Ohioguy,

I encourage you to do more than you are proposing. I've not been the director of a cluster's music program, but I have taken over other situations in very tense circumstances.

I encourage you NOT to divide up the parish by assigning new roles in the new parish as you propose, but, rather, bring everyone currently in music programs in the parishes together in one room, over food if possible, so you can set out a new vision. That vision should be what will help the parish grow, even thrive, which its predecessors aren't doing, or there wouldn't be both a shortage of priests and other reasons to cluster the parishes together. Explain (if you think it wise) that you're not passing judgment on the previous programs in the previous parishes, but that you don't want to bring those programs merely to do what they've already been doing. Getting behind the pastor and his assistants in specifically not creating six parishes under one roof but one new parish is important. Find a few hardy souls to help carry the load while others get ready to take on new roles. Integrate new comers into the new program.

Oxen pull well, but only if they're yoked together, not at cross purposes.

Ohioguy - getting people together (synodality?) is not just a good thing, it is essential. But it will inevitably lead to acrimony, and that has to be expected, coped with, and worked through. It is not an easy process, it often needs an outsider with experience to handle such things.
If you can, read M Scott Peck- The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace (Simon & Schuster, 1987) ISBN 978-0-684-84858-7 [other similar products exist]

Some here will think this is your big chance to deep six the guitar group immediately, but I think you have the correct idea of using them for the Saturday evening Mass where less traditional souls are already likely to attend Mass.

I think an error was made in having Saturday evening masses. In the east, we have Vespers on Saturday evenings. This would have been a great opportunity to restore the Office.

I heard a rumor years ago, can't verify any of it, that the Italian soccer leagues play on Sundays. Saturday evening mass was a device to recapture those souls who would be at the games instead of at mass.

Something I found useful on the choir thing, is to tell everyone that you are not the person who previously directed them. That you may have different abilities, likes, dislikes, and experiences. That you will make decisions from your background and experience and you can't second guess what your predecessor might have done. Also, mention what the pastor's vision is for liturgy and point out that this is your guide.

Have been in situations much like this. I would say lean heavily on the pastor and get as close as you can to any beloved/retired/transient priests that the congregations know and get them to help you make the sale, i.e. by speaking first at the big dinner CGZ proposed above, pitching the choir in their homilies, and so on.

I have seen many situations where Fr. Boomer hired Joe YoungTrad to be director of music because he suddenly had 6 parishes’ worth of pennies and could hire a full-time guy, but he doesn’t really care if it’s OCP or chant. The various musicians and other grouchy folks with $$ easily pick up on this and revolt until YoungTrad is fired and the parish is back on Breaking Bread next Advent. But if “Father wants it”, people cooperate.

Be prepared for everyone to hate you, look for new positions, do the best you can, and leave as soon as possible. And don't expect much from the priest(s), the people will hate him, too. In situations like this, everyone is viewed as the enemy by the people whose churches were closed. Many will stop coming, others will drive, even upward of an hour to attend a different parish.

Study THIS, from St. Martin of Tours parish website (Louisville, KY)

From the time of WWI to the late 1970’s, membership declined drastically to just 30 or so people attending Sunday Mass. This was the result of the declining number of immigrants, anti-German sentiment and the flight to the suburbs. Several disasters, such as fires, a tornado and the 1937 flood did not help. However, the Lord’s faithfulness was about to be revealed at its fullest. Under the Direction of Fr. Vernon Robertson, Mass attendance began to rise quickly to 350 households by 1992. He used the great organ to fill the church with classical and traditional church music. With the spiritual leadership of Fr. Dennis Cousens and his introduction of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in 1996, our total membership reached 1,000 households, coming from 43 zip codes in the Louisville Metro area

St. Martin's was scheduled for closure when Fr. Robertson arrived.
I never knew Fr. Robertson, because he died before I arrived, but I knew people who spoke glowingly of him and his vision to revitalize the parish. It worked.

Fr. Cousens, when we was being reassigned, said he had some advice for the incoming director of Vocations: study success. This advice is good for your situation, too.

If the parish priest is egotistical instead of Christocentric, your six parishes will be soon merged into the new diocese created by the amalgamation of two neighboring dioceses. The giant sucking sound (to borrow from Ross Perot) will be a vacuum opening over Hell. BUT, if he puts Christ first, his hardened parishioners will see this and have their hearts softened. St. John Vianney did this at Ars. Other precedents exist.

" . . . my parents have made, along with many of their peers, an absolutely punctilious habit of attending on Saturday evenings for no reason at all."

