I was scanning my new email messages this afternoon, and saw that the quarterly publication from the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Grace Notes, has now been posted. Was I ever surprised to read about the Christmas services from the Lutheran Church of Honolulu! We made the national Lutheran news— at least the music news. This was not just a small line item about churches and their Christmas music — the entire column was devoted to the Christmas music we performed at LCH — including the Bach Christmas Oratorio, the Praetorius Christmas Mass, Gabriel Fauré’s Messe Basse, a Bach Cantata for the Solemn Vespers on St. Stephen’s Day, etc. The entire issue is available to anyone by clicking here, but you might want to scroll to nearly the bottom of the document to read the story about LCH. Somehow, my name wasn’t spelled right (a “C” instead of a “K”), but that’s OK! Also it says that Carl Crosier will retire next summer after 38 years, but I think most people would refer to it as this summer.

The ALCM Region IV newsletter is also available online, and you can read my interview with former LCH Compline Choir chorister, Joseph Z. Pettit who is now the Director of Music and Organist at Trinity Lutheran Church in Tacoma, WA. He is one of the newest members of ALCM and I thought that his comparison between church musicians in Norway vs. the United States made a good story. Joe spent six years in Norway as a full-time church musician before coming to Hawaii, and was “paid a living wage” in addition to receiving medical and educational benefits.

As announced at last week’s congregational meeting, there are now about ten applicants for the cantor position, although there have been over 20 inquiries. Stay tuned.