Over the next weeks and months, you will be hearing from Saint Anne staff members about the ministries we oversee in the various commissions. As the Director of Liturgy and Music ministries, my oversight covers a lot of what you see and experience on Sunday: the recruiting, training and scheduling of various ministries that prepare and support the celebration of the Eucharist. My associate, Georgene Farman, will write later about her work with the ministries and correct all the mistakes that I make in this brief letter.
I work out of the assumption that the Church is a tapestry of peoples’ needs and gifts that we are given by the Holy Spirit in baptism to serve those needs. This is how life works all the time in our daily lives in our families, circles of friends, neighborhoods and by extension, our workplaces and the political world. We have been given gifts that can make other peoples’ lives better. It doesn’t really matter what the gift is: we have time, knowledge, talent, money, empathy; no matter what our gift is, there is always a need for it in the community. As our ability to give ourselves beyond our immediate family expands, we see the great needs of the whole world, and our network of gift and need becomes a living sign of God’s saving grace at work in the world.
The church’s liturgy is like that too. Just like in the rest of life, there are needs in the liturgy that are filled by people who have the gifts for them. Sometimes it’s just a gift like time and desire, like people who take on being Eucharistic ministers. Sometimes it’s a gift like a love of scripture and a talent for proclamation. Sometimes it’s a love of music and singing with other people in a choir. Whatever it is, if there is a need for service in the liturgy, there is a gift in the community that will fill it.
That’s not just a pretty thought. I depend on the fact that it’s true. I think it’s true across the world, outside the church too. A lot of us Christians just need to be awakened, both to the needs that exist outside of ourselves and to the gifts that we have that can change other peoples’ lives.
So, our music ministry revolves around the choir that sings at the 11:00 a.m. Mass. Almost all of our cantors are part of the choir, and we all rehearse once a week for about 90 minutes on Tuesday evenings. We also have a choir of high school age students who sing at the 5:15 p.m. Sunday Mass, and they gather at 4:00 p.m. Sundayto go through the music. Danielle Larson cares for the children’s choir that rehearses Monday afternoons and sings for the Family-ministered Mass on the secondSunday of the month. If you have any interest in serving the parish in any of these ministries, please drop me a line at my email address on the back of the Clarion.
The Liturgy commission is made up of the heads of the Eucharistic ministers, lectors, ushers, greeters, art and environment, servers and Mass coordinators, along with two at-large members and Georgene and me.
We would really like to have more members in the choir, especially men, but really, anyone. If you like to sing, come give us a try. You don’t have to be a soloist or be able to read music. It is a healthy and happy way to get involved with and serve the parish community.
More details will come from Georgene on other liturgical ministries next month.