NPM 2.0
THE QUESTION IS: ‘WHO ARE WE?’
By Mary Prete
Editor’s Note: Tis is part of a series on NPM 2.0, our revisioning initiative, from the perspective of the Board of Directors.
O
ver the last month, you have probably received more than one email asking you to fill out a survey about your music
ministry. We apologize for the multiple emails but the NPM Board of Directors is determined to find out the needs of Catholic Church musicians, whether they belong to NPM or have never heard of us. Tis is the first phase of NPM 2.0: “Assessment”
We recognize that less than 20 percent of the parishes in the United States – one out of five— have a member of NPM. We know if we are to meet our goal— “Te Catholic Church in the United States sings the praise of God through divinely inspired musical worship”— we must engage music ministers in all Catholic parishes.
We are very grateful to many organizations who helped us circulate this important survey request: the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions (FDLC), the many diocesan worship offices, the local NPM Chapters, and our business partners. We’re also happy to have offered the survey in Spanish and are grateful to those who volunteered to make that happen!
Te need for the assessment survey comes at a critical time for the Catholic Church in the United States. In NPM, we are dealing with the same population shift as the country in general. Many dioceses in the Northeast and Midwest are consolidating and our music ministers find themselves in challenging situations. Our members in the Southwest and West cannot build or increase the size of their worship spaces fast enough and all of us are called to be respectful of cultural, language and style issues for our communities across the nation.
I am very proud of the effort NPM has made to take this census of parish music ministry in the U.S. Catholic Church. Many times a large and well-funded organization like CARA (the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate) would be engaged to undertake this effort, but that would take a long time to implement and the Board felt compelled to move quickly. NPM 2.0 must speak to the needs of local parish ministry programs and to be successful we must hear directly from you!
Te data we collect from this survey will be shared with all those involved in the NPM 2.0 effort, and will also help shape our efforts for 2020 and beyond. We’ll share summaries of this data in the coming months so you can see the landscape that lies ahead, too.
Our job descriptions may have changed and there may not be the budgets we once controlled. We may be doing more than just music in our jobs. We are being challenged to be more open to divergent musical styles. We use multiple languages in many more liturgies and do all of this with less volunteers. But there is one constant: our commitment to the communities we serve to praise God in sung prayer. And for your dedication to that ministry, the NPM Board of Directors says, “Tank you.”
Mary Prete is a longtime NPM clinician, member and served on the staff of the Office for Divine Worship of the Archdiocese of Chicago. She is a member of NPM’s Board of Directors. Pictured from left; Msgr. Rick Hillgartner; Steve Petrunak, president; Jeremy Helmes, chair; Mary Prete; Dan Wyatt; Sr. Kathleen Harmon; Meg Matuska. In 2020, Sr. Kathleen leaves the board and Valerie Lee-Jeter joins.
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