Culturally Relevant Liturgical Music

Those who are responsible for determining the music to be used for liturgical functions at their parish are faced with the difficult issue of selecting music that is culturally relevant for the people of the parish without blurring the line between the sacred and the secular. The question has to be, "What is fully sacred yet culturally relevant?" The relevance has to do not with the issues of today -- wars, political situations, sports, secular holidays -- but with speaking in readily understandable musical and textual idioms. To illustrate, if I sing a Chinese hymn with Chinese music to someone who does not know Chinese nor has any familiarity with Chinese music, that person will have great difficulty joining with my in praising God. They do not understand the words of the song nor can they determine the meaning of the music -- is it happy? is it sad? is it serious? is it comical?