[Magdalen] Brrrrr...

[Scott Knitter]

On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 6:28 PM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Well, the service went on this morning after all, and 9 hardy souls
> ventured out for it. The lay pastoral leader told me they usually have 6 or
> 7, maybe 10, if it's a special day. Reminded me of one of my old churches.
> The church was cold, mainly because of the incredibly high wind, and I was
> glad for the silk long underwear I had on.


We had a fuller-than-normal church due to it being the last Sunday with our
organist David Schrader and choirmaster Tom Wikman. Friends of those two
men and of choir members were there; longtime but rarely seen parishioners;
+Frank and Phoebe Griswold; and the usual regulars. A typically glorious
Mass, then a five-minute ovation after David's Vierne postlude. Good photo
of David and Tom hugging during the applause. Thus ends their 30+ years'
collaboration at our parish. Next week we'll have Walter Whitehouse,
formerly of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago; then in March
and April we'll have Simon Thomas Jacobs, a young but experienced and very
highly regarded English organist. Then presumably we'll hear who our
permanent Director of Music (full time; organ and choir) will be, or a
long-term interim. The choir was not fired, contrary to many rumors; the
choir is actually a roster of 32 professionals who swim in the Chicago
religious choir pool (and some are parishioners); 17 are employed on any
given Sunday or holy day. They're all most welcome to continue on the
roster or swim away if they wish.

All this despite a surprise snowstorm and a terrible 50-care pile-up on the
Kennedy Expressway (I-90). Some usual attendees never made it in.


-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA