On Sunday, December 8, 2019, members of the UUCC community gathered for a music visioning session that highlighted the excellence of our music ministries, our trust in Michael Adcock’s professional leadership, our hope for more participation in UUCC music by our children and youth, and our desire for more robust and varied congregational singing in worship.
Originally planned for late summer as a launch of an interim year of music ministries programming under Michael’s direction, we intended for this session to elicit input to guide our work during this time of experimentation and transition.
After hearing participants name key descriptors of our current music programming (excellent! mastery! classical! engaging! moving! dead composers! uplifting! old people! jazz! etc.), these are the key questions we asked:
- What do you love about music in our congregation (its various choirs, programs, concerts, etc.)?
- What particular kinds of music that UUCC presents do you most enjoy?
- … least enjoy?
- What specifically would you like to see more of or different in UUCC music, whether it’s part of our program already or not?
- What are your tactical ideas for how to organize / staff for a new vision?
Forty-four individuals participated in some or all of the visioning session. All were adults (no children or youth), and most of them are currently members of the UUCC Chalice Choir. However, eleven of the participants (25%) are not currently in choir, and some never have been. We had hoped for more participation that would represent the congregation more fully, but still believe that a diversity of opinions was represented and shared.
The key takeaways are that we want to cultivate opportunities for greater participation in music by children and youth; we want to nourish more robust and off-hymnal congregational singing, such as we’ve experienced in the past year with guests Matt Meyer and Glen Thomas Rideout; and we want to empower Michael Adcock for leadership of this program.
The immediate next step will be to convene a Music Strategy Team that will consider the visioning session’s content and plan some additional next steps. To volunteer for that team, contact Michael (michael@uucolumbia.net).
— Paige Getty, Michael Adcock, Sean Griffin
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