Diocesan Convention – Play On!

Those who have been paying attention know that last week’s Diocesan Convention was hosted by the West Branch and Northern Tier convocations. The Northern Tier is our “where’s that?” convocation—a collection of small congregations in small towns along the northern border of the Commonwealth. I suspect that few of us have been there. It is our loss.

First off, these folks are competent, and they managed an event that can easily become—well—not very organized with grace and poise.

Second, these folks know their church music, and they execute beautifully. Joan Berrresford from St. James’, Mansfield, coaxed a nicely-toned rendition of Thomas Tallis’ If Ye Love Me out of a not-quite-pickup choir that had had exactly one rehearsal.

They saved the best for last, though. At the Ordination Eucharist, twenty-something organist Jeffrey Johnston (Trinity, Williamsport) outdid himself, working up a sweat with a bravura rendition of a Mendelssohn prelude, then proceeding to handle the hymns and service music with an aplomb that most veterans never master. Need an extra verse of that hymn? No problem, we’ll just improvise a variation or two.

In short, Convention was the sort of experience that would make a curious Episcopalian head north, just to see what’s going on and what else we might be able to learn from these folks.