Authors: Tammy-Jo Mortensen

Did you know that Music United is now an Affirming ministry of The United Church of Canada? At last year’s AGM held at Music Matters in Montreal, the vote to become Affirming was unanimous. What does this mean for us as music leaders, members, and supporters of Music United? Hopefully...

This issue of Gathering is all about apologies and forgiveness. This led me to think on a more granular level, not about the national United Church official apologies, but more about day-to-day relationships between staff and the congregation and also within the staff team. We all know that clergy-musician relationships...

The Lent/Easter 2026 issue of Gathering is all about the Order of Worship, the improvements and tweaks you may have made, and how that applies to the elements of your bulletin. This topic had me reflecting on an experience I had several years ago. “Don’t you want to do better?”...

We should be playing music from underrepresented communities all year round, but if you focus on Black History Month in February, here are some Canadian composers, or composers who lived/studied in Canada, to investigate. These are composers who have written music that may be useful to church musicians. Of course...

The theme for this issue of Gathering is worship and whether what we do makes a difference to God or to the world. As I was reflecting on this theme, I was reminded of various churches and denominations, some where this question of giving your best to God was considered...