The analysis of contemporary congregational music can provide us with new understandings of its theological contents and aesthetics, as well as the vernacular religiosity of the community associated with that music. While contemporary religious music is a product of religious processes, it is also more than that. Its contents are impacted by secular culture, trends in popular music, issues related to identity and even significant political issues. This can be seen, for example, in the change in the content of some religious songs in the former Eastern European Socialist bloc before and after 1989. Before the fall of the communist/socialist state, some religious songs had hidden political messages. In contrast, afterwards they tended to focus on the negative features of globalized consumer society. Therefore, we might identify themes in religious music that go beyond religion and religiosity, themes which help orient us in the labyrinth of contemporary culture and may even help resolve cultural conflicts and related difficulties.
Congregational music thus provides us with insight into previously neglected fields. It is my argument that an analysis of contemporary congregational music will help us understand not only the Romani religious conversion, but also the process of their integration. Engelke argues that ‘all religion has to be understood in relation to the media of its materiality’ (2012, 209). In this chapter, I intend to interpret and make sense of the contemporary pentecostal Romani musical scene in Hungary by focusing on the materialities of the phenomena. Praise & Worship songs provide the Romani with a tangible way of creating transcendence and experiencing pentecostal Romani identity. These cultural artefacts support and give meaning to religion and spirituality through a series of mediations and messages. Religious music becomes a point of connection enabling individuals to locate themselves in social and cultural space and time (Hoover 2006, 34–5).
In this chapter, I am specifically interested in the musical identity-forming practices of pentecostal-charismatic Romani groups. I explore how vernacular religiosity of the Romani is shaped sonically and lyrically, concluding that pentecostal Romani Praise & Worship songs mediate core religious values. By investigating how identity making is a constitutive process, I reveal how Romani Praise & Worship music is articulated through a Romani ethnic musical code. But the musical scene is complex, as translocal songs that are borrowed and played in a generally universal style live side by side with the ‘Rom-pop’ style and local compositions. These adaptations enhance both global belonging and even more importantly the songs’ Christian message, while the local, familiar sounds give Romani a chance to participate in the worship as an ethnic group with their own musical preferences. Thus, a Romani Christian identity is created through the negotiation of these parallel musical worlds. This chapter is based on ethnographic research in which I employed participant observation, qualitative interviews and comment text analysis.
The conversion of Romani to Pentecostalism in Central and Eastern Europe has been previously researched. The social ruptures following the fall of communism in 1989 and the ensuing political changes meant an economic depression for the Romani that coincided with mass conversions to pentecostal-charismatic congregations. Different aspects of this phenomenon have recently caught the attention of researchers. For example, Fosztó (2009) studied conversion narratives while Podolinská and Hrustič (2011) focused on the changes in lifestyle and social status that accompanied these conversions. The latest collection of studies by Thurfjell and Marsh (2014) presents a broad overview of the European pentecostal Roma conversion and culture.
To date, there are only a few cultural and ethnomusicological analyses of pentecostal Romani congregations. The most pioneering of these is the musical ethnography by Barbara Rose Lange, which is based on field research carried out in the early 1990s in the south-west of Hungary. Lange is among the first to write extensively on the Eastern European pentecostal revival among Romani. Her work focuses primarily on how indigenous music styles (Hungarian folk music and Romani string bands) and performances of Hungarian Romani were appropriated and contested in a religious context (Lange 2003, 54). The minority Isten Gyülekezete congregation examined by Lange used music as a strategy for coexisting with majority groups (Lange 1993, 250). Her research captured the rapid post-1989 changes in classical pentecostal congregations. She noted that initially Christian pop was rejected by the community, describing the musical repertoire as a combination of nineteenth century gospel songs in Hungarian translation and local composition. Returning to the field a decade later, Lange discovered that pop music was no longer rejected, a change she attributed to American missionary activities. Lange’s findings are especially important because they show that, due to the mediatization of pentecostal practices, the entire Romani pentecostal musical scene underwent major transformation in the late 1990s.
Besides research on Hungarian Romani pentecostal music, it is important to review the research on European Romani pentecostal music, which, while sporadic, has produced similar findings. For example, in her study of Bulgarian Pentecostals, Slavkova notes that creating and singing pentecostal songs are ways to promote morality in new converts while strengthening their emotional attachment to religious belief and community. In other words, these songs pave the way for a new identity. The religious hymns performed in Romani language occupy a prominent place in modern ‘Gypsy’ folklore (Slavkova 2012, 44). Similarly, Kai Åberg (2014), studying the music of the Romani in Finland, shows how gospel singers helped provide a new kind of Romani identity for those who were involved in church. This also holds true in Ruy Blanes’ (2008) study of Romani pentecostal music in Portugal and Spain. Thus, the processes described above and in the following are not exclusive to the Eastern European context, but to the larger Roma diaspora.
