LIVING

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RELIGION CALENDAR, 6C

YORK DAILY RECORD THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012

CHERISH?
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Religion

High-tech gadgets invade the pews

By CHRIS RAMIREZ The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

From left, Alyssa Hoke; her mother, Deb Wilt; and her grandmother, Susan Heldibridle sing during a recent York Symphony Chorus rehearsal. Heldibridle joined the chorus in 1987. Her daughter joined a few years later, and Alyssa tried out and was accepted into the soprano one section earlier this year. The family is one of several involved in the chorus and York Symphony Orchestra.

DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS JASON PLOTKIN

The simple pleasure, and now family tradition, bonds three generations of York Symphony Chorus members.
By ERIN McCRACKEN emccracken@ydr.com

Music&song

ome people sing for a shot at fame and fortune. Voice competitions glitzy and cutthroat attract millions of viewers. With the advent of vocaldoctoring technology, the music industry can manufacture stars overnight. Profits often trump the creative process. But there are other people like Susan Heldibridle who still sing for the pure joy of it. Music is just a part of life, she said. Its something you can always go to if times are tough. Its just always there. You cant feel bad when youre singing. She inherited the love of song as a girl, while sitting next to her grandmother on an organ bench. She grew into church choirs, school choruses and the Bell Canto Singers. She gravitated to classical music and often attended York Symphony Chorus concerts. By 1987, she was part of the ensemble and has served as first alto section leader for years. Shes enjoyed the repertoire so much, she said, she cant pick a favorite piece. But the Messiah choruses are high on her list. The same is true for her only child, Deb Wilt. My mom had a collection of the Messiah records, Wilt said. As a very young child, I can remember singing along. Music came with attending church and Bible school. Later, Wilt took private les-

Deb Wilt, right, jokes with her daughter, Alyssa Hoke, during a recent York Symphony Chorus rehearsal. Both sing in the soprano one section. Wilts mother and Alyssas grandmother, Susan Heldibridle, is the chorus first alto section leader.
sons and joined ensembles in high school and college. She always had a duet partner in Heldibridle. Sometimes, they performed three songs during church services, mostly a cappella. When they could, they practiced at home. But jobs and school filled the time between rehearsals, shows and solos. Wherever she was, Wilt said, singing felt like home. In high school, she would shy away from speaking in front of a class of 25 but felt comfortable performing a solo in front of 500.

DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS JASON PLOTKIN

Holiday Choral Concert Handels Messiah

Robert Hart Baker will conduct the York Symphony Chorus as it performs Handels complete Messiah. Soloists include Laura Heydt-Adams, Gwendolyn Bowers, Peter Drackley and Jeffrey Gates. The show is 3 p.m. Dec. 2 at First Presbyterian Church, 225 E. Market St., York. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students. For details and tickets, call 717-846-1111 or visit mystrandcapitol.org.

See MUSIC, page 7C

Discussion set

Music is just a part of life. Its something you can always go to if times are tough.

SUSAN HELDIBRIDLE, one of three generations of York Symphony chorus singers

Need to go to confession? Theres an app for that. A $1.99 iPhone application created by three entrepreneurs in South Bend, Ind., moves the Catholic rite of baring your soul to a priest in a darkened confessional booth to your cellphone. And thats not all. Pastors stream their sermons online; rabbis use websites to track their students progress toward bnai mitzvah; and Muslims turn to electronic compasses and GPS technology so they know which way to face during daily prayers. Even the Dalai Lama maintains an active Twitter feed. It all means that worship is going high-tech. Its the world we live in now, says the Rev. Dr. Ronald ColeTurner, a professor of theology and ethics at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in East Liberty. Gone are the days when going to church meant lugging around Bibles with dog-earred, timeyellowed pages. Today, the Word of God has gone byte-sized megabyte, that is. Hundreds of iPhone apps allow worshippers to upload Bible quotes, Torah-chanting practice and Buddhist prayer wheels. Ryan Kreager developed the Confession App with two friends together they make up an app development company called Little i Apps. The app, he says, is meant to remind Catholics of their rite of visiting a priest to unburden themselves, not to replace it. If youre emotionally hooked to a device ... why not be hooked spiritually, as well? asks Kreager, a Notre Dame doctoral candidate. The Colorado Springs, Colo.based Christian Booksellers Association, which represents 1,700 Christian stores, franchises and religious suppliers, estimates that Americans spend $4.6 billion each year on gadgets, downloads, apps and other products they feel enhance observance of their faith. Jasmine Kashkoush grew up in a Muslim home in Allentown, and continues to practice her faith while studying neuroscience and math at the University of Pittsburgh. She and roughly 1.6 billion other devout Muslims worldwide pray five times a day, and are supposed to face Mecca when doing so. She gets help from an Adhan Alarm app, which plays the Arabic call for prayer, and from iQuran, another app that makes the entire Muslim holy book accessible on her phone. Its really helpful, as it makes sure I dont neglect my prayers, says Kashkoush, 19. With smartphones these days, theres apps for everything. So, are believers getting geekier, or are more geeks becoming believers? Yes on both counts, says ColeTurner, whose position at the seminary focuses on developments in science and technology. And the clergy is struggling to catch up. Some seminaries and divinity schools have had to add virtual-classroom instruction and other tech courses while training the next generation of aspiring ministers. There are those who think that with technology we may have lost some one-on-one connectivity, Cole-Turner says. But were doing the working of the church ... and what God calls us to do, whether its face-to-face or online.

On being Muslim
Family Issues Roundtable is sponsoring a discussion event titled, Being Muslim in York County from 7:45 to 11 a.m. Nov. 30. The event will be at the Holiday Inn Conference Center at the West Manchester Mall, 2000 Loucks Road, West Manchester Township. Registration is $15, due by Tuesday. Call 717-771-3806 to register. The session will highlight some of the common tenets of Islam and address the stereotypes associated with being Muslim. Presenters will discuss issues such as the role of women, culture vs. religion, access to services (including health care and education), experience of prejudice, the impact of nationalism and various forms of Islam. A breakfast buffet is included.

From the blog

Love in the pews

Everyone hopes to meet their soul mate, assuming you believe in soul mates... Sometimes just meeting that person isnt enough. Then come the obstacles, whether they be financial or familial. Or some other seeming roadblock to love. This is the time when both members of the relationship decide what is and isnt important to them. We call them deal breakers and everybody has them. For some, faith is a deal breaker... Would you switch faiths for your current partner? Or for singles, would you switch faiths for the chance at true love? JOHN HILTON www.yorkblog.com/faith

Best bet

Make room for pie

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Make a little wiggle room in your diet for an extra slice of pie after dinner. c Clean the living room from top to bottom before putting the turkey in the oven (60 minutes): Burns 178 calories c Rearrange the dining room furniture to accommodate an extra leaf in the table (30 minutes): Burns 202 calories c Take the dog for a walk around the neighborhood before guests arrive (30 minutes): Burns 85 calories Find more ways to feel the burn this season, plus a full list of activities in Smarts Holiday Countdown, at smartmagpa.com.

Tomorrow

Read Roger Eberts review of Rise of the Guardians.