St Catherine of Siena Church Choir
The choir is an important leader in worship: it is that portion of the congregation that is trained to lead, enhance and support Church members in sung prayer and praise. The St. Catherine of Siena choir is a voluntary group of Christians with a calling and gift for singing. The choir’s mission is to serve God and the congregational community through the joyous gift of music. The choir’s structure includes a council whose roles
and responsibilities are described in the St. Catherine of Siena Choir Handbook. The council includes the following posts:
1. Chairperson
2. Vice-Chair
3. Secretary
4. Four Section Leaders
5. Organizing Secretary
6. Treasurer
7. Choir Master
Achievements of the Choir
Musical Equipment: acquired a keyboard donated by the Couples of Christ group. This has helped uplift the songs in the Church DVD: the Choir produced the first musical DVD entitled “Asante Ninashukuru” (2012). Uniform: the choir now has a set of 2 uniforms that are worn during special occasions.
Handbook and Code of Conduct:
we have
developed the St. Catherine of Siena
Handbook and a Code of Conduct that every
choir member signs.
Kitty Collection:
we introduced a policy for
annual registration of Kshs 200, and a
monthly contribution of Kshs 100.
Sunday Bulletin:
we introduced a bulletin
that is sold on Sundays at Kshs 20 which has
boosted the choir kitty.
The choir has made some important achievements to date related to improving
performance, outreach, policy making, and revenue collection. At the same time, it continues
to face several challenges such as:
1. Membership Turnover: there is a high turnover of choir members largely because many
of them are employees and often transfer when work demands. It has been difficult to
attract the permanent Church members to the choir.
2. Players for Musical Instruments: although there is a good keyboard, only one choir
members is self training. Therefore, when he is absent, the quality of singing goes
down.
3. Support for Choir Teachers because they are volunteers: Although we have two choir
teachers, we don’t know of their professional qualification in vocal and instrument use.
4. Hymn Book: the choir has an accumulation of many new songs that need to be put into
a hymn book.
5. Kitty Collection: performance has been poor.
In order to address the above challenges, the choir wishes to implement the following plans:
1. Membership: improve the quality of singing and attract new choir members from the
congregation
2. Musical Instruments: a new drum-set is needed as the old one is torn.
3. Support for Choir Teachers: identify a sustainable way of supporting the choir teachers.
4. Hymn Book: organize the collection of songs in the files and prepare the first St.
Catherine of Siena Hymn book to be launched in December 2014.
5. Outreach: try to make formal arrangements and assign members who can attend the
deanery choir meetings following the numerous invitations received to participate in
them.
6. Kitty Collection: In addition to the choir members’ contribution, identify other ways of
raising funds to support the choir as well as Church projects