The Music Committee

I'm on the music committee at church.

Actually, right now I think I am the music committee.

Our music committee chair was released in May, when she moved out of the ward. No one else was called to fill her spot. This meant that no one called me to tell me the hymns anymore (I'm the ward organist), which is not so terrible, but it is nice to have some advance warning instead of showing up and hoping I wouldn't mess up too badly. Incidentally, she returned to the ward in August, but she's since been called to something else.

We used to have a ward choir pianist, but I'm not sure we do anymore. She might have moved out too. The last two times the choir sang in church, the people who accompanied on piano were myself (asked to do so the night before) and the choir director (I think he might have been expecting me to play that week, but I didn't show up to choir rehearsal).

We have a ward chorister. I'm also not sure who that is. She wasn't at church yesterday. Thankfully, the former music chair mentioned two paragraphs ago filled in when she noticed (as I stalled in starting the opening hymn) that there was no one to conduct.

We had an assistant organist at one point, but I never actually knew who that was. When I told the bishop I needed to stop playing for a while because of my tendinitis, he asked the choir director to play, rather than the assistant organist.

And now the choir director just sent me an email saying that he moved.

Sigh.

I'm also the music head for Relief Society, and guess what? My pianist just moved.

We also got a new bishopric on Sunday.

This is scaring me. Why? Because a) I explained the situation to the bishopric (we need a music chair!), b) they asked me to pick the hymns for next Sunday, and c) because of a and b, the bishopric knows who I am.

Could this be premature worry? I really hope so. I'm sure there are lots of people in the ward who know how to direct a choir or pick hymns or coordinate musical numbers and those sorts of things. I enjoy my calling as organist. It's just the right amount of stress for me.

This has happened to me a few times before, actually. I move to a new place, they find out I can play the piano/organ or conduct, I get put into a decent calling like choir pianist or ward organist or choir conductor... then someone moves and Super Betty is called upon to fill in while they can call someone else (which usually doesn't happen until I move a few months later).

Hopefully in a few weeks we'll have things settled down and have a new committee chair and choir conductor and Relief Society pianist and all that. And if I happen to receive a new calling too, well... it may just be time to move.



P.S. I would not actually move to avoid a calling. Sheesh.