frclarencerivers

Eric and Emily explore a great accomplishment for Black Catholics in the US many years in the making: the Lead Me Guide Me hymnal, published by GIA Publications in 1987. After some background on the hymnal’s development, hosts introduce Marjorie Gabriel-Burrow, who chaired the committee that brought the hymnal to birth. Marjorie, an internationally acclaimed musician and composer, has served the Catholic Church as a pastoral musician since the eighth grade and since 1992 at St. Augustine-St. Monica Parish in Detroit. Marjorie tells stories of a lifetime of making music in the Church as a Black Catholic, including meeting Fr. Rivers and long-time parish use of Rivers’ Mass Dedicated to the Brotherhood of Man and the struggles and triumphs of putting together Lead Me Guide Me with collaborators Rawn Harbor and Leon C. Roberts. Hosts and guest discuss Fr. Rivers’ decision not to allow the inclusion of much of his music in the hymnal. Marjorie shares her personal remembrances of Fr. Rivers. For Episode 27 Show Notes, click here.

Happy Black Catholic History Month! In this brief but important episode, listeners get oriented to this celebratory month and receive a homework assignment for next episode. But don’t fear—this is homework you’ll want to do! The fine folks at Orbis Books have given us permission to share a chapter Fr. Rivers published in the 1998 scholarly collection, Taking Down Our Harps (ed. by Fr. Cyprian Davis, OSB and Diana L. Hayes) entitled “The Oral African Tradition Versus the Ocular Western Tradition.” This short, fascinating chapter will form the focus of discussion in our next episode. You can access that chapter as a free download (click here for link). Special thanks to Orbis Books. We also discuss what you can do to celebrate BCHM (book recs!), we share a passing of note—James E. Moore—and receive a musical gift from composer Christian Cosas. For the show notes for Episode 20, click here.