Poem: 'Choristers' by Joshua Singleton

Sing unto God with songs of praise.
We are the Choristers,
The rooftops of churches we raise!

Beautiful high notes that flutter around,
Sometimes some notes that haven't even been found.
Songs in Spanish, Hebrew, French
For the tunes and notes that we must clench
To impress the audience
That have come to admire
The wondrous sounds of this lovely choir.

Sung unto God with songs of praise.
We are the Choristers,
The rooftops of churches we raise!

(Joshua Singleton)

Helping out with the Sharon Garden Project

Chorister Adella May Carlson spent last weekend helping out at the Sharon Garden Project in Sharon, Connecticut. For the past nine years, Dan and Mary Gates have welcomed St. John's Parish and Waterbury Baptist Ministries onto their land to grow fresh vegetables for the patrons of the Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministries (GWIM) and the Jubilee Harvest run by the Baptist church. (Read more about this endeavor here.) Adella spent much of her time rolling out sheets of black plastic that keep weeds from taking over the garden. She also took pictures and wrote about the Project here.

The GWIM soup kitchen provides dinner for the Chorister Academy every Thursday evening during rehearsal, so Adella was glad to give back to the people who have given her so much.

Diana Hernandez, Head Chorister

Diana Hernandez, who is in Grade 9 at Wilby High School in Waterbury, is our new head chorister. She is also a charter member of the Chorister Academy. She has developed a beautiful singing voice as a result of her commitment and genuine interest. Congratulations, Diana!

Inspiring Worship: Confirmands, Choristers, and MLK, Jr.

The confirmation class planned and led worship on April 6, 2008, which focused on faith in action and was inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. Honoring the 40th anniversary of King's death, confirmation class wrote a Psalm that called for peace and justice in our time. Chorister Academy director Maria Coffin set the Psalm to music, and the Chorister Academy sang it. You can hear the two spirituals that the Academy sang in the podcast in the sidebar of this blog.