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WO RS H IP Worship Arts News: Reflections on the Past Twelve Years by Julie Enersen, outgoing Worship Arts Director
“I’ve Got The Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down in My Heart” I can clearly remember the Sunday morning in 2004 when then-minister Fritz Hudson announced that the current music director would be leaving her position at church. I could feel the sideways glances from other members and knew they were thinking, “Hey...Julie stopped teaching music a couple of years ago and, now that both kids are in school, she probably has the time to do the job.” So, I met with Fritz a couple of times and eventually said “yes.” It was only six hours a week (directing the choir was purely a volunteer activity at that time) so how much impact could it have on my life? As it turns out, the job has had a major impact on life and has solidified Unitarian Universalism as a centerpiece of it. I’ve been lucky to work with a congregation that is open to all kinds of experiences. My UU music colleagues often make statements such as “My members would NEVER go for that.” That was just not the case in our church. Our congregation jumped in and embraced whatever activity I asked them to do, whether it was singing pop songs with The ‘A’ Street Band, listening to a musical piece played by three radios, participating in an allchurch art project or adding dance to a hymn. Also, I have never before worked with a group of singers who were as good-natured, supportive, trusting and gung-ho as the choir. I feel incredibly blessed to have spent so many hours with those wonderful people. We sometimes found notes we didn’t expect and called it “unexpected jazz.” Other
times found notes we didn’t expect and called it “sublime.” The choir held me up as I grieved personal losses and we held each other up when the congregation faced community losses. We have amassed a bevy of surprising, disappointing, and life-changing moments together which are too many to list. Through it all, the choir never failed to make me proud. And then there were the Drama Club services! We had so many little details to consider each time we undertook one of those allyouth services featuring art/music/drama, but the kids and other adult leaders stuck with it. We were able to create worship that was beautiful, funny and astonishing...I am still in awe of what we were able to accomplish. As a result of being the Worship Arts Director, I’ve attend regional and national conferences, I’ve become very engaged with the Musicians Network, my family has sought out UU family camps in the summer, and I’ve made lifelong UU friends here at home and across North America. I had no idea this would be the result when I told Fritz I’d be willing to hire guest musicians for Sunday services. After June 12, I plan to be mostly absent from worship services because I want to create space into which other musical leaders can rise. I think that’s only fair to the congregation and to my eventual successor. But I won’t be disappearing from church, I’ll simply be reappearing in other ways. I am VERY excited to be able to participate in the Ministerial Search Committee. So…here’s to whatever’s next for all of us and to twelve years that were full of joy, joy, joy, joy because of all of you. As the song says, that joy is “down in my heart to stay!”
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