MN Mondays #16 - The Other St. Pauls

Birch and cardinal decorating the
chancel during Advent. 

In 2010, Jacob switched parishes from St. Christophers in Roseville to the St. Paul's parish in Minneapolis beside Lake of the Isles and I went with him.  So if you've been paying attention to dates, you might be asking yourself, "Wait, does that mean that he was working for St. Paul's on the Hill and St. Paul's Lake of the Isles at the same time?"  Yes, yes it does.  In order to keep everything straight, we had to call one SPOTH and the other SPW (St. Paul's West).

St. Paul's (West) has a hundred year history or more of good music programs.  There was even a choir school at one point.  So Jacob didn't have to focus immediately on choir development.  Instead he could spend time bringing his own ideas in and exposing this choir to music and techniques that they may not have seen before.  It's always amazing to watch him work with a choir.  He's very good, that one.  💚  Even when I don't agree with what he does, he achieves results that you can't argue with.  And they never know what hit them. :) 

The choir family at St. Paul's is just that - a family.  We always manage to make friends in the choirs we've worked with, but I dare say that not being the spring chicken's we were at St. Christopher's has allowed us to make stronger connections with folks our own age in the parish.  And for a parish that has been written off for dead more than a few times, the music program under Jacob's direction has contributed to another resurgence.  Combined with (generally) liberal politics and real care for each other, this is a parish that is growing again.

First choir rehearsal of Fall 2016.