A Note from Evan Courtney,
Director of Music Ministries-
The week of June 25th, I flew out to Los Angeles for about a week. While I was there, I drove down to San Diego and met with a former pastor of mine growing up, Rev. Trudy Robinson, who is now the senior pastor at the First UMC of San Diego. FUMCSD is a vibrant, beautiful church, and my conversation with Rev. Trudy produced a lot of really interesting insight into the questions I’ve been asking every pastor and/or music leader I interview.
The week of July 2nd was spent with family and friends, which was really wonderful, as I haven’t seen of them in many years. The week of July 9th I met with two more interviewees. The first was one who wishes to remain anonymous, but who gave some really great insight on the questions I posed. The second is a pastor who I worked with at the Presbyterian Kirk of Kansas City, Chad Herring, who is no longer in that position, but who had some very interesting answers to my questions, given that his context is now as a hospital chaplain.
I flew home on July 20th and have been settling back into home life again, after about three and half weeks away. Between this week and next, the weeks of July 23rd and 30th, I plan to interview Rev. Julie Thompson, who is the pastor at the Presbyterian Church on the Hill in Ocean, a church that is about the same size as ours. I also plan to attend worship at St. Lydia’s Church in Brooklyn, a dinner church, to see how we might adopt certain aspects of that style for our own context.
Along with that, I’ll be meeting with Alex Yanikovich, the leader of the Collegium Musicum, which is based in Middlesex county, and who played violin with us on Easter Sunday this year. He and I will be discussing terms for the small orchestra that will be needed for the Fauré Requiem that will be performed at the Service of Remembrance in November. I’ve been planning and studying music for that service all along the way as well.
