Chairs for Musicians

As you may have heard, the Liturgy Committee and parish musicians have been discussing a slight re-location of the musicians at Mass on Sunday (& Saturday). 

Liturgically, the primary music minister in the liturgy is the assembly. The principal role of the choir or music group is to lead and support the song of the assembly. Musicians are considered part of the assembly, and so it is more appropriate for them to lead song from the assembly rather than play/sing to the assembly. 

With these norms in mind, we would like to re-position the music group (whether choir or folk group or Sat song leaders) to the area where the choir pews are located. From this location, they can still lead the assembly in song, and at the same time be with the assembly in worship. It will actually increase participation from the assembly.

In order to do this, we would remove those pews and replace them with approximately 15 chairs. The chairs will allow for flexibility that the pews do not. We intend to purchase chairs that are the exact match of the chairs on the altar and the chairs in the small chapel (without kneelers). Cost is $150 each. 

Of course, there are a lot of logistics involved:
- removing pews
- purchasing chairs
- re-positioning piano
- re-positioning group leader to be able to see both altar and musicians
- re-positioning microphone jacks
- moving music materials
- providing places for coats and other materials that musicians currently place in the pews

We believe these are solvable problems. For more info on this, or to share your concerns and comments, contact Tom Ficker (tomficker@gmail.com) or Leif Kehrwald (lkehrwald@stcharlespdx.org). We welcome your input. 

A number of parishioners have made a pledge toward the purchase of one or more chairs. If you would like to pledge or donate, here are your options:

1. Donate online by clicking here.
2. Drop a check into the Sunday collection with "Chairs for Musicians" in the memo line
3. Send a note to Leif Kehrwald at lkehrwald@stcharlespdx.org indicating your pledge amount.

Thanks so much.