“When
God closes a door, he opens a window.”
I’ve
never liked that expression. Beyond the
fact that I’m pretty sure it has more basis in pop theology than in what the
Bible actually says, who wants to crawl through a window where a perfectly good
door stood just moments before?
When
a door closed this summer, I was very happy that another door opened. The “closing”
door was not attending classes at Trinity Lutheran Seminary this year. The “opening” door was a chance to attend the
Association of Lutheran Church Musicians biennial conference in Minneapolis! I’ve been a member of several denominational
organizations for musicians, but ALCM is my absolute favorite. The worship
services, plenary sessions, musical events, and educational workshops are
always of great value!
Sunday,
July 9th, was my travel day.
It felt good knowing that I was leaving St. Mark’s in the capable hands
of Jane D. Not only do I appreciate her
technical ability, but I know that she loves the St. Mark’s community at least
as much as I do.
Monday
started early with three back-to-back choral reading sessions. Reading sessions are important for choir
directors. They usually work like this:
attendees receive a packet of music and, with the guidance of a leader,
everybody sings through the music together.
This is a great way to gauge the difficulty of a new piece and decide if
it’s something you want to “take home.”
Music publishers usually provide the review copies free-of-charge.
Worship
is one of the best features of ALCM events.
The service started outside with an Affirmation of Baptism utilizing
handbells and the chorale “To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord” (christ, unser herr – Lutheran Book of Worship 79). When we
were all in the church, the Gathering Hymn was the ALCM-commissioned “God Alone
Be Praised.” James E. Bobb, Assistant Professor of Music – Organ and Church
Music at St. Olaf College, was at the console.
His improvisation on wie schön
leuchtet was so energetic that I wanted to stand to sing when we got to
the hymn – but it was during communion so I kept my seat. With 360 singers in attendance, it took some
time to prepare and serve the Lord’s Supper.
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| Opening Eucharist at Augustana Lutheran Church |
Chad
Fothergill’s plenary sessions on “Re-Membering the Role of the Cantor” was a
centerpiece for this four-day gathering.
He examined the historic role of Cantors and helped us take a critical
look at our roles in leading the church’s song today. I’m looking forward to the publication of his
presentation so that I can review it more deeply. Daniel Schwandt was a co-presenter, but was
not present because of a family emergency.
Even so, his presence was clearly felt.
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| A Window at Westminster Presbyterian |
Tuesday
found us engaged in Morning Prayer at Westminster Presbyterian Church, only a
couple of blocks from the hotel. Morning Prayer was followed by valuable
workshops. I attended a post-plenary
discussion of the afore-mentioned topic, “Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing” - a
workshop geared toward reenergizing church publications such as bulletins and
newsletters.
Tuesday’s
final event was a hymn festival featuring the National Lutheran Choir and
organist David Cherwien. I never miss a
chance to hear him play. Yes, his
playing is superb, but he is also one of the most creative church musicians
that I know of when it comes to engaging people through hymns. He takes everything we learned from Paul Manz
to a new level.
Wednesday
began with a plenary session by the poet-hymn writer Mary Louise Bringle. The
topic was “Re-Forming Congregational Song: the Identity-Relevance Dilemma. It was an interesting look at various
denominations and why they sing what they sing.
Not surprisingly, we hold a great many hymns in common.
Following
the plenary, there were more workshops. I attended “Liturgical Theology for
Church Musicians” and “Getting It Right: Understanding How to Legally Use Music
and Technology.” St. Mark’s uses music
from a variety of sources, so it’s important that someone understand how to
record and report so that composers, arrangers, and publishers are able to
continue to provide the church with new songs to sing.
The
final event on Wednesday was a visit to St. John’s Abbey, a Roman Catholic community,
school, publishing house, and church in Collegeville, Minnesota. We received the warmest of welcomes and
participated in an ecumenical worship service which I won’t soon forget. Father Anthony Ruff, OSB wrote eloquently
about this experience in a blog post that I hope you will take the time to
read:
I’ll
save you the google search! “OSB” is Order of St. Benedict.
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| St. John's Abbey |
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| St. John's Abbey |
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| St. John's Abbey |
We
concluded the conference on Thursday morning with a closing Eucharist at one of
my favorite churches – Central Lutheran in Minneapolis. Mark Sedio is the Cantor there and I am
always checking Central’s website to see what he is doing. The service featured
his choral work “Rich in Promise.”
There
was so much more that I could write about.
If you are a Lutheran Church musician and are not a member of ALCM, I
can’t commend this organization to you enough.
Even if you never attend a conference, you will appreciate the extraordinary
quality of its publications “Cross Accent” and “In Tempo.” Our Facebook group is one of the best resources available.
There were lots of other activities: networking, casually sharing ideas and
experiences over great meals, performances, beautiful venues – the list goes
on. I am grateful that St. Mark’s
realizes the importance of providing for continuing education
opportunities. Yes, I am personally
enriched by these events, but they help me to more fully lead the church’s song
at St. Mark’s.
It
won’t be too hard to catch up on the work I missed at Trinity this summer. I’m glad this door opened!
