Anglican Church in Toronto holds Bob Marley Mass
Published:Sunday | March 23, 2025 | 9:58 PMNeil Armstrong/Gleaner Writer
One of Toronto’s oldest churches, the St James Cathedral (Toronto), last Sunday held for the first time a Bob Marley Mass composed by the Reverend Canon Dr Stephen Fields, vicar of the church, in observation of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which is recognised on March 21.
Fields said in October that the leadership of the church was involved in planning the Snell Lectures and the featured speaker, theologian Dr Brian Walsh, connected the songs and poetry of the late Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen with scripture. Fields also discovered that there was a mass called the Cohen Mass.
“I thought, ‘What about Bob Marley?’ to myself because, [in] one of his songs, to paraphrase, he says he has so much things to talk about. I thought let me do some research, let me do some reflecting, let me do some praying and then let me attempt to write a service that draws upon his work. For yes, he has so much things to say to us today – church and unchurch.”
In the homily, Fields told the congregation that he was sure none of them had ever imagined that they would have lived long enough to hear Bob Marley’s music in an Anglican church such as St James Cathedral.
“That’s because we grew up in a world held bound by the chains about which Bob Nesta Marley spoke and sang about, chains that not only bound our hands and feet but shackled our mind and have held us captive. And today, still do so. Bob Marley’s music embodies a spirituality and a theology rooted in his faith. To speak of Bob Marley’s theology is to explore how his body of work reflects his view of God, what he knows of God, of humanity, the world, and we see him both as a musician and a prophet, a prophet of the oppressed.”
Fields said that, at the heart of Marley’s theology is the belief in Jah, the Rastafarian term for God derived from Yahweh.
“Songs like Jah Live express his belief in God’s nearness, a theme that we Christians hold dearly. Marley understood Jah as one who was engaged in the affairs of the oppressed and was actively working for justice and freedom. This belief infused his music with divine urgency. While Rastas and Christians may differ in some ways, Marley is calling upon God as imminent, liberating, a force that echoes throughout the Christian’s view of our understanding of God’s presence. In human suffering, we share something in common, we speak of a God as being present in flesh and incarnate, in another prophet, Jesus Christ, who came that all may have life and have it in abundance.”
PROPHETIC VOICE
He said Marley’s voice was prophetic and resonated the biblical themes of liberation, love, justice, and hope.
“Each song serves as a meditation on God’s activity in the world, the human condition, and the call for transformation. Marley’s haunting, biting, and subversive lyrics often reflect a yearning for freedom and equality mirroring the narrative in the bible of God’s preferential concern for the downtrodden, the oppressed, the outcast, and the marginalised.”
He said liberation was both physical and spiritual for Marley.
The Barbados-born cleric thanked his mentor of 45 years, D.H. Kortright Davis, professor of theology at Howard University School of Divinity, and the Most Reverend Colin Johnson, former bishop of Toronto with whom he shared the first draft of his Marley service for a critical assessment.
Fields told them that he intended to “go outside the box” and they gave him critical feedback which he incorporated in his reflections.
He also thanked ‘56 Hope Road Limited’, which houses the Bob Marley Museum, and Primary Wave Blue Mountain Music for their support, and Bishop Andrew Asbil, and The Very Reverend Dr Stephen Hance, dean of the church. He expressed gratitude to Moka, a Toronto-based Caribbean fusion band led by Garth Blackman, which provided the music for the service, including seven of Marley’s iconic songs. Fields noted that veteran event planner Joan Pierre connected him to the musicians.
The service, including the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayers of the people, the prayers over the gifts and after communion, was inspired by the theological perspectives and lyrics of the reggae superstar.
There was a response by Dr Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, artistic director of the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, who reflected on the way Marley’s music continues to speak to the body, mind, soul and aspirations of the oppressed and underprivileged. He also spoke of the role of spirituals in the lives of black people who faced oppression.