The Romani in Hungary are a small and internally diverse portion of the country’s overall population, with many different lifestyles, languages and approaches to assimilation to the broader Hungarian culture. According to the 2011 census, the number of Romani in Hungary was 315,583. However, sociologists estimate their number between 500,000 and 1 million. While many Hungarian Romani identify as Roman Catholic, a significant portion of the Romani population belong to pentecostal communities. As for the Roman Catholic Romani, it is important to point out that in practice they do not usually attend the Roman Catholic liturgies, and, except for life rituals (baptisms, weddings and funerals), they have no contact with the church. Grace Davie’s term ‘vicarious religiosity’ can be applied to their attitude. At the same time, the low number of about 15 Romani outreach programmes also indicates low involvement with the Roman Catholic Church. In contrast, the Hungarian Pentecostal Church has contact with about 7,000 Romani in 168 congregations. Also, the proportion of Romani in pentecostal communities is significantly higher compared to the total population. In contrast to the majority of the Romani, who have serious economic problems, high unemployment and crime rates, pentecostal Romani are highly integrated into the broader communities and even contradict these negative social tendencies.2
Before going deeper into the topic of Romani religious practices, some preliminary remarks must be made on the broader social relevance of the phenomenon in order to understand the situation of Romani in Hungary (Milcher 2006, 20–35). The Romani population consists of many groups that differ greatly in lifestyle, language and degree of assimilation into mainstream Hungarian culture. The largest group, at about 70 per cent, is the Romungro or Hungarian Gypsies, who were the earliest to arrive in Hungary. By now, they have mostly lost their original language and speak Hungarian. The second group is the Vlach Gypsies who speak Gypsy language of Lovari, while the third largest group is the Beas Gypsies who speak the Romanian of the Bánát or Voivodina region, in what is present-day Serbia. Generally, a large percentage of Hungarian Romani lives in poverty. Little formal employment, low education and poor health are widespread among the population. As a consequence, high crime rates, social exclusion and discrimination add to their miseries (Simonovits and Kézdi 2013). Many Hungarians harbour prejudice against Romani (Fábián and Sik 1996). They associate them with laziness and crime, believe that Romani are responsible for their misfortunes, and are sceptical about the prospect of Romani integration. In 2007, the formation of the Hungarian Guard (Magyar Gárda, later renamed the ‘New Hungarian Guard’), a far-right paramilitary organization that held marches in Romani-populated settlements, inflamed ethnic tensions and caused conflicts between Romani minority and the ethnic majority. Today, the anti-Romani extreme-right movement has gained wide support in Hungary, garnering 17 per cent of votes in the 2014 Parliamentary elections. Yet, Hungarian mass media and scholarly literature also promotes images of Romani communities that contradict the statistics. These communities are commonly located in the least developed areas of Hungary, densely populated by Romani and do not suffer from the high unemployment, crime and discrimination faced by other Romani communities. A further common feature of these communities is that they joined the pentecostal-charismatic movement.
At this point, a question concerning Romani religiosity emerges. If we look into the ethnic composition of certain religious denominations, significant differences can be observed. The number of Romani members belonging to historical Christian denominations more or less correlates to the ratio of Romani to Hungarians. Of the 3.69 million Roman Catholics in Hungary, 4.2 per cent (155,195) are Romani; Romani further account for 3.3 per cent (38,228) of the 1.16 million Reformed Catholics but for only 0.4 per cent (995 of 215,000) of Lutherans. However, according to the 2011 census, five times more Romani belonged to pentecostal congregations than the society level ratio. In the Faith Church,3 this ratio was 23.5 per cent and for other pentecostal communities the ratio was 23.1 per cent (‘Vallás, felekezet’ 2011). The immense growth of pentecostal communities is interwoven with the characteristics of congregational music and the special historical circumstances.
Pentecostalism appeared in Hungary in the early 1920s, mainly through the efforts of American Hungarians. Although hundreds of thousand of Hungarians immigrated to the United States in the nineteenth century, some returned following the end of the First World War. The first decades of the twentieth century were characterized by inner struggles in Hungarian religious life, as the atheist government was eager to remove all religious organizations. After the Second World War, the new communist regime held an ambivalent attitude toward pentecostals because they were thought to weaken the Catholic Church, which was seen as the principal enemy of the state. Consequently, pentecostal communities were allowed to continue to operate within the Hungarian Free Church Association, where they could practice without persecution and continue to do outreach work (Rajki 2010).
