Music reinforces religious education, glorifies God Story & Photos by Fabvienen Taylor VIEW GALLERY (use arrow keys for navigation)
By Fabvienen Taylor
MADISON — “Singing a song is not just singing a song,” said Bernice “Bunny” Hatch. “It reinforces what you are teaching, what the children are learning. Singing brings joy and life to the messages in the songs.”
On that note, Hatch, music workshop presenter, and Fran Weeks, music minister at St. James Parish in Tupelo, are singing the same tune.
“I feel being a part of a choir in church is completely and directly related to religious education,” said Weeks. “We are not just providing entertainment. Most of the songs we sing are scripturally based, most are religious in nature.”
Hatch is an event presenter and liturgical and musical consultant for Liturgy.com, a divison of OCP (Oregron Cathoic Press) Publications. A veteran music teacher on the elementary and college level, Hatch is an experienced choir director, cantor and accompanist.
She presetned the workshop, “Integrating Music as a Way to Effectively Engage Students” at the 2007 diocesan cathechetical conference on Saturday, Sept. 15, at St. Francis of Assisi Church.
Weeks has served as music minister at St. James for 11 years. At the parish she conducts a children’s choir, a youth choir, an adult choir which is open to teenagers, an adult contemporary band which sings praise and worship music, and a resurrection choir which primarily sings at funerals.
There is also a teenage band which Weeks does not direct. With instrumentalists, there are over 80 people including 12 cantors, involved in music at the parish and its mission, St. Thomas Acquinas in Saltillo.
Weeks coordinates all the liturgies and special occasions in the parish, which also has a liturgy committee.
“We sing everything from chant to contemporary and everything in between,” said Weeks, who listens to ‘80s rock music at home. We love it all. We are the only Catholic church in town and we have a wide variety of ages and ethnicities. We try to do a little bit of everything.”
In her years at the parish, Weeks has seen a change in the pariticipation in the children’s choir.
“Unfortunately these days it’s getting harder to keep students interested in singing in the choir,” she said. “It’s harder for them to not only make the commitment but also to get the parents to help the children keep the commitment. The choir is competing with sports and MySpace,” she said.
“These days they are just running in all kinds of directions.
According to the U.S. bishops, music is vital to Catholic life, according to Hatch. “The bishops have said the quality, joy, and enthusiasm gained through music can not be gained in any other way,” she said. “Music celebrates what Scipture says.”
Hatch stressed that singing is not only for liturgies, but for religious education classes too.
“You have the power with music to make learning great or to kill it,” she said. “You have that power with kids. And it should be spontaneous. You can have the children sing as they leave church for their classrooms or in class you can just start singing songs they know, their favorites, like ‘God Has Chosen Me” or “You Have Called Us.”
“Children are so fresh, so open, so ready,” Hatch said. “They have no baggage. Let them celebrate their lives in Christ.”
It is a type of celebration that could last for years.
“When we sing we are not only glorifying God, we are teaching people,” Weeks said. “If children start singing in a choir, most of the time they stick with it, stay with it as adults.”
