Some of you may know that I am in the choir of St Paul’s Catholic Church.

If not well, I am, and I sing bass. I enjoy it quite a lot. I have many fond memories of singing in church. In weddings (my own included) funerals, cantoring and on holiday’s. In fact, my participation in the choir has kept my wavering faith on the level more than I care to admit, but I fear my choir days may be over.

It seems the parish council decided to let Ron our music director go due to budgetary reasons. As of May 31st he will be gone. A shame since the choir adds much to a service, and provides a small sliver of energy to a congregation that seems to dwindle by the Sunday. For those who don’t know Ron, he is über talented. He was the reason the choir was so good. He’s a musical prodigy, has 2 masters degrees in music, and gives liturgical backstory on songs and composers like none other. He pushed us to sing music way outside our comfort zone (Read: in German, Croatian, and in 8 part harmony…). And despite a well fought effort to get things reconsidered by many meetings and email threads by the choir members against parish council, (Which would make the ending of Dead Poet’s Society weak in the knees.) the end result stays the same. Ron is out.

The congregation suffers. The choir is in turmoil and many members are leaving out of frustration as to how the news was “handled”. Some leaving the parish all together.

A small representation for the Catholic church as a whole.

Not sure where I stand yet, but with an already wavering faith it’s not looking good.