The church organization and dogma of the pentecostal congregations solidified during the ‘Goulash communism’ of the 1960s and the number of pentecostal congregations increased from 5,000 to 8,000 (Rajki 2011, 75–7). In 1962, evangelical Christians and Pentecostals formed a unified organization, the Evangelical Pentecostal Community, which today is the most important classical pentecostal denomination in Hungary. Furthermore, the pentecostal-charismatic movement also reached other Hungarian churches in the 1960s. Charismatic communities separated from the Reformed Church and the Nazarenes, while charismatic base communities were also formed within the Roman Catholic Church. In 1973 and 1974, this free Christian community underwent an internal crisis, experiencing a so-called charismatic renewal that gave rise to Faith Church (Hit Gyülekezet), which today is Hungary’s most significant neo-pentecostal congregation. The classical pentecostal movement ceased to expand further and its social influence and numbers remained at the level it achieved in the 1960s and 1970s (Rajki 2009). The membership of the pentecostal-charismatic communities began to increase later, around the 2000s, though at a slower rate than the worldwide average.4
Pentecostal communities, although small in number and unstable in their organization, began to focus on the most marginalized Romani populated regions in the early 1970s. Thirty years before any other historical churches, they perceived conversion as a possible solution to the Romani’s economic and cultural problems. Against the prohibition of the Kádár regime, the evangelical pastor Jenő Kopasz established a series of Romani congregations in Uszka, Milota, Tiszabecs, Tiszakóród and Tiszacsécs, settlements in the underdeveloped north-eastern region of the country with the greatest Romani population. Kopasz’s approach was indicative of the way Romani pentecostal congregations were planted sporadically during the years of socialism, usually as a result of the outreach work of an enthusiastic, charismatic pastor.5
Mass Romani conversions to Pentecostalism began in the first part of the new millennium, partly as a result of the extension of the Faith Church and the institutionalization of the Romani mission of the Hungarian Pentecostal Church. In the Faith Church, as well as the congregations connected to the Hungarian Pentecostal Church, Romani converts joined either ethnically mixed but predominantly Romani congregations, or exclusively Romani congregations. Some of these independent congregations continue to maintain strong ties with the Pentecostal Church’s Romani mission today. In many cases, the conversion of the Romani resulted in the transformation of social patterns. We often see that when entire settlements convert to pentecostal Christianity, the crime rates fall, drinking and gambling stop – even coffee consumption discontinues. One of the most publicized of these settlements is Uszka, situated in the abovementioned north-eastern region on the Ukrainian border, whose conversion story has appeared several times in national media broadcasts as a model for social integration into Hungarian culture through pentecostal Christianity.6
The reason for the success of this pentecostal evangelizing is multifaceted, but can partly be explained by pentecostal organizations’ institutionalized, conscious, outreach efforts, which provide not only religious shelter but also comprehensive social strategies. An additional attractive feature of Pentecostalism for the Romani is found in the appeal of ritual forms: the emotionalism, the possibility of direct participation, little formalism and the non-hierarchical structure. But ultimately, congregational music functions as a central communication channel for expressing religious feelings and belonging. The role of religious music in the conversion process and in the following of religious practices is generally not discussed in scholarly literature on the Romani; however, if we look at the identity-forming and the meaning-making processes from a musical perspective, we see the Romani are using songs to mediate religious values as well as their own cultural identity.
Given that the Romani are an ethnic group with traditionally strong connections to music, I suggest that the centrality of music in these religious and cultural processes may be indisputable. In particular, the specificities of pentecostal liturgy accommodate the Romani character. As István Kiss the Praise & Worship leader of Kegyelem Gyülekezet church in Békés, Hungary, explained in an interview on 22 July 2014:
I believe Gypsies tend to have a bigger need for music. This is more characteristic for the Romani. In the case of historical churches the music is not there as it could be. This also contributes that the big churches [he means the historical churches here] nowadays also [are beginning to use] such music and guitar [in their evangelism efforts]. (Interview in Hungarian, my translation)
For instance, Roman Catholic liturgy is by its nature rigid and prescribed in comparison to pentecostal-charismatic worship, which is a much more fluid liturgy; the later is constantly accommodating the needs of the community and this accommodation is primarily done through music. This is significantly important, because, as many of my informants suggested, music for the Romani is crucial during worship services. Culture and media scholar Jesús Martín-Barbero points out how pentecostal practices meet the needs of those who seek different kinds of religious experience:
[As] the Catholic Church and some historical Protestant churches grow rational and intellectualized, the Pentecostals, Charismatics, and other apocalyptic groups are making ritual and celebration the focal point of religious experience. And these movements are carrying this experience out of the churches. (Martín-Barbero 1997, 110)
In contrast to most traditional Roman Catholic church music, Romani worship bands play a repertoire that is more emotional and contains many upbeat songs. And it is through participation in them that Romani Pentecostals mediate religious experience in key ways. Again, according to István Kiss, ‘Gypsy people bring more emotional things into worship. And this is expressed in the music. We play more music which is more upbeat, more rhythmic’ (Interview with author, 22 July 2014, my translation). This type of modern music affects not only the younger generations, but also creates a state of Durkheimian ‘collective effervescence’ among the whole congregation. As István Kiss noted: ‘The aged Gypsy ladies sing and the young Magyars also move, start dancing to the more upbeat Gypsy-sounding songs’ (Interview with author, 22 July 2014, my translation).
