A Visit from Marty Haugen

This December, Shepherd of the Mountains will begin celebrating its 25th anniversary of being a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.  The church council is thrilled to announce that we have commissioned a new service by Marty Haugen as the centerpiece for our celebrations in this special year.  The process began with Haugen’s initial visit to meet us October 7th– 10th, 2016.  It was wonderful to worship and spend time in fellowship and workshops with Marty!

More about Marty…

Haugen is a well-known musician-theologian and composer of favorite service settings like “Now the Feast and Celebration” and “Holden Evening Prayer,” as well as hymns like “Gather Us In.”  We rejoice in the memories that Haugen’s songs stir up.  The Moulders shared a particularly special one with me.  They have been with this congregation for these 25 years and in 2017 will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary…  Haugen’s hymns “Taste and See” and “Eye Has Not Seen” were sung as communion songs at their wedding ceremony.

New music also renews us – nourishing the congregation and the community here and now.  Shepherd of the Mountains and Jackson will fundamentally shape the music, celebrating our unique context.  Haugen will visit for a few days this October to get a sense of who we are and how music might support us.  As he composes, he will share pieces with us for us to try and invite feedback, perhaps visiting again during this development process, and at the end.  We hope to debut the final service around August 2017 (possibly in time for solar eclipse visitors).

And finally, our hope is that this music reaches out to the larger church in a special way.  We will have supported one of the church’s great composers, and eventually this gift of music would be available to congregations in the synod, the nation, and the world.


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