Ministry Monday

Over the last few years, NPM has undertaken a variety of new initiatives to serve the needs of the singing and praying church. Throughout the next few months, I’ll be bringing you conversations that highlight these programs and give updates as to their progress and development.

Today, we’re focusing on the topic of emerging leaders. As pastoral ministers, we are called to help identify and develop the gifts of lots of people in lots of ways: cantors, accompanists, lectors, ministers of hospitality, and more. Yet, we are often stymied by the challenge of succession planning. We ask ourselves: Who will come after us? Who will continue this work already begun? Where are the next generation of leaders?

To help us explore these questions and the challenges we face in answering them, we’re joined once again by Dr. Bob McCarty. We’ll also remember the late Rachel Held Evans in today’s Ministry Moment.

If you are someone who uses social media, it doesn’t take long to discover that the so-called liturgical “culture wars” are alive and well. Post after post on page after page reveal the ugly and unhelpful reality of the conflict. Authentic, thoughtful conversation and dialogue rarely happen, which is both unfortunate and unproductive. What is left, at least on social media and in the blogosphere, is often hyperbole, entrenchment, and judgement. So, what is a pastoral musician to do? How do we navigate these conflicts and make sense of them? How do we see through the judgement, and how do we take steps forward in our pastoral ministry?

Today, we’ll hear a special workshop presentation from Dan Schutte. Offered at the 2018 NPM convention in Baltimore, Dan presented a workshop titled “Honoring Our Musical Diversity: Navigating the Culture Wars.” In this session, Dan led participants through an exploration of ways to integrate a variety of genres, including chant, contemporary, and traditional hymnody, to celebrate the richness of our sacred music heritage in the liturgy.

We will be back with new, original interviews next week.

It’s Monday of Holy Week, and we’ve got a long road ahead of us. We all need a little more time for preparation – if not a few minutes more to rehearse, set the environment, prepare worship aids or scripts, then to prepare ourselves for the holiest days of the year.

So, for today, I’m sharing with you an episode of the Open Your Hymnal podcast. Open Your Hymnal is an independent podcast project hosted by Zack Stachowski and by me. This episode is a special celebration of Lenten music. You’ll hear a range of great seasonal music from a variety of composers arranged around the final three Gospel readings for Lent, the “Scrutiny Gospels.” These readings are shared with us by composers Meredith Augustin, Ian Callanan, and Luke Rosen. We hope that this presentation serves as both a companion and a source of nourishment.

At the end of each episode every week, I make a general ask for your suggestions of topics for future episodes. It’s been interesting to see what issues are on your minds, and I’ve done my best to incorporate the needs you’ve shared into the conversations we host. Often, the topics shared with me have to do in one way or another with repertoire development. So, today we’re going to open the repertoire conversation, but know that we’ll be picking up more repertoire-related topics in future episodes and NPM content. In fact, as coincidence would have it, the upcoming May issue of Pastoral Musicmagazine will focus on building repertoire.

So, let’s begin with hymnody. Hymns – both in reference to text and to tune – are so very important in the congregational life of the Church. Often, however, some communities think of hymns as artifacts rather than possibilities. Today we’ll challenge this assumption. To do so, we’ll hear from an article written by Dr. Don Saliers. Originally published in the April 1981 issue of Pastoral Music, Don helps break open what constitutes a “good” hymn and shares insight into the importance of hymn singing and the development of new hymns.

In a few weeks we will celebrate the holiest days of the year, the Triduum. No matter the musical resources you use or in which camp of the style wars your community finds itself, most of us will incorporate one or more of the chants traditionally sung during Holy Week.

Now, today’s episode isn’t a conversation about what chants you should or shouldn’t use, or a discussion about why chant is important, though both of those are important topics. Instead, we’re providing a short “chant clinic” designed especially for those communities who might not often sing chant during the rest of the liturgical year, but who will be incorporating chant during the Triduum. How do you get your choir to shape chant melodies instead of plodding through them like a heavy march? How do you effectively lead a congregation not accustomed to chanting? What about that soloist who will be singing the Exultet?

To help us out, we’re joined once again by Dr. Andre Heywood, a master conductor, clinician, and choral scholar. In one of our most-downloaded episodes, Andre joined me back in Advent for a conversation about vocal health. Now during this Lenten season, he joins us with tactics you can start using right away to improve the quality of chant in your celebrations.

