I attended the inaugural general meeting of this organisation in Sydney on the 25th of June at Mary McKillop Place in North Sydney. The election bits were painless – all nominees elected and the two workshops interesting.
There were a lot of ideas for the network to work towards and I suspect they will turn up on their website when the dust settles. Getting music taken seriously and properly funded and trained for in the Church was emphasised. Providing a network for resources and ideas to be exchanged and available to all pastoral musicians on line seems a sensible suggestion.
What need to happen now is an avalanche of members. Anyone involved in pastoral music or liturgical music in Australia should join as soon as possible and then get networking. The current people involved are mainly from the songwriting and publishing area but if the network is to flourish it needs the support and contribution of talent from those providing music for mass in the suburbs and the rural areas where the struggle for musicians and resources is at its most acute. Let’s make a start.