In Romani pentecostal worship services, well-known Praise & Worship songs (those used beyond just Romani communities) are often played with Gypsy instrumentation, often meeting with success. Barbara Rose Lange describes how Gypsy-like characteristics in Isten Gyülekezet are generally seen as negative secular pursuits, but reconsidered to be positive when they are used to draw potential converts (Lange 1993, 246). During fieldwork trips, I often encountered the opinion that music is one of the main reasons that the traditional, historical churches are significantly less successful in Romani outreach. These pentecostal-charismatic communities allow more freedom to express feelings, for example, through crying and displays of happiness. The lack of rigid structures in these communities also allows more freedom in attire and bodily movement – attendees are allowed to stand, sit, clap and raise their hands as they wish. This lack of institutional strictness, according to informants, allows Romani direct involvement in and expression of their individual and cultural choices in worship, freedoms not found in the more fixed liturgies of historical churches. As István Kiss noted:
I come here in T-shirts and shorts. It is more informal. In my previous Baptist congregation for instance it was a question whether it is allowed to clap. There [meaning the former Baptist congregations he had left] we could not, here [Hope Congregation, Békés] it is of course possible. (Interview with author, 22 July 2014, my translation)
The post-1989 political changes and the opening of Hungary’s borders not only led to the end of the exclusive Roman Catholic and historical Protestant dominance of Hungary’s religious marketplace, but also an expansion of the religious music market, the diversification of religious musical styles and increased CD sales (including, for example, recordings of new ensembles). Neo-pentecostal congregations had little influence in the Hungarian popular religious musical scene before 1989, but by the turn of the century they played a significant role. The pentecostal charismatic musical repertoire and its use of secular popular musical patterns not only became fashionable with pentecostal Hungarians, but was also adopted and incorporated into Hungarian Catholic charismatics’ musical practices (Povedák 2014). Barbara Rose Lange (1993, 2003) has given a comprehensive view of pentecostal Romani songs in early 1990s Hungary, arguing that while the trends and styles of the Isten Gyülekezete congregation were different from the music in the mushrooming pentecostal charismatic groups, the central role of the music was of similar importance. However, this repertoire has significantly changed since Lange did her research.
My investigation into musical repertoires suggests that, while there is no unified Romani musical scene and the musical repertoires change from congregation to congregation, certain meaningful trends exist within pentecostal Romani music. Today, nineteenth century gospel adaptations are no longer used. Instead, pentecostal Praise & Worship music prevails, with traditional musical elements taken over by Hillsong-style translocal Praise & Worship songs, as well as the so-called ‘Rom-pop’-style Praise & Worship songs.
The international Praise & Worship songs most commonly used are popular Hillsong-type songs that are translated into Hungarian and the worship group tries to reproduce the Hillsong-sound as much as possible. Hillsong United is a highly successful Christian music band and their popular music, catchy tunes and simple lyrics have influenced contemporary Christian singing all around the globe (Wagner 2014). The majority of these Hillsong-type songs were introduced and popularized in Hungary by the Faith Church. In contrast to transnational Praise & Worship songs, which are copyrighted and officially translated, the authorship and ownership of Rom-pop songs – or whether it is a translation or not – is not commonly known. Rom-pop Praise & Worship music is as hybrid as Romani culture itself. The spectrum of adaptations spreads from Rom-pop variants of non-Romani compositions to the results of local creativity when digital violins mingle with synthesizers, electric drums and Gypsy-style singing. Rom-pop styles such as Rom-wedding music are utilized to a great extent.
