Annual James Crichton Memorial Lecture

[docmattc]

Yes, thanks to Martin and all at the cathedral for wonderful hospitality.

[oopsorganist]

The music was really good Mcb, great, just great. And lunch too.......
and here is the question I would have asked had I not had to go for my free bus ride around Manchester to be on the right train, in case I got told off by the ticket collector again......

..... does SSG have any form of diversity monitoring of the membership?
Warm up game.. cross the room if........

If it did would it change the focus for things......

Oh, and er, what was the reason that SSG does not have days of music workshopping around the country... ? It was touched on a bit but I forget the outcome.....

[pirate]

Oh, and er, what was the reason that SSG does not have days of music workshopping around the country...

I wasn't there (was preparing Franciscans and friends for Advent by standing on a hill reading RS Thomas), so I didn't hear the answer, but I'd have said that the SSG isn't some vast fully-resourced Them with staff specifically trained to find out what people want and offer it wherever it's needed: it's all of us, a varied collection of people in parishes and dioceses; and if we want that sort of help we should get on this board and say 'Could someone come and help us with....'

Just like organists, some of us do that sort of thing for free, and some as a way of paying a bit of the mortgage, but we none of us want to keep our hard-earned experience and training all to ourselves. I don't lead music workshopping myself, being a recorder player who stopped formal training at the age of ten, but I do occasionally get invited to parishes to talk about the liturgy: Holy Week, working with readers, the shape of the liturgy, that sort of thing. Maybe when we do get invited to to do things like that we could add it to an 'events' thread so anyone close by could come along?

Ooh, and could we have the dates for next year's Summer School please? I need to be booking the days off before the people with children nab them all!

[musicus]

... the SSG isn't some vast fully-resourced Them with staff specifically trained to find out what people want and offer it wherever it's needed: it's all of us, a varied collection of people in parishes and dioceses; and if we want that sort of help we should get on this board and say 'Could someone come and help us with....'

Quite right, pirate. The SSG employs no-one; we are all volunteers.

Back OT, let me add my thanks to Martin and his colleagues at Salford, who so hospitably welcomed us and helped us to celebrate the liturgy so well yesterday. Also to Paul Inwood, for such a stimulating Crichton Lecture. It was all well worth the long journey.

[mcb]

It was all well worth the long journey.

You're very welcome! But isn't Salford nearer your home than London?

[TimSharrock]

Ooh, and could we have the dates for next year's Summer School please? I need to be booking the days off before the people with children nab them all!

I wrote down 3rd to 8th August, but am not sure that I got quite right...

[pirate]

Thanks, Tim.
Now: back on topic, everyone!

[musicus]

It was all well worth the long journey.

You're very welcome! But isn't Salford nearer your home than London?

I suppose so - just. But any Friday afternoon journey up the M6 seems long!

[Nick Baty]

Dearest Oops,

I so wish we'd spoken on Saturday. I hadn't realised you were there – or perhaps you are less recognisable without your large pink organ.

..... what was the reason that SSG does not have days of music workshopping around the country...? It was touched on a bit but I forget the outcome.....

The only concrete answer was whispered by someone who told me "we can't afford it" which is poppycock as these events are self-funding.

From what I can gather, the reason is fear – fear that Whoever will do something a tad naff in the name of the SSG.

Over the last couple of years I have run the following events:
Music for Advent
Music for Lent
Music for the Triduum
Singing the Acclamations (due to run again in 2009)
Singing the Psalms (ditto)
Workshop for Cantors and Parish Music Leaders

Colleagues from the music team of Liverpool Liturgy Commission (all SSG members) have organised:
Music for Christmastide
Music for Easter to Ascension
Music for Remembrance

Twice I have asked if they could be seen as joint SSG/Liverpool Liturgy Commission events and was told it is against the Society's policy. Now, I do accept that. However, when we have been criticised for things we don't do in the blog attached to a national newspaper, I was keen to say, "So come and see what we really do..." but couldn't.

I would have liked the above-mentioned critics to hear the Christus Vincit and the O Quam Gloriosum on Saturday. Especially as they think we sing The cake-making song and Bring me a tray of mushy peas.

[musicus]

From what I can gather, the reason is fear – fear that Whoever will do something a tad naff in the name of the SSG.

