CHAPTER CONNECTIONS


For the last decade, our chapter and the Diocesan Worship Department have cosponsored a Musicians’ Blessing at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in the month of September. Tis typically has taken the form of a prayer service that concludes with a blessing from the Bishop, followed by a social with hors d’oeuvres and refreshments on the plaza in front of the cathedral. Clearly, this cannot happen in 2020. So, what to do? I don’t know that I would call it “video to the rescue”—the social activity cannot be replicated online— but video will provide the next best answer. Our plan is for a simplified prayer service, highlighted by a message and a blessing for musicians from Bishop David Walkowiak. We see this as the best means for continuing a tradition that has meant so much to the pastoral musicians of our diocese.


We do not know what 2021 will mean for the return of in-person events, but we will continue to explore ways of reaching as many of our members as we can with meaningful learning opportunities. If technology can assist us going forward, then let’s get on with the future!


—Brian Pouget, Chapter Director, Grand Rapids, MI Staying Connected


Te Jefferson City, MO Diocese chapter of NPM was revived in late 2018. Staying in touch with membership in our widespread, highly rural diocese has been a challenge. We now have deanery representatives in place and they report to the Deanery Liaison, who is one of our chapter officers. Our chapter Facebook page has also been useful for communication.


Te chapter had ten members attend the virtual


convention as well as some members who were presenters. During the convention we had a short chapter Zoom call so everyone could “meet” each other and chat about how things were going in their parish during the pandemic, as well as what their favorite part of convention was so far, and what they wanted to share with their parishes and other music ministers. Some favorites included: all of the Black Lives Matter presentations, “Building the Pastoral Musician of the Future” (Steve Janco), “Building a Quality Ensemble” (by our own Kate Basi),


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“Meaningful Ways to Celebrate the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults” (Lynn Trapp and Msgr. Rick Hilgartner), “Te Sacraments: Assessing our Parish Celebrations of Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation” (Michael Ruzicki) and “Out of the Mouths of Babes: Reach Us by Speaking Our Language (Hannah Crews).


Now that the convention is done, we are hosting a weekly Zoom call with our membership to share these and other videos from the convention platform, followed by discussions. Tis way, those who were unable to attend or have never experienced a convention can get an idea of what NPM offers, as well as get to know other pastoral musicians in our diocese.


—Laura St. Clair, Chapter Director, Jefferson City, MO A Full Autumn Calendar


Here in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, our NPM chapter is thriving! (At least it was, before the pandemic shut everything down throughout the world.) We currently have over 180 musicians on our mailing list, 70 paid chapter memberships, and 40 of us “attended” the virtual convention this past July. I am one in a long line of pastoral musicians eager to heap praise on the Louisville Core Team and NPM National Leadership for an astonishing job of pulling the convention together virtually. It seemed an impossible task, but they did it!


Having the entire virtual convention content available to our chapter for the coming year will be a boon to us. For the coming year, we’ve allocated at least two of our monthly meetings to convention content, bringing the convention to our entire membership. Te plan is to achieve this via Zoom or Google Meet, where the person hosting will stream the content to the rest of the Zoom/Google participants. Afterwards, a discussion will take place. I wouldn’t be surprised if we schedule more of our meetings to feature the convention content. Our first “convention” meeting will feature the Paul Turner Plenum, and the GIA Showcase.


I hope all chapters will take advantage of the convention content for their meetings! I feel the entire virtual convention was the best lemonade we could make, from the lemons the pandemic handed us!


—Paul Bresciani, Director, NPM Cincinnati


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