I know why mine did for years in their 70s and 80s: it took my mother several hours to get ready in the morning (a daily purgatory of effort), and for her to cycle through her medications that would make going out to a place without easy access to a lavatory a logistical burden. The option of a late afternoon Mass was a great blessing that allowed them to attend Mass, which they wanted to do. They were not alone in this regard. But most such folks would never explain their reasons to anyone else, so it might appear to the naive (about aging) or uncharitable that they had no reason at all. The world is a lot better place when one can expand one's charitable imagination.

Label this audition your opportunity to get to know the singers and their abilities.

Run

I should like to change my advice.

Francis has the right attitude in this particular situation.

If you're being instructed to cater to the noisy wheels (which is what it sounded like) and intentionally incorporate "Gospel Music" at one of the Masses all the time, what you're being asked to do is not the proper duty of a Church musician.

Now, it might be that the old, noisy parishioners actually want something other than what this priest believes that they want... in which case data would be a good thing to have as arrows in your quiver. If he's committed to nonsense, on the other hand, and you value either your sanity or your reputation as a serious musician, take the first cab off property.

One might ask why we have Saturday masses at all…

At one time, the Saturday Mass was the Sunday evening Mass. When that was changed to the Saturday Vigil Mass, the Sunday evening people followed. (I know this because I lived it. My dad was the head usher for the Sunday evening Mass. When it was changed to Saturday, we started going to the Saturday evening Mass.

Liam, why the 1pm limit? 6am makes sense since you would not have anyone attend before then. Did this also apply to daily mass so that people could not go on their way home from work?

I think the fasting from midnight on everything including water was the reason. I remember as a kid it wasn't unusual for a person or two to pass out at one of the later morning masses.

At my current parish there's going to be an upcoming merger. Six parishes will be merging into one with three campuses remaining open for the time being. I've been chosen to be the music director for the new parish, with one assistant music director.

How has this 'chosing' taken place? Has there been a job opening and you were the succesful candidate? Or have you been assigned by the pastor / parish commitee / whoever among musicians already working in one of the merging parishes?
As said by others, it is not an easy job to be the leader of a team of church musicians who are used to doing what they heve always done in their cosy little parish, and don't like anyone else to interfere.

If you want to accept this job, the minimum thing to do is to discuss your plans with everyone who will be in charge of the merged parish (pastor and others) and make sure that you have their support; and crucially: what freedom you have and don't have for taking your own decisions. If there is any doubt on these arrangements, refuse. Dont go into the trap of 'wait and see, time will tell' (an error I made, of which I am now bearing the consequences).

Only when you are sure about this (doesn't seem very likely after your second post, but who knows) you should go back to Chris's first advice:

bring everyone currently in music programs in the parishes together in one room, over food if possible, so you can set out a new vision

Having the mandate to take decisions doesn't mean that you can do without everyone else's advice and suggestions. Discuss!
But make sure that everyone knows who is going to decide when consensus isn't reached. Don't shy away from being clear from the start, it actually helps to find agreement in 99% of the cases.
Authority isn't dictatorship but its opposite.

That's why I referred to scheduled Masses. There were indults and there was interpretive leeway as you illustrate to deal with changing seasons (daylight being more seasonally variable the further away from the Equator you go, and western Europe has more people in places where that's an issue than North America or any significant population center in the Southern Hemisphere).

Well, it was forbidden to celebrate at sea, actually, unless you had an apostolic indult.

In the latter two cases, you have a reasonable cause ipso facto.

[I edited the title of this thread slightly to work around a technical problem.--admin]

Thanks all for the suggestions and support. I essentially ended up in this job because 2/6 parishes didn’t have a director and the other 2/6 had part time people who retired. I think the advice for leaving might be the right thing to do. I’ve noticed that since I’ve had this job I’ve become increasingly bored at mass and that this parish isn’t conducive to a healthy faith. It’s sad looking out at a 1/4 full church filled with only people over 65. At the same time, my wife is here because of a position she has that isn’t easy to transfer and I don’t want to be without work. She and our children attend a different, more vibrant parish.

I also though the suggestions about St. Martin in Louisville to be interesting. Unfortunately there are things about my parishes that wouldn’t work well for that. Our buildings were all built in the 1950s and unless you’re really into ugly carpet and wood paneling you’d be unlikely to seek us out. We also have multiple vibrant traditional parishes nearby.

My wife did her residency about two blocks away from St. Martin. We were member of another parish in Louisville, St. William, but attended mass there once or twice. I would say that St. Martin does have somewhat of a problem in connecting to their immediate community but they do have a tremendous ministry of being open 24/7 as a place of prayer and silence for people from all over the city.

Vibrancy is complicated for me. I think at least from my perspective it involves people actually caring about each other, the liturgy, and their community. There are lots of parishes with thousands of members but no real sense of care.