SOUNDBOARD May 2009

May 2009

EDITORIAL COMMENT

A small SOUNDBOARD this time, and three months later than it should have been — an Editor cannot publish material that isn’t there! Maybe next time will bring some more offerings from readers? Perhaps more articles for the ‘Church Music in ......’ series (only seven churches have been featured to date; there are 60+ churches in the united diocese) and if you would like to contribute to that series, the Editor can supply guidelines about writing. Anything for the ‘Great Hymns and their Writers’ series? (The Companion to the Church Hymnal is a great source of background material.) What about a review of some new music (choral or organ) that you have recently come across, or of a musical book that you have read? And if you have any ideas of how to recruit and hold on to choir members, do spread the word; all SOUNDBOARD readers will certainly be interested! Played any new or interesting organs recently? Let us hear about them. Any musical events in your parish in which others might be interested? Are there any musical matters you want to air? A letter to the Editor is a way of doing so. There’s really no end of material that would be of interest to others!

Do let us have something for a September issue of SOUNDBOARD! If you don’t feel confident about your writing, let us have a draft — the Editor can ‘clean it up’ if necessary.

We live in hope.

NEW COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

Archdeacon Edgar Swann retired as Committee Chairman at the end of December 2009, coincident with retiring from the parochial ministry. Edgar was chairman for almost sixteen years and helped guide the Church Music Committee through a significant development phase. The Committee thank him for his constant support and encouragement and were delighted to host him to dinner at a central Dublin restaurant in February.

In Edgar’s place, we warmly welcome Ricky Rountree who also succeeds him as Archdeacon of Glendalough. Archdeacon Rountree hails from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan but has spent most of his ministry to date in the Dublin & Glendalough dioceses. He has been rector of Powerscourt with Kilbride (Bray) since 1997.

Powerscourt Church was the first in the united dioceses to host regular worship led by a Gospel Choir. Ricky has a particular interest in liturgical development and was Secretary of the Liturgical Advisory Committee for eight years. He is a former Central Liturgical Officer of the Church of Ireland and more recently Diocesan Director of Lay Ministry. He sees his role as chairperson of the Church Committee as continuing to build on the committee’s significant record of encouraging the music ministry in the united dioceses and beyond.

1. Editorial Comment
2. Singing Psalms, Revd Peter Thompson writes about the newpsalms book
3. Singing Psalms, A review of the book by Ann Keary
4. Music is the Universal Language of Mankind, The Dean of Cashel writes about music in his churches
5. How Well Do You Know Your Hymns, Test your hymn knowledge
6. Living Worship, Margaret Scarlett reports on the recent course
7. Christians or only Consumers of Religion, Revd. Mark Gannon gives food for thought 
8. Notes & News 
9. ‘Macho Hymns’ A reprint from an article in Daily Mail