# Sweet Honey in the Rock **Summary.** Sweet Honey in the Rock is a Black women's a cappella ensemble founded in 1973 by Bernice Johnson Reagon at the D.C. Black Repertory Company. The ensemble performs spirituals, freedom songs, civil rights songs, jazz, gospel, and African music. Their recordings of *Eyes on the Prize*, *Wade in the Water*, and *Run* were the sonic entry point for Rev. Caroline Saxton's April 26, 2026 sermon on Paul and Silas (Acts 16:16–34) at St. John's UCC. --- ## Identity and History - **Founded:** 1973, Washington D.C. - **Founder:** Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon — civil rights activist, SNCC Freedom Singer, Smithsonian curator, MacArthur Fellow - **Tradition:** Black sacred music, including spirituals, freedom songs, and gospel; African and African American vocal traditions - **Format:** A cappella with body percussion, sometimes accompanied by sign-language interpreters - **Notable members (over the decades):** Bernice Johnson Reagon, Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Aisha Kahlil, Carol Maillard, Shirley Childress Saxton (now deceased) --- ## Theological and Liturgical Significance Sweet Honey's catalog holds a distinctive place at the intersection of theology, history, and justice-song: - The ensemble treats the **spiritual as theological text** — not museum artifact, but living witness to faith sustained under oppression. - Their performances of songs like *Eyes on the Prize* / *Keep Your Hand on the Plow* carry the interpretive memory of the civil rights movement while remaining available to new historical moments (labor, Indigenous rights, current protest). - They represent a **womanist hermeneutic in musical form** — centering Black women's experience and voice rather than absorbing that experience into a universal (white/male default) narrative. --- ## Relevance to St. John's UCC Worship Rev. Saxton used Sweet Honey's recordings as the bridge between Acts 16 (Paul and Silas singing in the Philippian jail) and the contemporary congregation's moment. The three songs she cited: - ***Eyes on the Prize* / *Keep Your Hand on the Plow*** — a spiritual that became a civil rights movement anthem; refrain "Hold on" structures the entire April 26 sermon. - ***Wade in the Water*** — spiritual about Exodus/Moses; coded directions for freedom in the Underground Railroad tradition; post-Pentecost in meaning. - ***Run*** — likely *Run Mary Run*, a spiritual about the resurrection witness of Mary Magdalene. > [!note] Source verification note > The original sermon transcript rendered two of the cited recording artists as "Megan Thee Stallion, Oyana" — apparent auto-transcription artifacts. The canonical recorders of *Eyes on the Prize* / *Keep Your Hand on the Plow* are Mahalia Jackson, Odetta, and Pete Seeger. Sweet Honey in the Rock's recordings of this material are well documented. Verification against the actual recording recommended before citing specific discography. --- ## For Worship Planning Sweet Honey in the Rock recordings are not congregational songs in the conventional CCLI sense, but their catalog can: 1. Serve as sermon illustration material (as Caroline modeled on 2026-04-26). 2. Provide a template for understanding **the spiritual tradition as theological commentary on scripture** — a hermeneutical move applicable to preaching Acts, the Psalms, and liberation-theology texts. 3. Inform the St. John's UCC worship vetting conversation: the spirituals tradition represents the standard against which contemporary worship music's claims about freedom, suffering, and praise can be measured. See [[Worship Songs Evaluated]] and [[Worship Song Vetting Rubric St Johns UCC]]. > [!question] > Should St. John's UCC add recorded or live spirituals performance to its worship repertoire? The April 26 service integrated spirituals interpretively (through sermon reference) rather than liturgically (as a congregational song). A future worship education moment could explore this explicitly. --- ## Sources - [[2026-04-26 St Johns UCC Paul and Silas]] — Caroline Saxton's sermon; Sweet Honey used as entry point into Acts 16 via *Eyes on the Prize*