I’ll conduct the Adult Choirs for the 2025 Bible and Church Music Conference at Masanetta Springs! Whether you are ordained or a layperson, staff or volunteer or congregant, there are plenty of opportunities to learn, practice, and worship together.
Like so many, my first encounter with Alice Parker was through her music, specifically the hymn and Spiritual arrangements found in almost every church and academic choral library. But it wasn’t until I had a full-time church job and continuing education funds that I plucked up the courage to apply for her Score Study Workshop advertised in The American Organist. While I knew she was a brilliant and respected musician, I had no idea how profoundly her teaching would shape my life and work over the next 18 years.
Read MoreI’ve been on an extraordinary journey this summer, a pilgrimage that invited me to step away from familiar spaces and routines and give myself over to the grace of the road.
I’m returning today with a full heart and suitcase, having received incredible gifts along the way: abundant hospitality, lovingly prepared food, soul friendship, new songs, time in stunning wilderness spaces, collaboration and creativity, as well as opportunities to teach, share, and connect with a life-giving network of new and old friends.
Read MoreThis list of congregational songs and online resources is for communities seeking to be more intentional about singing both praise and protest in worship.
Read MoreAs someone who has participated in marches and civil disobedience with my faith family over the past years, I don’t intend to minimize the power in acts of solidarity or the need for voices raised in public protest and resistance. But I don’t want us to miss the seeds of change sown through songs we share in sanctuaries, fellowship halls, and faith formation spaces, as well as on the streets. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to sing with Mary, whose prophetic aria of praise and protest gives us courage to “sing a new world into being.”
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