Faith Church has played a significant role in spreading additional Hillsong-type musical practices. Since 2001, they have broadcasted a live worship service every Sunday morning entitled ‘Happy Sunday’, increasing Faith Church’s popularity and spreading the aesthetic of Hillsong’s music. With its contemporary religious music, Happy Sunday gained national prominence on the ATV channel (Hungary’s first private television channel), receiving impressive reactions from the Hungarian public, and is today the most-watched religious television show in Hungary. Importantly, broadcasts of Happy Sunday were the only media source for the spreading Praise & Worship music before the widespread use of the Internet in Hungary. The fact that the contemporary Praise & Worship songs are played in a generally universal style can therefore be partially attributed to the influence of Happy Church broadcasts. Additionally, Faith Church has a contract with Hillsong Publishing for translation, so that most Hungarian translations come from Faith Church and the newest Hillsong hits also come from their television service. Also, Hillsong’s song tutorials on YouTube, which are intended to teach the songs also work to propagate a universal Hillsong aesthetic and style, are widely used by Romani church musicians. All in all, Hillsong-style Praise & Worship songs teach and reinforce a ‘global’ evangelical theology, articulating broad evangelical values and beliefs (Coleman 2000).
The strong mediatization of Hillsong’s music via these song tutorials also allows for a kind of translocal worship that is unbound by time and space, connecting Hungarian worshippers to an international style and movement. In contrast, the Rom-pop-style worship songs sung by pentecostal Romani provide a sense of locality and home that enhances religious enculturation through a sonic experience. The global Praise & Worship sound and the hybrid Rom-pop style live side-by-side in pentecostal Romani congregations.
A third significant trend in Romani Praise & Worship music in Hungary is the traditional, guitar-led style, which mixes Gypsy ethnic-style music with religious lyrics. This style relies on more ‘traditional’ acoustic instruments (as opposed to electric ones) as well as the rhythms and harmonies closer to traditional music. In other words, it is not as influenced by pop aesthetics as global or Rom-pop-style Praise & Worship music. The best-known example of this kind of music in Hungarian context is the band Amaro Del. The most popular contemporary pentecostal Romani worship group, Amaro Del, have published several albums of songs with heavily symbolic messages. The band’s significance does not only lie in their popularity, but also their use Gypsy language, which is not characteristic of the other worship groups. Among Romani living in Hungary, almost all speak Hungarian while fewer speak Romani. As a natural continuation of assimilation, the proportion of Romani speakers has been decreasing. Thus, Amaro Del’s use of Romani provides worshippers a sense of linguistic oneness not necessarily present in everyday life.
The use and penetration of the global, Rom-pop and traditional styles differs from congregation to congregation, with each adopting its own musical characteristics and style of worship. For example, while some only play local compositions, others embrace a more eclectic, colourful repertoire. As Praise & Worship leader István Kiss said, ‘we learn Hillsong, more Gypsy-style songs, various Christian songs’ (Interview with author, 22 July 2014, my translation). The choice reflects the Romani-Hungarian ratio as well: exclusively Romani communities usually have a more homogeneous repertoire, with more ethnic-specific features than their ethnically mixed counterparts, who tend to have a more heterogeneous repertoire.7
The analysis of the song-texts brings us closer to understanding the cultural process of meaning-making around music and the ways that religious music mediates religious values and cultural identity. There is a parallel existence between Christian and Romani identity, and religious music and texts play an integral part in mediating certain patterns between them. Simon Frith asserts that ‘Music, like identity, is both performance and story, describes the social in the individual and the individual in the social’ (Frith 1996, 109). Just as there is no uniform Romani identity – all Romani have different approaches to ethnic identity and different aspects provide the essence of their ethnic identity – there is no unitary, contemporary Romani worship musical scene. At this point Frith’s observation that ‘identity, like music, is a matter of both ethics and aesthetics’ (Frith 1996, 109) is applicable. The content and text of the songs fit into larger, more general expectations of the Praise & Worship as a genre; however, when we look closely at the song lyrics, the multiple identities of pentecostal Romani become clear. Romani Praise & Worship music evokes both Romani identity and Christian identity as it connects the sufferings of the Romani past to a happy, universal Christian vision. Music plays an integral part in the mediation of this idea as it becomes accepted and acculturated through the mediation of religious music.