This is a special re-broadcast of our episode from April, 2018.

Just as the Advent season prepares us for the Incarnation, and the Lenten season prepares us for the Resurrection, we know that the celebration of the Easter season prepares us for Commissioning: “Go, make disciples of all nations.” The Gospel readings of this season serve as a primer in discipleship: the model of the Good Shepherd, the vines bearing much fruit, the command to love one another as Christ has loved us. Yet, though it is, indeed, Good News, spreading the Gospel is hard work! There are many barriers in our way: limits of time and resources, an unfriendly or inhospitable popular culture, and – sometimes the biggest barrier of all – ourselves.

In today’s episode, we explore the topic of evangelization – how do we in pastoral ministry reach beyond those already active and in attendance? What works? What doesn’t? What mindset must we cultivate in order to be successful? We’ll also discuss two subsidiary topics: maintaining healthy balance, and navigating the culture wars being waged within the Church. To do so, we’ll hear from two people renowned for their efforts at evangelization: Fr. James Martin, SJ, and Jean Vanier.

One of the many ways that NPM is able to support the work of pastoral musicians is through institutes. These programs feature a smaller, more intimate, more intense learning environment. In the coming weeks, we’ll be featuring these institutes in our Ministry Monday conversations.

I am proud to co-direct the One Call Institute, a proud member program of NPM. Taking place this coming summer from June 25 to June 30, the focus of One Call is to engage, support, and empower young people to use their gifts of music and leadership in service to the Church. We also shape adults who work in ministry, equipping them with the skills, information, and attitudes necessary to continue the work of engaging young people in their home communities. As an aside, you should know that applications are due on April 15, and our registrations have been pouring in.

Today, I am pleased to welcome Jes Garceau, another One Call co-director to the show. Yes, we’ll talk about the program in the hopes that you’ll consider sending young people from your parish, and perhaps consider attending yourself. I hope you’ll listen as we share important details about the program. Beyond this, I’m really pleased that you will hear from Jes herself. With a background in liturgical ministry and corporate management, Jes is one of the most important voices and resources in effective ministry organization and administration. We’ll also hear a selection from composer Sally Ann Morris in this week’s “Ministry Moment”.

Many of us have a complex relationship with Lent. It’s a season that some love and some dread. It’s often a season that, intellectually, we appreciate and anticipate but, in reality, experience in a way that leaves us wanting more. Purely from a practical perspective, Lent is sometimes difficult to experience in a full and meaningful way when we are so occupied with preparations for the Triduum and Easter season.

That’s the place where we are beginning today: the ways that Lent prepares us for the Triduum and for Easter. If we think about this time of year as a “unified sequence,” as our guest writer calls it, we can see more clearly the influences that shape the ways we think about Lent, the way we experience it, and – ultimately – the way we experience the Easter joy. We’ll hear today from an article written by Sr. Patricia Gallagher, OP, and we’ll hear a beautiful setting of a text by Saint Clare in a musical “Ministry Moment.”

As always, you can find more information about today’s show, our guests, and other resources in the show notes for this episode on our website: ministrymonday.org.

This is a special rebroadcast of our episode from March, 2018.

Our topic today is “looking forward.” While the new liturgical year is many months away, the new fiscal year is not. Across the country, dioceses have been studying and making preparations for new administrative and organizational realities, including clustered parishes.

Our guest today, Fr. Paul Turner, shares liturgical considerations and opportunities that are present in clustered communities. We also hear the words of the late Bishop Ken Untener (1937-2004), written in honor of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

In place of our customary interview, today we are bringing you an audio program from the Open Your Hymnal podcast. Open Your Hymnal, cohosted by Zack Stachowski and by me, is an independent project aimed at exploring liturgical music in the Catholic repertoire through interviews with composers and special guests.

Today, we’re focusing on the rich heritage of the Black sacred music tradition, and we’re blessed to be joined by two important voices: Leon Roberts (recorded in a presentation from 1985), and Lynne Gray. Leon and Lynne provide an exploration of the treasury of hymns, spirituals, and gospel songs. You’ll hear lots of standard and familiar music, and you’ll also hear selections from several contemporary composers.