Religious Music

Chester McCoy grew up Catholic in a working class neighborhood of St Louis when segregation was still the rule. His way out of the limitations and oppression of racism was through education, social work and his his rich connections with people, including college at St John's in Collegeville, Minnesota. Chester has been writing songs for about 30 years now, and is a Quaker, a member of Minneapolis Friends Meeting.

A number of folks in Eau Claire started Advent with a Peace Sing-along. The event was organized by Eau Claire Friends Meeting (Quakers), hosted by Unity Christ Center, and co-sponsored by Eau Claire's Unitarian Universalist Congregation, the Network of Spiritual Progressives and Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, each providing 15 minutes of peace-related songs for all to sing. Although the recording quality was low, the Spirit of the gathering was high!

Nancy O'Neill is a life-long American Baptist and a lover of music, including decades of bringing music to Eau Claire's First Baptist Church. Daughter of an American Baptist minister, she has grown from conservative beginnings to embrace more of the world and to embrace its people more widely.