The song lyrics reveal that Romani Praise & Worship songs are characterized by a deep emotional charge, resonating with Romani believers’ cultural identity, fulfilling their emotional needs, expressing their minority, peripheral status, and thus allowing them to live fully. Additionally, since these Praise & Worship songs were written by and for the community, they lead us to a greater understanding of Romani vernacular religiosity/vernacular theology. Because of its enduring popularity, the song ‘I am Gypsy but I am not ashamed’ (‘Cigány vagyok nem bánom’) is a useful example. Composed in the 1970s, this song was sung by the first-generation congregations and today it exists as a worship song, a non-religious ethnic song and as a poem. It has crossed denominational and national borders, as it is very popular with Romanis living in Romania as well. The reason behind its popularity is that the content of the song reflects the greatest problem of Romani, namely their social marginalization. Although some lyrics express the disappointment over the Romani’s bitter and sorrowful situation, others, such as ‘I am Gypsy but I don’t mind, I am Gypsy but not ashamed’, invite the listener to claim and be proud of their Romani identity. Moreover, by emphasizing the presence of Jesus Christ in personal life (‘My God loves me; Jesus lives in my heart; Jesus is my redeemer’), the song gives listeners hope of a better life and of overcoming their difficulties.
‘Cigány vagyok nem bánom’ lives in the form of many variants; we can say it became ‘folklorized’ as it has now lost its original authorship.8 A similar folklorization process occurred for the song ‘We were lost’ (‘Elveszettek voltunk’) composed by Miklós Algács, a Romani from Túrricse in the 1970s. The song is written with traditional Gypsy elements, and there are variants of the song with guitar, violin and synthesizer. The lyrics can evoke interpretations of personal identity, but can also symbolize the general circumstances of Romani life (high crime rate, high alcohol and cigarette consumption). They clearly reflect the complexity of the pentecostal Romani identity by drawing a parallel between the sinful secular Romani past (‘We were lost, we were the captives of Satan’) and the post-conversion Christian present (‘Now I live my most beautiful years, I await my Lord Jesus, my Bridegroom’). This folklorization of the songs is not only important because it is similar to the spreading of traditional folk songs of the past, but more importantly because it refers to the grass-roots character of the phenomenon; having lost their original, ‘official’ form, the variants prove that these songs have become inseparable elements of local Romani religious culture.
Romani pentecostal musical practice is, like pentecostal music practices around the world, highly mediatized and Internet-dependent. The Protestant tradition has understood that the media are a way to re-enchant the world (Martín-Barbero 1997, 110). As Simon Coleman (2000) notes, Pentecostals are early adaptors of technology. This means they find the ‘new language’ (Morel 1995) for the coming generations and also the channel through which the religious message can be best transmitted to and decoded by the receiver/believer. This applies to Hungarian Romani Pentecostals as well. The desire to share online Praise & Worship songs and even entire worship services has been on the rise over the past few years, with vernacular variants of popular Praise & Worship songs being posted to YouTube in increasing numbers. Non-professionals make the vast majority of these videos; most often, we see home videos by worship band musicians, or locally produced videos of entire services. As pointed out by Monique Ingalls, worship videos ‘enable a shared musical practice that functions as the connective tissue between the nodes of a diffuse, networked community’ (Ingalls forthcoming). By looking at online worship videos we can gain insight into another key part of Romani Praise & Worship musical scene. The primary method of circulation for Romani Praise & Worship songs is YouTube, which provides a third space (Hoover and Echchaibi 2012) where meaning-making processes can be well observed through the comments. For example, I often found comments expressing positive reinforcement for a song, such as ‘dear brothers and sisters [testvér], go on this way’, ‘wonderful worship, it is anointed’ (my translation). At the same time, I encountered comments that expressed the need to access religious experiences online. Translated from Hungarian, they read: ‘Please send it to me where can I get hold of it. I am without a congregation, this is the only thing left to me, when I am listening to you.’ In smaller settlements with no pentecostal congregation, people might feel alone with no community to turn to. Music listening online and watching videos of services give comfort and a sense of belonging.
This intense media use enables us to look closely at the reception side of the meaning-making process. The main message conveyed in comments on YouTube videos of Romani worship music is not about ethnic identity or the musical style; rather the comments indicate that the musical stylistic codes help Romani mediate their religious identity. The content of the comments often does not make it obvious whether a Romani or non-Romani person contributed a comment. Instead, the comments appear primarily as contributions of a fellow Christian. For example, the following comments were posted in 2009 and 2011 to songs by popular Romani worship bands: ‘I hope everyone will get to know Jesus of Nazareth. God bless your lives’ and ‘Praise be to God. Bow before God before it is too late!!!!!!!!’ (Author’s translations from the Hungarian originals).
