Currents 🌊 is a UUCC communication space as of May 2025—featuring reflections, deeper dives into worship themes, narrative updates from staff and others, as well as insights into our shared life at UUCC.
End of summer greetings, UUCC family! I hope you have been enjoying the recent cooler temps and low humidity, before another heat wave overtakes our area. I have returned from my summer break, and am beginning to once again gear-up and get my ducks in a row for another year of music, choir, and worship at UUCC. I am grateful for my time off, as it is necessary to rest, recharge, and refuel one’s tank each congregational year. Summer enables me to vacation some, travel, and also take part in an annual summer music festival in Sarasota, FL—which engages and inspires the more classical side of me, as well as providing an opportunity to work and collaborate with truly world-class musicians from all over the globe.
SING OUT LOVE
I am particularly excited about some recent musical developments within the UUA and AUUMM (which is the Association for Unitarian Universalist Music Ministries). Over the last few years, some very committed and dedicated music folks in the UUA/AUUMM have been working to develop and create an online, virtual hymn, and song database for general use. This is not a replacement for our current two hymnals (the grey Singing the Living Tradition and the teal Singing the Journey), but a supplement of many wonderful and newly composed songs and responses that can be used by any congregation for worship, and/or other events. It is truly a thrilling and groundbreaking project, and it is here NOW. The database is called 🎶 Sing Out Love ❤️, and UUCC will begin using it/introducing some wonderful new songs to our congregation this fall!
The vision and motivation for this new Sing Out Love hymnal is explained thus:
“To build a living collection of song resources through an accessible, equitable, online platform grounded in UU values. The virtual hymnal will help Unitarian Universalism live into our prophetic calling as a joyful, liberatory, and anti-oppressive faith”.
This new virtual hymnal has the capability of continuously adding new songs, without the obvious challenges of creating (and updating) new hard-bound/paper hymnals. In addition, all of these songs will have lyrics for display, available scores for download and use (including a wonderful transposition tool to alter keys!), as well as sample recordings of the pieces contained within. It is truly an astounding AND living accomplishment! While it is not free for use, I am certain the modest annual fees involved will pay for itself over and over again with the wonderful content.
Since many of the songs are new, and often types of responsorial pieces written to be sung together in worship, we will need to be courageous in learning these pieces—repeating them together, until they become familiar and comfortable to sing. We’ve had mixed results as a congregation in singing these types of pieces, but I hope that the newly inspired music you hear will want you to sing, shout and even get your body and spirit up and moving, as is possible! UUs have a history of being stoic, mostly mind-focused participants— examples of what our former Minister of Music Tom Benjamin referred to as “God’s FROZEN people”! Let’s work to change that culture, and become a more joyous and inclusive, singing community. I am anxious to teach you some of these new songs.
We will also get an opportunity to make and sing music together with our wonderful children and youth of UUCC when we debut a new type of service this fall at UUCC, called Wholly Church. We need to be singing much more together as a church family of ALL ages, and this will be the perfect opportunity to do so! You’ll be hearing more about this going forward, so STAY TUNED!
EVERYONE CHOIR
I hope to offer the congregation a number of opportunities to sing an anthem with the Chalice Choir this coming year. I know a number of people expressed an interest in singing with the Everyone Choir last year, but were unable. I’d like to start this off with our first singing Sunday back on the chancel for Ingathering on Sunday, September 7. We will sing the anthem “I Choose Love” by Mark Miller (the wonderful composer of “Draw the Circle Wide”). Join us for choir rehearsal Thursday evening, September 4. We’ll plan to work on that anthem at 7:30PM.
CHALICE CONCERT SERIES
You probably have already seen my email announcement and introduction to the 2025-2026 season of planned Chalice Concerts. Perhaps the most unique event in the series is coming up VERY SOON on Saturday, September 13 at 7PM, with a recital of music for trumpet and piano by a duo of wonderful musicians who were for years members of the US Army Band: Chuck Seipp and Raffi Kasparian. This duo has been thrilling audiences all over North America with a special concert program that combines music with specifically selected videos to supplement the composer’s works. It is sure to be an experience NOT TO MISS! Bring your neighbors, friends and brass lovers… it’d be wonderful if we could pack our sanctuary for this wonderful concert!
It is a privilege and a joy to be your director of music ministry, and I am looking forward to engaging you all in some new, beautiful, moving, AND inspiring music.
In musical community,
Michael
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