Archbishop Eamon opens the Irish Church Music Summer School 2021

 

Archbishop Eamon had the pleasure of offering a message at the the opening of the The Irish Church Music Association’s  summer school 2021. This year’s Summer School is focusing in a special way on Psalms. The Psalms are poetic prayers, and the range of themes and emotions they express is extraordinary. As Pope Francis said recently, ‘in them, we encounter the entire gamut of human emotions, from praise, petition and joyful thanksgiving to anguished supplication for deliverance from life’s bitter disappointments and sorrows’.
 
The ICMA is a volunteer run organisation whose mission is to promote best practice in liturgy and music. They are based in the Centre for Liturgy in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
 
Each summer they hold a 4 day summer school, but this year due to the continued restrictions from COVID19 they  are instead holding a virtual event. It is just one hour each day and they are hoping that many people who normally cannot attend the summer school will join them.
 
The Summer School is a free event and will be broadcast on their Facebook Page, Youtube Channels and Website. The Summer School is open to choir members, cantors, instrumentalists and anyone else who feel they might enjoy these workshops.
 

For the first time ever, this year’s ICMA Summer School will be hosted online. This Virtual Summer School will run from Wednesday 7 July to Saturday 10 July. A live streamed workshop will be broadcast daily on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings at 8.00 pm, and on Saturday at 2.00 pm. The Summer School will close with the celebration of Mass, live-streamed from the College Chapel in Maynooth, at 3.00 pm on Saturday. There will be no charge for this year’s Summer School, though donations to defray the costs would be warmly appreciated. Further details of the Summer School can be found at the link below:

 
 
Even though it will be an unusual Summer School, most of the usual features are included in the programme – sung prayer each day, daily input on the theme for the week and, of course, the opportunity to explore new music. And even though they cannot gather everyone in Maynooth, they will be assembling a virtual choir to pre-record the closing song for the Summer School Eucharist. All members and friends of ICMA are welcome to be part of this effort as we unite our voices in praise