Update on Music Director Search Committee
Curious about what First Church’s most newly minted committee, the Music Director search committee, has been up to in the (virtual) dog days of DC summer 2021? Since mid-July, we have diligently signed on to post-worship Zoom calls every Sunday to undertake the important task of hiring our next Music Director/Director of Music/Music Minister/Minister of Music Direction/Directional Music Minister….we’re still working on the title.
To frame our search process, we delved into unconscious bias in a two-week training session led by the Rev. Dr. Ron Hopson. He encouraged us to set intentions for the search, including embracing discomfort as an indication of investment in the process, and detaching ourselves from a certain vision of the outcome, which we have found very liberating and helpful. We have also met with the Worship Commission to learn about the preliminary findings of the Racial Justice Audit Survey related to music at First Church. Both these conversations are informing our ongoing work updating the job description to reflect the hopes and expectations for First Church’s music program. Looking forward, we are planning a congregation-wide “Nurture on the Music that Moves Us” on Sunday, September 5. We want this to be an opportunity to share memories of our favorite church music – soundtrack included!
If you would like to learn more about the committees’ work exploring unconscious bias, please reach out to Rev. Amanda or Rev. Hopson for recommended resources. For any other questions related to the search process, please contact the search committee chair, Marian Drake, who isn’t Zoomed-out yet.