Music
Music at The Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd
Music in worship at The Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd enables us to give a joyous gift of ourselves to God in union with our Eucharistic sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. All our vocal music for choristers and congregants is selected in accordance with the day’s scriptures or sacramental action, and much of our hymnody and service music is graphed into our weekly bulletin. Worshipers are thereby equipped to become "doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James 1: 22) while easily transforming music into liturgy itself - the work of the people.
We value the time-honored musical heritage preserved in our choir's anthem literature that encompasses four centuries of meritorious music, yet the prevalence of 20th and 21st century compositions sung by our choir likely creates the most contemporary music program of any local Episcopal parish. We also value the treasure of congregational song contained in our 1982 Hymnal. Additional Episcopal hymn resources have been published that enable us to experience African-American spirituals, hymns by women writers, revival choruses and contemporary music as well. Our parish’s multicultural diversity is affirmed when the congregation sings commonly understood Mass items by a variety of Hispanic, African-American or contemporary composers. Thus the welcoming and inclusive spirit of our people is authenticated in worship that is vibrant, significant and increasingly "broad tent" rather than unflinchingly "high church" or resolutely "low church" in character.
Our music ministry is directed by Roland Woehr, who holds a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Temple University, having studied with Alan Harler. An avid composer of sacred music, Roland composes and arranges for us that we might continually “sing to the Lord a new song.” (Psalm 96: 1) Our choir meets at 9:30 AM each Sunday, September through June, to prepare the directed music for the 10:30 AM celebration of the Holy Eucharist, Rite II. Parishioners and friends of the parish who are interested in singing with the choir are warmly welcome to discuss this with the choirmaster after the liturgy.