There are several vital streams that nourish the spirit of our community, and music is certainly one of them. This is a pivotal time in our musical life together as we savor Garrett Bond’s last few months as our Interim Music Director and as we seek to find our next Music Director for 2026 – 2027. The Music Ministry Transition Team (Theo Harper, Ameena Amdahl-Mason, Holly Stern, Michael Murray, Richard Scher, Tom Disrud, Alison Miller) will be looking through the applications we have received so far beginning next week, so please do share the open position with people who might be interested and suggest they apply post-haste. The good news to share is that we have already received a number of applications from people hoping to serve as our next Music Director.
Gratitude and hope are two emotions that many of us are holding right now. We have been absolutely blessed to have Garrett Bond serve with us as our Music Director, conductor of our Chalice and Radiance vocal choirs, conductor of Parker Bells, and as an accomplished pianist and soloist. I hope that you will take the time in the coming months to share your appreciation for Garrett’s music ministry with us.
I imagine that many of us also look forward to witnessing his bright future unfold on the next part of his musical journey. I hope to get a front row seat for a future performance or a future worship under his musical direction even if it’s in a faraway city.
We are blessed by Joe O’Donnell who is not only an accomplished organist, but also wonderful on the piano, and an organ builder to boot. He has served our community faithfully and well for nearly 30 years!
We are blessed by the heart of our music ministry – all of our musical volunteers – the singers, the ringers, the music librarians, other organizers, and the transition team members – the people who make up our music program.
We are anticipating a new partnership in our worship ministry with the coming of a creative, music director who is excited to serve a congregation that both builds on our historical traditions and is open to change, including how music and the spirit moves us in these times and will move us in the future.
The collaborative creation of worship with music directors has mostly been a source of meaning, joy, inspiration, and deepening in my ministry in a total of four congregations and with seven different music directors so far. Each one has taught me a great deal about music and meaning-making, the importance of a shared covenant, and a commitment to growing our capacity to provide worship in a context of the shifting landscape of religion. I am grateful to still be in touch with most of them and to be able to continue to exchange ideas and learnings at UU conferences or other visits.
Music infuses our lives with meaning, helps to form our identity, and allows us to feel what words may not be able to encompass. Music is a spiritual practice that weaves the fabric of our community – through our choirs, through our collective singing in worship, at weddings, at memorials, at baby dedications, at protests, at UU camps for children, youth, and adults, as well as at other times and places. Music helps to set the tone for our worship and the rhythms which accompany our lives.
In faith,
Rev. Alison