Whilst there will always be differing opinions on things, there will also always be some things that grate. I can understand some points-of-view in terms of how any one church administration wishes to prioritise things, but for me, it is the basic issue of respect and consideration toward one's "employees."
Clearly, CT64, our situations are fairly polarised (note I said situations which does not necessarily mean our opinions
). In terms of income and what they drive around in, the priests here have a lot and the musicians have very little. I've also looked at "faith" from both sides now (an un-used line from the Joni Mitchell song:grin: ) and feel I have a reasonable amount of experience on how both sides can operate.
There was a meeting a while back with the choir, organists and the Principal administrator of the cathedral (who also celebrates most of the masses when the Archbishop doesn't). When the issue heated up a little with the more staunch members of the choir, the statement was made that a great deal of the cathedral patrons attend to hear the music. Our adminstrator then made the very bare-faced statement: "Yes, but they're WRONG!" (and that is verbatim - we all remember it a little too well).
Now, obviously as an agnostic, I'm the last person to speak on evangelical outreach, but the above statement does come across as rather arrogant. One would think that a canny priest could use this fact (ie, people attending to hear the music) to their advantage. Okay, so they don't agree with
why the people attend, but hey, they're there. Why not take the time to explain to the people exactly what all that lovely music they're enjoying actually means? Explain the texts, how they came about, why it's written that way, etc, etc, etc. If they could work WITH their musicians and not ignore them, if they could bypass some of their academic, theological pride and regard the music as an integral part of the liturgy rather than "window-dressing", they could easily bring far more people into the flock. That may seem a simplistic point-of view but sometimes the simple things are best (I can't believe I said that ...
) At the moment the numbers at the cathedral are well and truly down from what they have been in the past and it's for this reason. Of
course most people attend because they believe, I know that (I used to be one of them) and I appreciate that. However, other people people attend for other reasons and this could be acted upon as well. Yes? No?
That is of course, this particular tiny corner of the globe and not how it is everywhere else obviously. And yes, while it may be easier for me to "get over it" which to a large extent I have (except when the issue rears its ugly head from time to time) it still doesn't alter the fact that for me, it boils to a lack of respect and common courtesy to us organists who are doing a service ('scuse the expression) to their cathedral which we know is valued by their congregation even though it is not valued by them.