Although ethnic identity is not emphasized, we can understand the comments as interpreting the Romani existence within the frameworks of religious teachings. Romani religious music is ethnic-specific up to a point, giving Romani the possibility to adapt religious teaching to their cultural circumstances. The hardships and difficulties of Romani life are presented in the dimension of the past that has been overcome, just as pentecostal Christianity represents a shedding of a previous life before encountering God’s spirit. In this way, music ‘gives us a real experience of what the ideal could be’ (Frith 1996, 123). Another YouTube comment from 2011:
Greetings Brothers. A beautiful heavenly banquet is awaiting up in heaven and we are the bride. Go on and do not quit praising God. Very great!!! Hallelujah, there is joy in heaven for every sinner arriving home in conversion. Amen!!!!!! (Author’s translation from the Hungarian original)
The band Amaro Del’s self-titled song, sung in both Hungarian and Romani, not only offers refuge and hope for the difficult life circumstances but also situates Romani and Hungarians beside each other, as expressed by the lyrics (translated from Hungarian), ‘You love the Gypsy people, You save Gypsy people, You love Magyar people, You save Magyar people’. Amaro Del strives to ease ethnic conflicts and promote mutual acceptance, which can also be seen from the online comments to the YouTube video of Amaro Del’s self-titled song and their other popular song titled ‘Érted adta’ (‘He Gave Himself for You’):
• Myself, I am not a ‘Gypsy’, however I am overwhelmed how this astonishingly simply, natural, free Romani culture was chosen for making this video. The song is fantastic. May God bless you all!
• As a Magyar I also say Blesses be God for You! May God be gracious to you and grant you his everlasting richness!!
• Yes, we really love Gypsy worship (I am not a Gypsy) but I love my Gypsy brothers very much! You could publish CDs because what you do is very much needed!
• I love Roms, my Romani brothers very much, and the way you love God! God bless you my dear Brothers in Christ! I am very glad to see the congregations; it is great to see how great in number you are! Let there be more of you! (Author’s translation from the Hungarian original)
The song’s text clearly shows that Romani religious music has strong and significant mediated messages. The pre-conversion Romani life is often contrasted with the newborn Christians they have now become. Due to strong Internet presence and an urge to upload videos of songs and services the receptive side can be looked at as well. The comments show how the mediated message of ethnicity is dealt with.
We might return back to the question of why pentecostal Romani outreach is successful and why we see fewer new Romani Roman Catholic or non-pentecostal Protestant churches. Unlike Pentecostals, Roman Catholics struggle to attract Romani. The answer can be found in the attitudes toward Romani identity expressed in the religious songs used by Romani congregations. Pentecostal religious music is more adaptable and open to stylistic personalization and thus the Romani can embrace it as their own by adding a special Gypsy musical flavour, as well as explicit Romani identity-marking content. In this way, Romani people can regard these worship songs as their own native songs, even if these songs are separated from the mundane Gypsy folk or folklorized songs. In other words, the songs become Gypsy-like religious songs that might be part of the religious folklore, but they are not transformed into Gypsy folk songs. Being part of the religious folklore means the songs exist in variants with slight/or bigger differences, in melody, rhythm or lyrics.
As part of their pentecostal transformation, converted Romani people consider their life before and after their conversion in dichotomy: the mundane, pre-conversion sinner-identity confronts the Christian-Romani identity where the Romani identity is preserved while remaining secondary to a Christian identity. This is the reason why Pentecostal Romani congregations lack ethnic symbols during and outside liturgy: ‘Pentecostalism has promoted discontinuity with “traditional” culture of Gypsy groups, but requires it in a non-aggressive way. The Gypsy tradition coexists in a successful model with the new Evangelical culture’ (Slavkova 2012, 44). Worship leader István Kiss noted a similar point in his interview with me:
[The songs] remain Gypsy after their conversion too, but some Gypsy traditions are pushed aside. First, because they meet with Magyars as well, and second because the Christian identity comes into the light … National symbols are not really strong in our congregations and we don’t even strengthen them. We usually don’t regard them in a way the historical churches like Protestants do. We don’t wave national flags but believe that God took us here intentionally. (Interview with author 22 July 2014, my translation)
The spread of pentecostal congregations opened the way to ethnic congregations with Romani pastors, and in turn Romani music and musicians, creating the possibility of social identity as well as religious and ethnic community. The presence of a Romani pastor in a Romani religious community prevents pentecostal practices from feeling forced or artificial, and allows the Romani to find the room to relate to their own traditions. Their vernacular religious practices involve the cultural peculiarities, behavioural patterns and emotions they need to orient themselves in the profane world and in a different culture. Their vernacular religious practices reveal the cultural hybridity characteristic of Romani culture all over the world in all ages. This hybridity also tells us that Romani vernacular religiosity is not only a religious phenomenon but also a unique practice of religious and ethnic identity. Within this mediated process, we find a strong pentecostal Romani identity lived through congregational meetings, prayers and worship music. Pentecostalism makes this possible due to its flexible incorporation of indigenous practices and allowance of emotional expression.
