I am thrilled to let you know that Cindy DeDakis has accepted our call to serve as our new Minister of Music.  She will begin her ministry in June.  She is currently serving as the Interim Minister of Music at St. John's Church, Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., which is affectionately known as “the Church of the Presidents” as it is located across from the White House and the President often worships there.

Our music consultant, Bill Roberts, had recently served as Minister of Music at St. John's Church, until he accepted a call to become the Professor of Church Music at the Virginia Theological Seminary.  Bill has highly recommended Cindy to us, as did Marti Rideout, our former Interim Minister of Music, who has also worked very closely with Cindy at St. John's and has known her for many years.

Cindy had previously served at the Director of the Chorister Academy at St. John's Church and served as the Associate Choirmaster at St. Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta, Georgia, one of our largest and finest music programs in the country.  She is widely known and respected by musicians throughout the Episcopal Church.  She is currently the President of the Royal School of Church Music in America, which is the main organization and program for developing outstanding children's and youth choral programs in the Episcopal Church. 

As President of RSCM America, Cindy has personally viewed about 20 Episcopal music programs in churches around the country and is extremely knowledgeable about different kinds of RSCM programs. She is also closely connected to many of the finest church musicians in our country.  She will be able to bring many of these resources to bear on strengthening and developing our music program.  Cindy has also worked extensively in leading adult choirs, including serving as Music Director of the Atlanta Schola Cantorum.

Needless to say, we are very excited to have Cindy joining our staff.  She will bring great experience, expertise, passion, vision, musicianship and pastoral and spiritual qualities to our program and a wonderful ability to articulate and communicate what this program entails.  She is also thoroughly versed in Episcopal liturgy and hymnody. 

Cindy is thrilled to be joining us.  Hiring a musician who is truly excited about this opportunity was an important factor in our search as our church community looks forward to having someone lead us to new levels of musical excellence and participation.

We will now establish a Music Transition Team.  The MTT will meet once a month on Sundays after church and the Rector's Forum to assist Cindy in getting off to a strong start.  Steve Bitterman, our new Vestry Liaison to Worship and Music, has agreed to serve on the MTT.  This will create strong continuity between worship and music and our Vestry.  If you are interested in volunteering to serve on the MTT, please contact me directly at mzabriskie@stthomaswhitemarsh.org. 

The MTT will begin meeting soon, in order to make plans for welcoming Cindy into our parish and creating get-togethers where parishioners can meet Cindy in smaller settings over the course of the summer and possibly the fall to discuss and hear about where we hope to go with our music program.

While Cindy is a superb choral conductor, she is not an organist.  Many churches and cathedrals in the United States and England have a music conductor oversee their music program.  The Choral Conductor oversees the music program and hires an organist to accompany rehearsals and play at all church services.  This is the model that we have decided to use.  Cindy will oversee the process of hiring a superb part-time organist.  We have already budgeted for this. 

As some of you may recall, Jim Batt was given a part-time assistant for the first three years of his service to St. Thomas'.  Hence, we have had more than one full-time person in our music program before.  I will ask the MTT and parishioner Phil Gehman, who is so knowledgeable about music and organ playing, to assist Cindy in hiring an excellent part-time organist.

In closing, I wish to thank each one of you for your support as we have moved through this process carefully and prayerfully.  The music search was a wonderful team effort, which allowed us to secure the talent of a musician as wonderfully gifted as Cindy.

We have much to look forward to.  I wish each of you a most blessed Holy Week and Easter and look forward to seeing you at each of the Triduum services, if you are in town and not traveling.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Marek+
Rector
St. Thomas’ Church, Whitemarsh
215-233-3970
mzabriskie@stthomaswhitemarsh.org