At the beginning of July, well-known musician Fr Chris Skinner completed a tour of the Dunedin diocese using his music to teach people about the liturgy.
The tour began on Monday 2 July in Queenstown.
Children from St Joseph’s School Queenstown sang, listened and learned the actions for Chris’ music.
His sense of fun and real joy was contagious and all were smiles during his concert.
Later that afternoon, Catholic school teachers from all over Central Otago gathered to hear Chris use his music to teach about the liturgy of the mass.
The tour then travelled along the Ida Valley to Ranfurly for a school concert.
The children there knew Chris’s music and sang along beautifully.
Then it was on to Oamaru for another concert and a parish teacher session in the late afternoon.
On Wednesday night Chris was in Dunedin where parish musicians had gathered at Holy Name.
He spoke about the fact that people bring their own lived experience of the liturgy to the parish music ministry.
Amy Armstrong, the Dunedin Diocese’s pastoral leader, said it was really refreshing to hear someone who is fully immersed in the kiwi context speaking to them.
The following afternoon was spent in the St Peter Chanel Church in Green Island.
Chris shared his Marist story, as well as his music and wisdom on the liturgy, with the teachers who had gathered from Dunedin and the surrounding districts.
In Balclutha, families seemed to come from everywhere for the school concert.
Cousins of all ages appeared and enjoyed with the children and teachers at St Joseph’s school.
Teachers travelled to Invercargill from Winton, Bluff and Gore to join the local teachers at St Patrick’s Church.
Chris’s input was enhanced by recent video clips about the mass created by Bishop Peter Cullinane for the Christchurch Diocese.
He finished his marathon tour in Gore where he gave a concert at St. Mary’s in the morning and, in the evening, presented a session at Blessed Sacrament Church for parish musicians.
“It was a nice follow-up to his tour 2016 tour of the Dunedin Diocese where he taught us all his Hopetoun Mass, which is being sung in many parishes,” said Armstrong.
“Touring and teaching in all parts of our Diocese has brought a liturgical cohesiveness which helps us feel more as one.
We also like to claim Fr Chris as one of our own as he has some strong roots in the Balclutha/Tuapeka Mouth areas of Otago,” she said.
“We all felt utterly blessed by Fr Chris Skinner’s prayerful spirit, which came through each concert and workshop he offered to us here in the Dunedin Diocese.”
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Source
- Press release: Supplied: Katrina van de Water, Catholic Education Office Advisor and Amy Armstrong, Pastoral Leader
- Image Supplied