Now that I have your attention, lol…

I quit my gig at St. James AC effective on Epiphany, and I was to start as cantor at my small rural parish. The priest was (and is) very supportive of Reform of the Reform musically. It’s not a fight he feels he can win at his home parish, with an entrenched music program focused on the work of David Haas, but he had just been given a second church which has had very little music (just an organist, no sung psalm or Gloria). And he was open to me actually getting paid for this, though that hadn’t been worked out as he hadn’t met with the finance committee. The idea was that I’d start singing the Psalm and the Gospel Acc. and that we’d move on to other things according to plan.

So I armed myself with Chabanel Psalms, rehearsed with the organist (pianist, no feet skills, no virtuoso but adequate to the job) and we’re ready to go for the next week. But then mid-week I get a call from the organist, who tells me that the one we rehearsed is fine, but the others have texts that don’t match the missalettes, and that I should talk to Fr. about this. I found this incredible, but figured that since we were good for the coming Sunday, I’d come in early and check the missalettes for the future weeks and figure out what’s going on. I thought she was looking at a Year C missal, but that too was incredible.

So Sat. night I get a call from Fr. … we’re off for Sunday, I need to meet with him, and I’m not to talk to the organist until I talk to him… and he’s scheduled after Mass, so we set up a time for Weds. WTF? (“What’s that, Father?”) I check my texts and of course they’re fine. I imagine any and all objections to what I’m doing, even sending Jeff O. a query email about a particular detail I needed. At this point, I'm feeling a little trashed.

Last night I learned what the real issue was: the organist is the grandmother of the girl who got drunk and hit my wife head-on several years back, killing my mother-in-law and stuffing my wife’s leg with a titanium rod (earning 5 years in prison in the process). She hadn’t made the connection, but her daughter did, and Daughter thought the reason I was singing there was to stalk her family and cause them grief! Now Daughter had been on various public forums sticking up for her daughter and her accident (might have been the DUI that Daughter herself had), and we (esp. my wife) hadn’t been buying much of that. So yes, the bad blood and discomfort is understandable, and the organist doesn't feel comfortable working with me. And, oh yeah, the parish is $50K in debt to the diocese, so my chances of getting paid are slim and none.

So we’re letting it ride for awhile, until Fr. does what he can toward reconciliation. I don’t have anything much against the drunk girl at this point; justice has been done. And I certainly have no reason to implicate Grandma the organist. My wife still has a grudge, and points out that their embrace of victimhood is just a way of avoiding their own guilt. True, but not useful in resolving the current situation.

My purpose in writing this: 1) To see if I can win the award for most bizarre church music soap opera 2) to ask for your prayers 3) To ask for advice on how to make this work, if it’s workable 4) to fill Jeff O. in on “the rest of the story” and to thank him publicly for his help.