How much is your music program worth to the parish in dollars?
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    When we read of music programs being cut from parishes, it raises the question, do priests not realize the dollar value of physical participation by members?

    We are not talking about "active participation" but rather people showing up and spending time rehearsing then singing, as well as being willing to be at church for major church feasts. What is the worth of one child singing in a children's choir? Attendance at Mass by a parent, parents, grandparents.... Music programs, along with other programs in parishes, are like rubber bands that help keep people from walking away from a parish that lets them down in one way or another.

    A pastor should be encouraged to review the membership of the music program and total up their giving before making the decision to can a music program because "we can't afford it" anymore. Reducing services in a community never improves financial support and instead tends to reduce it further.

    In one diocese substantial sums of parish income have moved from parish to parish and then even to a third parish due to changes in music programs were made by pastors, just as they can when pastors are moved and the new guy is found lacking.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    Fascinating question, Frogger.

    Perhaps it's like "family plans" for cell phones. I have 4 people on our plan, and I've found it's REALLY hard to switch carriers because when one person wants to shop around, the other people are locked into their 2 year contracts.

    In a gentler sense, when one person in a family is struggling with their faith or with Father X, the others will tend to bring them back because often the family togetherness is critical for them. It's also my observation that ALL programs and ministries in a parish may have this effect, that there's nothing particularly special about music. Music has a particular emotional connection, perhaps, but so do many other aspects of parish life.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Among the many other things that MDs need to do, they need to become amateur grant-writers. IF you can explain to your parish leadership (Paster, Parish Council, Vestry, Finance Committee, whoever) IN WRITING the things you are doing and what they are worth (in dollars, and also in terms of evangelization and church growth), you can improve your situation dramatically. I know I'm in a unique situation (an Episcopal parish), but my parish has very little money. However, I requested a budget of close to $10,000 for 2011. The entire thing was itemized and explained in detail, along with a narrative describing my long and short term plans for the music program.
    Result: They removed one large ticket item (due to a practical problem, not a monetary one) and approved everything else- about $5000.
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    What's your music program worth...1537 edition:

    [The Cantor, John Brimley]... "had to instruct certain monks (presumably the ones with the best voices and the finest ears for a key) and the eight choristers 'in singing plain chant and singing with organ accompaniment, namely plainsong, pricknote, faburdon, descant, square notes, and countre; to teach organ playing as well as plain and accompanied chant to the monks and one or two of the boys whom he (the said John), the prior and the precentor judge capable; and to teach the said monks and eight boys diligently (&c) every usual day...' In addition, he himself had to be present 'in person, barring legitimate excuse, from beginning to end, at all masses, in the monastery's precincts...playing the organ if need be and singing the vocal part most suited to him...' He had to be present at the St Mary's Masses in the Galilee, at the Jesus Masses in the nave every Friday, 'and to play or sing the anthem on Friday afternoons in the same mass, also the anthem accustomed to be performed in times past in God's honour.' He had also 'each year during his life, so long as able, to compose a new four or five-part mass, or another equivalent work as should seem fit to the prior and the precentor, in honour of God, St Mary and St Cuthbert.'

    For these duties, Brimley was paid (six pounds) per annum in instalments which fell due at the Invention of the Holy Rood, Lammas, All Saints and Christmas 'along with three ells of cloth of the livery of the gentlemen clerks' every Christmas; 'also that for his sustenance John will have food and drink with the prior's fellow monks where they should happen to be sitting, and in the hall of the monastery's lodging, called 'le gheste hall' in the absence of the prior from the monastery.'"

    Very hard to say what six pounds was worth in today's money. Interesting that the contract specifies the Cantor has to be at Mass "from beginning to end."
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,513
    Food, clothing, shelter, and 6 pounds!
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,092
    The gold pound coin would be worth $314 now, a pound of pure silver about $440. Money was scarcer then, so purchasing power was greater. But it does sound like church music salaries have been remarkably stable in precious metal terms. :-(
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