Both Parishes Helping St. Mary Music Ministries Move Forward

Thank you to all those worshiping at St. Mary in Wrentham for your patience and understanding as we work through our transition toward a new Director of Music Ministries for St. Mary Parish. As you may know, A.J. and Mary Hoy are expecting their first child and they moved home to Ohio in August to be closer to extended family. I especially want to thank Brittany Lorgeree, Cathy Drew, Sharon Summers, and Tom Abbott from St. Mary Music Ministries for courageously continuing their ministry without a director. We have also benefitted from other music directors, especially our own Anne DiSanto and Jeff Johnson from St. Martha Parish, providing guidance and accompaniment during this interim period. Without the consistency of a parish director, however, it is not easy to manage the sound system and balance the voices and various instruments through the whole church. It’s also not easy for the members of the Adult and Children’s Choirs to wait patiently for a new director so choir rehearsals can resume!

As in our last director search, Sally Winslow from St. Martha Music Ministry has been a huge help coordinating the search process. We are happy to report we have received many inquiries and 11 formal applicants! Five of these looked like potential matches for our needs so we offered them interviews and auditions over the past two weeks. The interview team includes Joanne Lessard, Jane Svelnis, and Sharon Summers representing Music Ministries, as well as Lou Bragaw and Jeff Johnson representing the Collaborative Pastoral Council. We hope to have two finalists by this week, but we will not move forward unless we believe we have the right candidates! At A.J.’s suggestion, we will ask the finalists to conduct “mini-rehearsals” with the Adult Choir.

This whole process is a beautiful example of how being a “Collaborative” allows us to do things better together than either of our Parishes could do on our own. Please keep praying that the Holy Spirit guides our discernment of whom God is calling to join the Pastoral Team as a new music director!  With great Hope and Gratitude,