Authors: Tammy-Jo Mortensen

I love hearing people’s stories—listening to a United Church Women (UCW) elder tell me about growing up, hearing from a chorister who has come to recognize the power of song in their lives, being entranced by a child telling me about events of their day, absorbing biblical stories over and...

Among the many hymns and songs we have in More Voices and Voices United from various cultural contexts, Donald Patriquin has written a whole Caribbean mass. The Sanctus and Benedictus, Memorial Acclamation, and Great Amen are printed in More Voices (206, 207, and 208). But there is more! If a...

When our son was young, we attended two musical programs with him. The first was a toddler program called Music Together, and then he attended violin lessons taught in the Suzuki method before he was four. Aside from the common topic—music—I noticed many other similarities between these two programs, but...

Drama—our lives are full of it. Sometimes we’re the lead actor and sometimes we’re the audience member. For many of us in leadership positions, it can feel like we create a drama, perhaps even a musical, each and every week. Whenever I consider the underlying drama in worship, I think...

Recently, I’ve been pondering the role of instrumental music in the worship service. During my various professional experiences leading music in different denominations and congregations, I’ve noticed that the variety of expectations people bring to worship extends to how they approach the instrumental music, specifically the prelude and postlude. What...