This week we feature part two of our conversation with Dr. Benjamin Cornelius-Bates, Professor of Musicianship at Duquesne University. Last week Dr. Cornelius-Bates shared some basic tips on how to improvise on traditional and contemporary Advent hymn tunes this Advent and Christmas season. If you haven’t listened to it, we strongly encourage you to! This week we pick up where we left off and see how we can develop his improvisation tips into more complex ways of sparking creativity in the liturgy.

On our 250th episode of Ministry Monday we offer a replay from the podcast's archives on improvisation. In the midst of many Advent and Christmas preparations, I’ll admit that solid improvisatory skills are an excellent tool to have in my arsenal. Today Dr. Benjamin Cornelius-Bates - a professor of musicianship at Duquesne University - shares tips on how to improvise on traditional and contemporary Advent hymn tunes this Advent and Christmas season. Ben’s tips are practical for well beyond the Advent season, but I hope that they spark some creativity during a trying time like Advent for the pastoral musician.

This episode of Ministry Monday is brought to you by Ministry Scheduler Pro. Take the pain out of church volunteer scheduling with powerful, easy-to-use software designed especially for ministry scheduling. Start your free trial today at MinistrySchedulerPro.com.

This week on Ministry Monday we are excited to speak to leadership from the NPM Cincinnati, Ohio Chapter. The Cincinnati Chapter is NPM's 2024 Chapter of the Year. Today they share the challenges of the chapter and how they have embraced the power of local programming to cultivate community and recruit members.

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About the Cincinnati, Ohio NPM Chapter

The Cincinnati, Ohio NPM chapter serves pastoral ministers across the Ohio and Kentucky region. They offer numerous opportunities for prayer, music, formation, networking, and camaraderie within the calendar year. Additionally, they serve the region with assisting with substitute requests, an extensive mailing list, assisting in a fundraising concert annually, and more.

For more information visit https://www.npmcincinnati.org.

All content of this podcast is property of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians or its content suppliers and is protected by United States and international copyright laws. For information about the podcast and its use, please contact us.

This episode of Ministry Monday is brought to you by Ministry Scheduler Pro. Take the pain out of church volunteer scheduling with powerful, easy-to-use software designed especially for ministry scheduling. Start your free trial today at MinistrySchedulerPro.com.

Part of the cultural fabric of our parish life are the songs we sing. We, as pastoral musicians, are highly aware of this fact. There are so many considerations we make when choosing the repertoire for our parish: instrumental, scriptural, melodic….but what about cultural? How much does our music adequately represent the varied, complex, beautiful human existences that make up the Church? Do we really consider the representation we provide in our music?

That is where our conversation starts today. I am pleased to introduce M Roger Holland as my guest for this episode. Roger is a Teaching Assistant Professor in Music and Religion and Director of The Spirituals Project at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver. In this episode, Roger shares his reflections on the need for representation of all races, musical and cultural styles in what we do in music ministry.

Today we speak with Laura Huval, a Grammy-nominated recording artist, Catholic speaker, author, composer, and pastoral musician. Laura recently released a sung setting of the rosary, which was premiered on October 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. I had the chance to reflect on her inspiration to write a sung version of the rosary, the differences between each decade, and how to access it (for free) today.

Today on the podcast we speak to organist and composer Rebecca te Velde about the power a simple hymn can hold in any denomination's church service. Rebecca is the co-editor of the book series, "Oxford Hymn Settings for Organists," as well as the author and editor of Oxford's "Hymn Miniatures" series. The impact a hymn tune can have on the continuity of a service is large, and Rebecca helps us to re-imagine how we, as pastoral musicians, can use those hymn tunes to amplify the scriptural message - and the message of the overall season.

This week on Ministry Monday we revisit one of our most listened to episodes: a conversation with theologian and liturgical composer, Tony Alonso, about his work, "Caminemos con Jesús." "Caminemos con Jesús” is a collection of liturgical music that honors the Cuban musical heritage not often seen in its own right, liturgically, in the United States. In this episode you’ll learn the inspiration behind “Caminemos con Jesús”, as well as the people, effort and heart from so many to make this project authentic, vibrant and full of the Spirit. It is one of many great ways to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month as well!

We’re back! Ministry Monday returns after a summer haitus with new episodes! We’ve prepared a fall season of great episodes with topics on, of course, music, ministry, and liturgy. This week Dr. Dan Girardot (Associate Director of the Office of Worship of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston) discusses the practical, prayerful, and other musical considerations for cantors ministering in larger-than-normal Masses. Whether it's Christmas Eve, a large funeral or wedding, or a Confirmation Mass, Dan reflects on the changes cantors can anticipate and best serve the liturgy (and its faithful) at hand.

This past week we celebrated the 2-year anniversary of Pope Francis's Apostolic Letter on the Liturgy, Desiderio Desideravi. This document is still a guiding force in our Church today; for this reason, we offer 2021 Jubilate Deo award winner Fr. John Baldovin's reflections as a wonderful foundation of learning. We also encourage you to attend the Breakout session, "Desiderio Desideravi and Discernment: Revealing Pope Francis’s Liturgical Insights," at the 2024 Convention this summer.

Today we have the pleasure of speaking to Kathleen Pluth, whose hymn text, "Let the Earth Acclaim Christ Jesus," was chosen as the official hymn for the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress, taking place in just a few weeks in Indianapolis, Indiana. Today we speak of the inspiration Kathleen has found to author hymn texts, and how she was inspired to write the award-winning text.