Crisis at our church

There’s a crisis at our church. In a bid to save money so that a second minister can be hired, the Policy Board plans to slash our cherished music program to its very core.

Here is what Cheryl Wadsworth, the music director, wrote today:

Dear Choirs and our Directors,
This email may be forwarded to your families and members. This Sunday April 6, I leave it up to the Directors to skip any rehearsals that occur between the services and encourage all families to attend an important meeting that will be held in our sanctuary.
This Sunday at 10 AM the Policy Board will hold a forum between the services on the budget cuts that are proposed. Beginning June 1, we could potentially lose the Children, Youth and Bell Choir Directors and the section leaders of the UCChoir. These people are going to be very difficult to replace even if this is seen as only a temporary thing. My Music Director salary and hours cut is not the most important thing---it is the cutting of the chance for our children to express themselves through sacred music. The discipline of music is akin to meditation and a spiritual practice in and of itself---when done in our community of choirs, it becomes a ministry. I have presented my concerns about these cuts to the Policy Board and to Jan but this Sunday it is the members’ responsibility to speak and be heard.
I hope that all of you can be at the forum this Sunday at 10 AM in which the Policy Board will talk about this and solicit input from congregation. If any of you have questions for Policy Board members prior to the forum, please contact them. You may also call me if you have any questions about my recommendations.
Peace to all of you and love for the music in all your hearts,
Cheryl

The youth choir director, Louis Fauteux, added in another email that she believes “cutting out these ensembles is a drastic move that does not reflect the wishes of many members.” She wrote to choir members that wiping out the youth and children’s choirs would erase “years of work done by a team of musicians.”

“To me, this is not just a matter of ‘liking music’ or not,” Fauteux wrote. “The experience of singing for service tells kids that they are respected, they have a voice, and their contributions matter.”

Slashing the choirs, of course, is a surefire way to tell all the children involved that their contributions don’t matter, a terrible message to send to our young people, who are the future of our church.

For the UU Players, this proposed move is potentially disastrous. The church choirs are a main training ground for new singers and actors who wind up on our stage. They feed our group and they help build our audience. Losing them might well cripple the troupe in the years to come.

What’s important now is that everyone who wants to preserve the high priority placed on our music programs needs to show up at the 10 a.m. Sunday meeting in the sanctuary and make your voice heard. No policy proposal is set in stone. And this one, which the congregation as a whole certainly would not support, needs to be changed before it damages the fabric of a church that so many generations have labored hard to build. Please help in any way you can.