A Note from Our Music Director

Hi all! I wanted to take a minute to let you know what I’ve been doing in the Music Leadership Credentialing Program through the Unitarian Universalist Musician’s Network. I’m finishing my second year with two courses, Music and Worship (M&W) and Directing and Managing a Music Program (DAMAMP).

M&W has helped me understand how to create transformational worship as part of a collaborative team. This builds on what Reverend Alice, [UUCH Music Committee Chair] and I learned when we attended Marcia McFee’s weekend workshop a few months ago about collaborating to design worship as an experience for the congregation rather than a presentation. Understanding of the role and function of music in this worship creation and how to access appropriate resources within a Unitarian Universalist setting continues to be a joyful and fulfilling journey!

In the second course, affectionately called DAMAMP by the instructor, we not only use an online platform for discussing the ‘nuts and bolts’ that make up our music programs, but have also been exploring and discussing the culture that exists within our respective faith communities. I love being able to share with my fellow MLCPers how this congregation does things like spontaneously sing “This Little Light of Mine” during the Fire Communion or enthusiastically putting their hymnals down to clap on hymns like “Now Let Us Sing!”

This Sunday the choir will feature our sopranos and altos in an arrangement of Peter Mayer’s Japanese Bowl. This was one of many new pieces I discovered at last year’s UUMN conference. Tim Miller will accompany on guitar and Malcolm Goodman embellishes with his heartfelt harmonica.

Pam Siegler, UUCH Music Director