Music Ministry Update 

Hi all,

It is with great pleasure, that I have been asked to share a little update about our music ministry teams here in our Emerald Parish over the past year. There are two teams – our ‘Traditional Music Ministry Team’ and our ‘Awakening Praise and Worship Group’. For years, we’ve endeavoured to build up our ‘traditional music ministry team’ and provide coverage for two liturgies every week, as well as all the other special Masses required by our presiding priest/s for the various liturgies (e.g. funerals, confirmations, feast days, Australia Day, Easter etc). To co-ordinate and encourage volunteers to remain committed has always been a little challenging, partly due to our rural landscape, as most of our musicians/singers work full-time (and some even work out of our region). However, I am continually impressed by all our members and their commitment to God and our Parish, whilst juggling family responsibilities and finding time to practice. This year has proven even more challenging due to all the COVID rules and restrictions placed upon each team member in varying ways. Unfortunately, our piano broke this year too, so our team has also had to adjust to this news, but lucky we have three guitarists that have stepped up and helped.

Our church (like all other parishes) has had to adapt rapidly, and the first sign of this adaptation was when we shifted to a live-stream model. No one in either of our music ministry teams has ever experienced this before, so we’ve all had to upskill very quickly (along with the entire congregation and other ministries). I am proud to say that the years of foundational work in establishing strong relationships between musicians and singers and our congregation has paid off. Even over this very difficult year, I noticed the continued commitment by these steadfast individuals in offering up their gifts of musicianship and song to our parishioners and to God; week after week (to whatever capacity they could help in).

Our musicians have led the way with their wonderful skills, saddled up alongside them were our beautiful singers – GROUPS BECAME PAIRS - due to COVID. However, even with all the changes, the hymns continued in some capacity to flow out into our wonderful church by the music ministry teams. Even during hardship, they remained united, strong and committed to delivering at each liturgy; online initially and then again in person. The contributions of the following musicians and singers made this happen for St Patrick’s Church…Jun Yuzon, Roslyn Horsfall, Richard Sequeira, Peggy Pearl, Vanessa Nixon, Noel Yamboa, Kevin Bickhoff, Maria Parlato, Mila Harris, Christine Tauamoa, Cathy Chapman, Lorraine Marsh, Rebekah Burns, Monica Burns, Alvin Caro and Jacinta Haber.

I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce our other music ministry team (which is relatively new in development) called the Awakening Praise and Worship Group which began in late 2019. This praise and worship group was setup to bring about similar music to what the NET team had originally introduced into our Parish many years ago by way of encouraging youth engagement. This music is quite lively and COVID has not dampened the hearts or voices of these five vibrant women:) The talented Esther McKinlay leads with her guitar and voice and is joined by Anthea Cullinane, Monica Burns, Ally Grounds and Rebekah Burns. This group has also had to adjust during COVID, by dividing into pairs for a period, but has since resumed in full force bringing in new sounds as they reunite and harmonise together once more.

God bless,

Rebekah Burns