Unusual Mixer: 'Beer and Hymns' Served Here [VIDEO]

Inside the , off in one side area, a group of some 15 people is singing. Not a sports chant or “Happy Birthday” to a member of the group.

They sing, “This little light of mine” and “A mighty fortress is our God.”

During breaks, they sip brews and socialize.

Welcome to the second “Beer and Hymns” get-together. Started by two church pastors, Rev. Keith Anderson of the here and Rev. Angela Freeman of the in Malden, the event is a way, Pastor Anderson has said, to bridge the religious and the secular.

“We laugh, joke, drink beer and sing hymns,” said Redeemer church member John Donald, explaining why he was there. “It’s fun. This is a great opportunity to get together with friends from church”—and maybe even non-church members—in a casual atmosphere.

Some congregations are “segregated” religiously, according to Elaine Russo, a member of the Woburn church for 36 years, since, she said, her first child was born. People say members of the local congregation are "up on a hill," she said, referring partly to the church’s physical location, and that they don’t come down.  Pastor Keith is trying to do more with other churches, she said.

The events are a nice way to meet other Lutherans, said Woburn congregation member Diane Downey.

The idea behind the event is to do something fun and casual, according to Michael Kiddy, husband of Pastor Freeman, “fun in a worshipful way.”

This kind of ”public theology” is pretty common in the emerging church,” Pastor Freeman said.

John Read played the keyboards. Music director for the Congregational Church of Mansfield, he played for the group for the first time this month, “for the love of doing it.”

Read took requests from the group Wednesday evening, suggested hymns from the church hymnal and passed out sheets of other music. He said he expands his repertoire by attending music workshops. Read said he’s a friend of Pastor Anderson; that’s how he became involved with “Beer and Hymns.”

Hymn-singing in a pub is unusual, commented pub hostess Colleen McCarthy. Some pub guests said they liked the singing and that the pub let the group vocalize there, she said. On the other hand, some people asked to move their seats, manager Mary Stella said, from tables near the singers.

The first Beer and Hymns session met in Wakefield, at Harrington's pub and restaurant, in an upstairs room, early this year.

Read hopes to play again at another Beer and Hymns session. Anderson expects the group will meet again in the fall. No date has been set yet.

The Congregational church where Read is music director offers regular “worship with a twist” services, he said, with musicians playing different kinds of music. Some congregations are theologically liberal, Read commented during a break, and musically conservative. Others are theologically conservative and musically liberal.  

“Music can come from the gut, “Read said, “as well as from the head.”

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