Special visitor from the National Pastoral Convention this week

Monsignor Stewart and I attended the National Pastoral Musicians Convention held in Grand Rapids from July 6-10.  There were nearly 2000 Catholic clergy and parish musicians from 45 states taking part in worship services, music performances, and a myraid of practical workshop experiences.

It happened that I had many years ago met the tall gentleman in this picture, whose name is Norah Duncan IV, DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts).  Norah is a highly accomplished musician, who served for 20 some years as Director of Music at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit, and is now Choral Director and Chairman of the Music Department at Wayne State University. He composed the hymn used at the NPM convention throughout thweek and his “Gloria” can be found in our Gather hymnals as #323 (look for his name under the last line the next time you pick up the hymnal)  He plays a spectacular “gospel” style piano too.

I happened to mention to Norah , and his friends (who work in church music in Ohio and New York City, respectively), about the wonderful pipe organ here at Holy Family. So, it happened that we all travelled to Arnie’s on Leonard for lunch (you get a free cup-cake with every meal, they liked that part), then to Kein’s orchard for sweet cherries, which met with approval, and finally to Holy Family.  Two of our visitors played the organ, and one played the great Steinway piano in church, and they were uniformly surprised and pleased to find such outstanding instruments in the village of Sparta.

Of course, the true purpose of any instrument used to lead Catholic worship is to encourage, support, and inspire us in our prayer and song.  I hope it is true that the piano, organ, guitar, horns, and other instruments are successful in acheiving that goal for us.  In conclusion, we should bear in mind that the unified song of the people, expressing our thanks and praise to God, will always remain the most expressive musical instrument of all.

Dick Hoogterp, Director of Music