THE WEDNESDAY REPORT: June 1, 2022

Dear Partners in Ministry,

How is it JUNE?! We are just days away from completing our first Easter season together and moving into that summer stretch of Ordinary Time. End-of-Year details and a big favor below.

LAST REHEARSAL TOMORROW

A last reminder that tomorrow is our final weekly rehearsal before a summer respite (although, to me, it feels like we just got started!). But…

TURN IN YOUR MUSIC!

If you haven’t done so already, please turn in any church-owned music scores (but not your JourneySongs or Choral Praise books, nor Mass of Creation) tomorrow night so we can get to work organizing and cataloging our library this summer.

WHAT ABOUT AN END-OF-YEAR PARTY?

I’ve been asked about some kind of get-together for us (which I think is a fabulous idea) and if any of you wold like to help me make this happen, I’d be grateful! I think next Thursday (June 9) is a bit too soon, but what about June 16?

SUMMER REHEARSAL SESSION IN JULY

I think a mid-summer rehearsal in July might be all we need to keep ourselves up to speed until we resume rehearsals in August. Would it interrupt anyone’s Bastille Day plans if we rehearsed on July 14 from 7:00–8:30? Just let me know over the next week and if we’re in good shape on this date we’ll make it official.

MISSAL SWAP THIS WEEKEND…

This is the last weekend for the current issue of Today’s Missal, which means we’ll be making our last swap of the liturgical year after the 11am Mass this Sunday. I could definitely use a few volunteers to “adopt” a Confirmation or First Communion family for this project… that worked so well last time around!

I’m also wondering if it’s really necessary to have TM/MI copies in the choir area… we shouldn’t be singing from them, and I don’t see any of you using them on a regular basis for other purposes. If we don’t need them, this would be an opportunity to get them out of the chairs… if you do use them, though, please let me know.

HELP ME CHOOSE OUR NEXT MASS SETTING(S)

Next week, I’ll release the first of a series of polls for you and the entire parish as a way to choose the next Mass setting we add to our repertoire. I’ve looked through all the settings in both JourneySongs and Music Issue, and some from other sources, and have arrived at five candidates that I think would suit us well. These five settings, each from a different composer, represent a variety of styles and approaches to the texts and have a distinct character. For now, I have decided not to make the titles or composers of these settings public; in the interest of full disclosure, I am one of these composers and don’t want that to factor into the decision. I’ll refer to these as Settings I–V in the polls.

Starting with the Gospel Acclamations, I’ll provide a recording of each setting (to even things out, it’ll be me at the piano, since some settings have much more flattering recordings than others). For each recording, I’ll ask you how you believe this acclamation would “pray well” in our community, on a scale from 1 to 5. There will always be an opportunity for comments and questions. After four of these polls (which will include the Holy, a Mystery of Faith acclamation, and the Lamb of God), I’ll tally up these responses and collect comments, and determine which of these Masses, if any, would be a good fit for us. If we find one, we’ll introduce it in the first weeks of September and sing it until we reach Advent. If more than one setting seems well received, we’ll save it for integration sometime next year.

I really want this decision to be a collaborative one involving you and our whole community, since this music impacts our worship life significantly. Thanks in advance for taking part and encouraging other parishioners to do the same.