In conclusion, we are facing a rather complex phenomenon. The pentecostal Romani congregations cannot be understood separately from the fact that they are based on imagined communities, which, in the case of the Romani, is not clarified or stabilized. The pentecostal Romani brotherhood is a strong transnational movement that might provide a basis for invention of a new transnational Christian Romani identity, the representation of which is clearly demonstrated through Praise & Worship music. Furthermore, the Romani Praise & Worship musical scene is similarly fluid. Traditional Romani motives live side by side with Hungarian and transnational ones, and the whole musical scene is widely accepted by both Romani and non-Romani congregation members. Through this analysis of congregational music, not only are religious, theological contents and processes revealed, but we also see that broader social problems and phenomena could be solved as well, as Praise & Worship songs can foster positive community building among the Romani, while also weakening the prejudices against them.
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1 Kinga Povedák is a research fellow at the MTA-SZTE Research Group for the Study of Religious Culture. This article and the related research were made possible by an OTKA grant No. 81502.
2 I have to add that the Roman Catholic Church takes a different approach to pastoral outreach that focuses on education. Thus, the Roman Catholic Church has set up several Romani university halls of residence.
3 Although the Hungarian ‘Hit Gyülekezete’ translates into ‘Congregation of Faith’, members prefer to use the English appellation ‘Faith Church’. Throughout this chapter the self-definition Faith Church will be used.
4 The group of Pentecostals with the highest growth rate was the charismatic Faith Church, which according to 2001 census data grew from 3,708 members in 2001 to 18,220 members in 2011. As of 2011, the Faith Church was the fifth largest church in Hungary. In comparison, all other pentecostal communities combined had 8,428 members in 2001 and 9,326 ten years later. The 2011 census data cannot be used in comparison here due to the difference in methodology and questions. However, the data indicate the growing popularity of pentecostal Christianity and a 30 per cent decline of all historical churches in the examined period. Furthermore, the 2011 census data did not differentiate between active churchgoers and non-practicing Christians, which is significant because a great portion of believers in historical churches do not practice. Therefore the actual ratio of Pentecostals to Christians in historical churches is even higher.
5 ‘There are just a few Christians who did not hear of this couple when they began Romani mission in Túrricse. Throughout their mission, religious awakening spread like wildfire in the tiny part of the county of Szabolcs-Szatmár. Even today, if someone visits Uszka or Csaholc, they feel as if they have entered into a different country. As a result of missionary work, we find hardworking people who love the Lord and spread the blessing and the message of Jesus Christ so that it changes other lives, as it changed theirs.’ (Vajda 2011, author’s translation from the Hungarian original)
6 ‘In the vicinity that Jenő Kopasz worked, the Romanis of Uszka were the most downtrodden. Uszka was situated in a deserted region close to the Hungarian-Romanian-Ukrainian border and was hermetically closed. It was difficult to approach the village from other parts of Hungary. Coming by train after several transfers, one had to change to a bus or face a long walk to the settlement. In the 1970s, there were hardly any places to work, so men had to travel tens or sometimes hundreds of kilometres to Budapest. The Romanis of Uszka also went away for work and, to bear the difficulties, they drank. Saturday morning they arrived home totally drunk, without money. They often had fights; domestic violence was very common and Saturday afternoon they started everything all over again. The community was poisoned with a general discomfort and hatred. Jenő Kopasz, the preacher of a small Christian community arrived here. The life of the small settlement fundamentally changed. There is love, understanding, a comforting atmosphere. No more pubs and no more fights. The intellectual centre of the settlement is the Sunday service.’ (Miklóssy 2011, author’s translation from the Hungarian original).
7 The Christian Gypsy Mission Foundation recognized a unique need of the Romani and compiled a Praise & Worship songbook entitled Romani Worship (Pintér and Pintér n.d.) The collection meant that songs often used in Romani congregations could now be found in one place. The songs primarily derive from two main roots: local contributions comprising from Romani and non-Romani congregational compositions, and transnational Praise & Worship songs containing mostly Hillsong translations.
8 On the course of her fieldwork, Barbara Rose Lange’s correspondents acknowledged József Kocé of Uszka as the author of the song ‘Cigány vagyok nem bánom’. I am grateful to Lange for sharing this detail.