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A definitive look at how church music is changing in the 21st century.
There is no lack of resources for the church musician focusing on particular skills or repertoire. But this is the first collection of essays created specifically for musicians working in parish ministry that imagines how those vocations will change along with the evolving church.
Ponder Anew chronicles the rapid changes in the church music landscape in the last 20 years including the role of technology, education, relationships with clergy and choristers, and cultural presumptions. Contributors are parish musicians, professors, clergy, and bishops.
"...the collection offers a welcome invitation, as we engage with a 'new normal,' to 'ponder anew,' to take fresh stock of our aims and assumptions, and to approach this new phase of our professional life from a place of openness, still anchored in what has always been our rock: '…what the Almighty can do.'"
—The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians
“Jessica Nelson masterfully achieves that for which she is uniquely gifted: hosting an honest and faithful conversation about music-making in the Church today so that, together, we might Ponder Anew the musical vocation. Pull up a chair and join her.”
—Thomas Alexander, member of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music
“Through diverse and relatable voices, Jessica Nelson’s conversations depict the lineage of church music as a dynamic thread founded upon experience and relationships. This collection is an essential resource for those at any stage of their vocational life.”
—Patrick Fennig, Executive Director, Association of Anglican Musicians
“Ponder Anew is an incredibly extensive contemplation of the old as well as the new, by way of multifaceted realms of stories, interviews, and sermons, reaching back to Sarum principles and moving forward through liturgical interpretation differences.”
—Thomas Pavlechko, composer, Director of Music at Christ the King Catholic Church in Dallas, Texas
Foreword | The Rev. Dr. William Bradley Roberts
Introduction | Jessica Nelson
I. Essays
1. How Can I Keep from Singing: On Music As Pastoral Care | The Rev. Jennifer M. Deaton
2. Tablets and Technology: Liturgy and Music in the Information Age | David Sinden
3. Story of Stories: The Language of Story in Song | The Rt. Rev. Deon Johnson
4. You Will See Rare Beasts and Have Unique Adventures: Considering Again the Clergy/Musician Relationship | Jessica Nelson
5. Celebrating One Another’s Way of Worship | Keith Tan
6. A Shift in Tension: Leveraging Music Programs for Evangelism and Formation | Michael Smith
7. Reckoning with the Anglican Inheritance: Stories from the Episcopal Chaplaincy at Harvard | The Rev. Rita T. Powell
8. Colonialism in Church Music | Ellis Montes
II. Conversations in Vocation
1. Claim the High Calling: Conversations in Vocation
2. Musicians in Bivocational Ministry
III. Sermons
1. A sermon preached by The Rev. Erika Takacs at the closing Eucharist of the 2013 Mississippi Conference on Church Music and Liturgy
2. A sermon preached by The Rev. Erika Takacs at the closing Eucharist of the 2019 annual conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians
3. “The Two Calls,” a sermon preached by The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton at the opening Eucharist of the 2014 annual conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians
4. A sermon preached by The Rev. Canon Carl F. Turner at the 50th anniversary annual conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians
5. A sermon preached in two parts by The Rev. Andrew Mead and The Rev. Canon John Andrew at the Requiem Eucharist for Gerre Hancock
6. A sermon preached by The Rev. Dr. Katherine A. Grieb at the funeral of Ray Glover