The Music and Liturgy Committee had a very impressive year. Participation in the committee and committee meetings has been rich with a good diversity of views and faith perspectives represented from the church community. Last spring two all-church forums brought members together to talk about what the worship in our church means to them. The work of the committee brought minds and hands together and the result was creative. The committee’s activities dealt with issues as mundane as building consensus on how to organize choir robes to indulging conversations in the aromas of theology and faith.

We made strides on the liturgical front and the secular musical front. Last spring the committee revived the ICC ancient tradition of the Maundy Thursday service with a rewrite of the Communion Service. The result was a truly Unitarian Universalist “communion” with a well-attended Maundy Thursday service/pot luck. The new Communion Service embraced and celebrated the diverse faith of our church members. The committee also created an introduction to our parish worship style with an explanation “card” for visitors.

The church was opened to throngs of visitors on Halloween night at 7:30 pm for a unique program that bridged the sacred and secular. The program, called a Halloween event was something of a medieval morality play, which would have been performed in the church during the Middle Ages. It featured J.S. Bach’s organ Toccata and Fugue in d minor played by music director David Bergeron, ghost stories read by Dr. Jeff Stockman in the role of Dumbledore from Harry Potter, a dramatic duet from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Phantom of the Opera with choir members Patrice Kelly and Gordon Baird, and a cameo appearance by the spirits of founder John Murray and Judith Sargent Murray, played by Shep Abbott and Music and Liturgy Committee chair, Ruth Maassen. Members of the committee and church also came in costume and helped hand out candy with the Murrays at the conclusion of the program. Many people have requested that the event be repeated next year.

Removal of the carpet from the sanctuary this past summer exposed the 1806 floor and significantly improved the acoustics for hymn singing and music. The church has increasingly been sought as a venue for concerts by a wide variety of musicians encompassing many musical styles and traditions from classical to jazz and even rock. Church member Willie Alexander played with his band in September, Gordon Michaels “Rocked the Meetinghouse” for the third time, the Princeton Alumni Nassoons sang a capella to a full house, we were treated to baroque instruments at the Haagsche Hofmuzieck Concert, and the O’Malley Middle School Band and High School Chorus performed for us during the Middle Street Walk in December. All have performed to a variety of audience participants, many of whom were visitors that had not previously been inside the church.

The choir continues to perform a wide variety of musical styles to the delight of members at Sunday worship. The choir also continues to attract new members, which is very important for the choir to thrive, especially during these times when modern schedules do not make it easy for people to always keep a weekly commitment. New members are always welcomed.

Respectfully submitted,

David Bergeron
Music Minister