Music in a Small Church

Our October webinar was a 74-minute panel discussion about “Music in a Small Church.” It featured:

• Fr. Corey French, dean and rector of St. Edward’s (ACC, Indianapolis, Indiana)

• Fr. Andrew Harrah, vicar of St. Alban’s (APCK, Peoria, Arizona)

• Sarah Buchanan, music director of St. Thomas Anglican (ACA, Fullerton, California).

They were interviewed by Joel West of the Continuing Forward executive committee.

The first 8 minutes introduced the panelists, their parishes and their current responsibilities. The next 18 minutes discussed the challenges of congregational participation, and approaches for improving church music.

From 28:01 to 45:02, the panelists discussed music for the liturgical seasons and balancing liturgical suitability against familiarity for the congregation. The next 19 minutes discussed suggestions about worship aids so the congregation can follow the liturgy (including the music), and useful music resources for clergy and laity planning church music.

The final 10 minutes of the talk concluded with each panelist’s short-term and long-term goals for improving their parish music, and there key recommendations to others seeking to improve music in their parish.

Recommendations

The major concluding recommendations were

1. The priest must lead by example, both chanting and singing hymns. As Fr. Andrew said: “"If the priest does not sing, the priest needs to learn to sing," recommending that any candidate for the priesthood take singing lessons during discernment.

2. As Sarah said: “Any music is better than no music.” The panelists encouraged clergy and music staff to avoid overthinking the challenge of creating a music program. Fr. Corey added, “"Begin where you are... and work with the resources that you have in terms of people who have some musical background, people who are willing to work on it."

3. Make a long-term commitment to improved music. Some changes (such as improved congregational singing, or finding more resources for music) will take time, so a sustained, dedicated commitment will be necessary.

Other suggestions include

• establishing a choir, and hiring a cantor or instrumentalists;

• helping the congregation to learn new music with a regular hymn sing or by forming a children’s choir;

• use the high points of the liturgical year to offer special pieces during worship or special services such as Lessons & Carols.

The full recorded discussion is available on YouTube.

In response to this discussion, I wrote my own thoughts on improving congregational participation on the Anglican Music blog.