Our Church

Most of you probably know that we are Catholic.  While living in Charleston we loved our church, The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, and especially the music.  I sang in one of the most wonderful choirs I've ever heard under one of the most wonderful choir directors.  We loved the music at the Cathedral, the Gregorian chants, the traditional Latin pieces.  We knew that moving to rural Alaska we would not find the same level of church we had become accustomed to, in fact we were pleased to find there was a Catholic church here at all.  

The church here is very quaint.  The priest is very friendly and seems to know everyone by name.  He is however the only priest in this area, so when he is away there is no mass.  

I had wanted to start singing again once we got settled here.  At first I was upset that there really wasn't any music ministry.  No one played the piano, the responsorial psalm was read, there was just one girl who lead some of the hymns and played the flute.  She played well and and had a lovely voice, but unfortunately you can't sing and play the flute at the same time.    So this past weekend the flute player, Ashley, a young lawyer from Boston, Ann, and myself got together and sang.  Ann played some on the piano, Ashley played her flute and we all sang.  Thanks to my dear friend Becky back in Charleston we had music for the mass parts and the responsorial psalm.  There was more singing than I think the church has heard in a long time.  The only thing missing, was the priest.  As nice as the prayer service was, maybe next week we'll have a full mass complete with priest and singing.