Description text goes hereIt’s no secret that many of us are attracted to St. John’s because of its music ministry.  Advent and Christmas are two of the most anticipated seasons for musical presentations. Therefore, we would like to focus this week’s column on the stewardship of music in our parish.

You may ask what stewardship has to do with music. Stewardship is all about taking care of the gifts God has given us, and the gift of voice is one of the first of God’s gifts we use when we are brought into this world. At St. John’s one might say that, money aside, many of our most faithful stewards are members of our choir who weekly and on special occasions bless us with the sound of their voices as they exercise the gifts God has given them. The strength of their commitment to our music program enabled us to hire the incredibly talented Andrew Halladay as Music Director and Aaron Hirsch as Principal Organist within the last 16 months. The choir’s commitment to St. John’s encouraged the continued commitment of organists David Vogels, Lydia Morrongiello, and Tony Lee during our search for a new Principal Organist.

In addition to the lovely weekly presentations of choral and organ offerings, the choir’s Christmas Concert was a gift for the ages. The program reached 225 people within the walls of St. John’s on December 4 and another 300+ on YouTube https://youtu.be/I42CN49PHYU. How fortunate we are to have this form of outreach, a sacred pleasure for us and for the wider community, and a way to introduce new people to St. John’s.

Some of the great gifts from the choir during pandemic isolation were choral presentations via Zoom and YouTube. You may not know that each member of the choir recorded their voice separately, and our Music Director merged their voices along with instruments to produce those pieces. A lot of work individually and collectively went into each piece of music, which lifted our spirits and reminded us of God’s presence during a lonely and frustrating time.

Looking forward, we as a congregation need to continue to support our music ministry which represents a significant portion of our annual budget. Music and equipment must be purchased, instruments maintained, director, musicians and soloists compensated. The music ministry already has planned to increase musical offerings for 2023. In 2022 we began a bell choir and restarted the choristers, both of which will continue in 2023. What would further enhance the quality of music outreach at St. John’s? We could offer professional support to each choir section, broaden our musical offerings and more.

We, as a congregation, are stewards of God’s gift of sound. The music ministry has given us and our community so much, and we ask you to support its work as part of your stewardship. 

As always, if you have questions or comments, please contact us.

The Vestry Transition Communications Committee

Dan Becker, Kathy Fox, C.J. Joplin-Jack, Andrew Miller and Sue Morse