in traditional church services.
The piece describes the Rev.Timothy "Poppa T" Holder ("white, middle-aged"), an Episcopal priest in the South Bronx, who created a hip-hop Mass and edited "The Hip Hop Prayer Book," inspired by the Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican worship guide.

"This is not some sideshow or entertainment," Holder told beliefnet, the interfaith Web site. "This is the vernacular of God, through the messengers, who are the rappers." (See video of a hip-hop Mass at www.belief net.com.)

At November's local convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, Bishop Gladstone "Skip" Adams and several local youths provided a musical sample of hip-hop worship, which they had learned at a national Episcopal youth gathering.

The trend has spurred some criticism. Newsweek quotes Eric Turner, assistant pastor at Bible Baptist Church in Creedmoor, N.C., who says that when people alter biblical passages, "you take the author of those writings down. God is completely different from us, and trying to make him like us is incorrect . . . ." the rest