Song and sacrament draw global visitors to Adelaide
Events
Visitors from the United States and Fiji were among more than 400 delegates who turned out on the first morning of a major music and liturgy conference in Adelaide today (Wednesday October 1).
The ballroom at the CBD’s Hilton Hotel was packed for the opening of the National Liturgy and Music Conference with its theme of Pilgrims of Hope, transformed through sacrament and song.
The three-day conference, which is being mostly attended by delegates from across Australia, has a running program of prayer and liturgy, keynote speakers, workshops and exhibits and is designed to nurture and develop liturgical celebrations in Catholic parishes, schools and agencies.
And it began with a bang, as a 13-member group of singers, guitarists and percussion section kicked off with ‘Holy Spirit Land’, penned by the chair of the Australian Pastoral Musicians network and prolific songwriter Michael Mangan, who was at the conference.
A foot-tapper, it was followed by another Mangan composition, ‘Hope in the land’, after which Michael’s wife Anne Frawley-Mangan gave a reflection on the Word.
An encompassing three-part blessing followed – for the choirs, musical ensemble and ‘all who minister in the liturgy’ – with the song ‘Hope is Alive’ from accomplished writer and performer Gen Bryan – drawing the audience into its singalong chorus.
Fr Ricky Manalo was the opening keynote speaker.
Ricky Manalo, a Paulist priest of Filipino heritage who lives in New York City, then took to the stage as the opening keynote speaker on what was his first visit to Adelaide.
A pioneering voice in Catholic liturgy, music and theology, Fr Manalo talked for 60 minutes on the history – from the Romans, Middle Ages, Baroque period and onwards – and embedded importance of ritual, sound and text within contemporary liturgy.
Repetition within liturgy leads to an instinctive understanding, familiarity and then ease, he said, referencing the wider example of a group of people starting up a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’.
“There will be three or four different keys to start with,” he said.
“But by the end of the first phrase, we will have just the one key”.
Similarly, sub-conscious association with singing in the church forms the basis of liturgy, he told the engaged audience.
Sponsored by Catholic Education South Australia (CESA) and the Archdiocese of Adelaide, the conference runs until closing prayers at 4.30pm on Friday.
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