Yes, I got that impression too, and, if it is true, then I think it is a great pity. When I was a young liturgiette and a relative beginner, I asked for the Society's support for a diocesan workshop I planned to run, and the executive committee kindly agreed to reimburse me for stamps and envelopes, and allow me to splash SSG logos all over the publicity. This greatly encouraged me and - IIRC - led to at least a couple of people signing-up as members. Now, I fully understand that the Society must approve such things in advance (and that approval may not always be given), but is it really the case that members are not permitted to organise events in this way? I hope to hear that it is not.

[This discussion is not OT, BTW, because it arises out of the Mass/Lecture/AGM]

[Nick Baty]

This discussion is not OT

Can I presume the O of OT stands for OFF rather than ON?

[musicus]

Yes, Nick. The O in OT always means OFF. I have tried, but I cannot find the acronym for On Topic!
Others in my post: IIRC (If I recall correctly) and BTW (by the way). I would post a link to helpful online lists of such things, but many of them are offensive.

[Nick Baty]

Y IIRC (If I recall correctly)

And I managed to read it as the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR).

[MaryR]

In response to some of the queries and concerns raised at the AGM, and echoed on this thread, I'll try and explain the difficulties facing the trustees.

Firstly, the trustees are conscious of the need to seek new ways to meet its aims, in particular the aims:

- to further the study and understanding by the people of the Roman Catholic
Church, with a view to promoting active participation in accordance with the
teaching of the Church,and
- to promote facilities for the study of liturgy and church music

This is something we discuss regularly, believe me, and whilst the summer school has long been seen as the best way to meet our teaching aims, we are aware that it is often difficult for people, both to give up so much of their holiday entitlement and to meet the ever-increasing cost of a five day residential course. We are also conscious that, in an effort to keep the cost down, we don't pay our leaders nearly as much as we should. We are fortunate that so many experts in their field are willing to give their services for so little recompense.

With all of this in mind, at the next trustee meeting on 29 November, we shall be discussing other ways in which we can meet the Society's teaching aims, including how we can offer support to members who are organising events in their diocese.

Nick, you say that you have asked twice whether events you were organising could be joint SSG/Liturgy Commission events and those requests were rejected. I think this was not so much because it was against the Society's policy, but rather because we have simply not had a policy to deal with such requests up to now. You say:

From what I can gather, the reason is fear – fear that Whoever will do something a tad naff in the name of the SSG.

That's about right, I think. The Society exists to encourage and promote good liturgy and there is a danger that, if we give permission to all-comers to hold events in the name of the Society, there may well be some events that are very far removed from the Society's aims. However, if we allow you, Nick, to hold an event in the name of the SSG (because we know and trust you), and then refuse A.N. Other (because we either don't know them, or don't trust them!), we'll be criticised for being discriminatory in some way. That's why we need a policy, or at least a procedure in place for determining how and when we allow the Society's name to be used. And there are other issues: by support do we mean financial support, people to man the door, make tea etc., or just use of the Society's name?

Nick, you say these events are self-funding. Not always! What if a speaker/leader is booked for a fee and you don't take enough on the door to cover that fee? If the Society is supporting, is it under-writing any loss? I'm not saying we shouldn't. If there are funds available, then I see no reason not to agree to support certain events financially.

I do think that diocesan workshops are the way to reach more people; there is no question that people are more likely to attend something closer to home, with less of a time commitment, and less of a financial commitment. Philip Jakob suggested (at the AGM) that the Society could organise 'rolling' workshops. A workshop that is repeated across the north of the country, say. That's a wonderful idea, and we'll be considering it in more detail on Saturday. We can't, however, expect leaders to undertake such a thing without adequate recommence, and we would need to rely on the local membership in each area to deal with the organisation of such events. It couldn't all be left to the trustees who are, after all, volunteers, many with full time jobs on top of their SSG commitments.

I hope we'll have a constructive meeting on Saturday, and come up with some guidelines for considering support for events being organised by members. I hope, too, that we'll agree to try and take forward some of the many suggestions for furthering the Society's aims, but we are going to need lots of help from the membership! I'll report back to this thread (or maybe start a new one) after Saturday's meeting.

Mary Rouse
(Secretary)

P.S. The summer school dates are the 3 to the 7 August 2009 inclusive, and we'll be at St. Gabriel's Conference Centre, Ditchingham, Norfolk (or Suffolk!). This will be posted on the home page very shortly.

[musicus]

That's very helpful, Mary. Thank you for such a prompt but nonetheless full response. I'm sure we all look forward to hearing more in due course.