ELCA's 'Grace Matters' Features Don Saliers, Emily Saliers May 27, June 3

CHICAGO -- Father-daughter team Don Saliers and Emily
Saliers are featured guests in a two-part edition of "Grace
Matters," the radio ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America. Part one airs May 27, part two June 3.
The Rev. Peter W. Marty, Grace Matters host and senior
pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Davenport, Iowa, interviews
Don Saliers, a church musician and long-time professor of
theology and Christian worship, Emory University, Atlanta, and
Emily Saliers, a singer-songwriter of the Indigo Girls. The
Salierses have co-authored the book "A Song to Sing, A Life to
Live: Reflections on Music as a Spiritual Practice."
"We shouldn't ever underestimate the power of music to
connect us," said Emily Saliers. She said music transcends time,
culture and space. "I think music has that power. It's all
about that web of connectivity that, to me, represents the
spiritual quest," she said, adding that "we can all move together
in the world to deepen our human experience ultimately for the
sake of each other and not just for ourselves."
For Don Saliers faith requires music. "Music opens up all
the senses," he said. "It's the very mystery of sound, entering
our ear and playing this enormous role of opening up reality,
opening up the soul. For me, I cannot divorce faith and being
faithful and seeking God from the question of listening for God
and for one another in the music we make," he said.
The Salierses also share how music has had an impact their
personal lives, music in human suffering and in joyful
celebration, and the "art of holy listening."
Grace Matters airs on 175 radio stations in the United
States and in several other countries. Program transcripts and
podcasts are available at http://gracematters.org on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog