[Magdalen] New music director at our cathedral...some here may know of him...

[Jay Weigel]

Oopsy, my bad. Reading comprehension not up to par today. I think the heat
is affecting my brain.

St. Stephen's, Richmond, is a beautiful church in the ritzy River district.
(Eric Cantor's nominal home is there, although I think he lives mostly in
the Beltway area now that he's some kind of lobbyist.) They have a
wonderful Celtic service at 5:30 pm on Sundays which I used to attend
frequently because I worked Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday
mornings were just about impossible for me. The one odd thing about it that
I noticed after attending a few times was that no one ever spoke to me.
Nobody. Not even when they handed me a service sheet. Okay, fine. After I
had been there a couple of times, I signed the guest register and thought
nothing of it. And one evening they announced a reception after the service
"for all attending", so I went. No one spoke to me. No one. Not in the
serving line, none of the clergy, none of the folks milling around with
name tags saying "Welcoming Committee" who seemed to be walking up to
people they already knew and making conversation. I even positioned myself
in direct sight line close to a couple of them and was ignored. After
awhile I left. I did continue attending the Celtic service because I liked
it and got a lot out of it, but I was never spoken to by anyone from St.
Stephen's. Well. In mid September I received a pledge letter from them!!!!!
To say I was shocked would be an understatement. To say I was furious would
be an even bigger understatement! I sat down and wrote the priest a pen and
paper letter describing the exact treatment I had gotten since the first
time I had walked through the doors of the church and asked him exactly why
I should contribute to an establishment that ignored me. I also pointed out
that I had never asked in any way for membership, nor had my presence ever
been acknowledged. I got a nice note back acknowledging a "mistake" in
sending me a pledge request, but no sort of acknowledgement whatever that
their lack of welcome needed some attention. Eventually I abandoned the
place altogether and made the effort, painful though it was, to stay up on
at least occasional Sundays and go all the way downtown to Grace and Holy
Trinity on the VCU campus where I was made welcome.
/rant mode off

An old friend, Allen H. Bean, is, or was then, the music director at the
Catholic church next door to St. Stephen's, Richmond (I think it's called
St. Bridget's). He's from Morristown, TN, where I lived for years.

On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 11:25 AM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 10:03 AM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I know St. Stephen's, and have mixed memories of it....their Sunday
> evening
> > Celtic service was wonderful. Their outreach, not so much. Wouldn't know
> > Brandon Dumas from Adam's off ox, as my friend Carol used to say. But I
> > hope you at Ascension and he have a wonderful life together
>
> Sorry...Brandon will be at St. James' Cathedral; we're getting Jeffrey
> Smith. I like Jeffrey's intro, posted to Facebook:
>
> A Profound Bow - from Jeffrey Smith
>
> https://www.facebook.com/notes/church-of-the-ascension-chicago/a-profound-bow-from-jeffrey-smith/831915643522630
>
> My genuflections are a bit wobbly of late, due to a long sojourn among
> Episcopalians where such acts raise a wary eyebrow. So I'm happy to
> join you at Ascension, where Creaky Knees declare the Glory of God and
> a Straight Back sheweth forth his handiwork. In our trudging on, day
> to day, such unfashionable gestures are rare; it's hard to make and
> keep habits which so clearly acknowledge something other than our
> self.
>
> The boys of Eton College haven't worn top hats for generations, yet a
> vestigial hat doff persists: students tap the top of their head with
> forefinger when encountering school masters at college or in town.
> It's a curious, but effective, way of honoring another's presence.
>
> Obeisance, the word, like obeisance the mind-set are today as outmoded
> as top hats. But habits of posture, like habits of devotion do indeed
> matter. And so I'm heartened to work in a parish in which sacramental
> reverence becomes habitual; where the Daily Office carries on, however
> calmly or not. This discipline very much enters the bloodstream of a
> parish's music program. Church music should be---at very least, an act
> of profound acknowledgement.
>
> We are what we repeatedly do.
> Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
>
> - Aristotle
>
> Most musicians--the good ones, anyway---perform with careful
> acknowledgement of the composer's intent: Let's have the right notes,
> please, and at the right time. Let's obey the composer's dynamics,
> too. But to make music is so much more!  We liturgical musicians have
> no less performance anxiety than our concert colleagues, but we orbit
> a different planet, it often seems. Is it that we aspire towards a
> more profound bow? In his family Bible, that greatest of church
> masters J.S. Bach annotates an Epistle passage thus: "Wherever
> musicians come together with the right spirit of dedication and
> devotion there is grace available to them."
>
> What a privilege it is for me to lead your superb congregational
> singing, to mold the choral offerings, and to envision your future
> musical growth. I happily acknowledge the long tradition of musical
> excellence here, and look forward to adding whatever I can---in the
> spirit of genuflection---to enrich and enliven our worship.
>
> Jeffrey Smith
> Interim Organist and Choirmaster
>
>
>
> --
> Scott R. Knitter
> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>