Music
The Community Gathers - Worship, Music & Community Life
As a worshipping community we gather at Christ Church to sing our prayers and to pray our songs. While meaningful spiritual encounters with God can occur without music, corporate singing allows God’s people to bond in praise, supplication, exaltation, and meditation. The great fourth-century monk, Augustine felt strongly about the value of sacred song in or out of the worship setting, as he is so often quoted: “One who sings, prays twice.” Music can assist us in achieving a deeper connection of Soul to Deity. As a Church rooted in the Word read, taught, and preached, we still recognize the reality that beyond spoken liturgy, “music is what language would love to be if it could,” (as quoted from modern Irish poet and teacher, John O’Donohue). Thus, we pray that all of our musical expressions--whether from the voice or from the organ, or from other instruments in worship, or in concert—offer the listener and participant a spiritual nurturing that defies description or measure.
The History of Our Organist/Choirmasters
Philip Hodel: to 1955
Arden Whitacre: 1955-1958
Robert Clark: 1959-1962
Paul Reynolds: 1962-1970
Donald W. Bogards: 1971-1973
Hazel Parkinson: interim
Jeffrey Brandes: 1974-1989
William P. Blair: interim
Matthew McMahan: 1990-1997
William P. Blair: interim
David J. Kienzle: 1998-
