By Hailey McPheron
After a five-year hiatus, the McNicholas Liturgy Choir has returned under the direction of Mrs. Lauren Bridges Loyer. The choir is an even mix of 26 students, teachers, and staff who all sing during Mass to praise God.
Loyer leads the Liturgy Choir as the Vocal and Liturgical Music Director. Because of this, she is not only a part of the Performing Arts Team, but the Mission and Ministry Team as well. Loyer, a 2010 graduate of McNicholas, is excited to be back as a teacher.
“It feels funny! I honestly did not expect to be here, but I’m so glad that I am. Originally Mr. Hutchinson reached out when [the administration] started talking about building a new position and bring back the whole music program,” Loyer said. She added that people from McNick kept reaching out, so she decided to apply and ultimately got the job.
“Everyone’s been really supportive, particularly my former teachers and other faculty and staff members who were students here around the same time that I was,” Loyer said.
When she attended McNick as a student, she took choir and theatre classes. During the years 2007-2010, there was one choir class during the school day; Liturgy Choir was after school. Mrs. Lizanne Ingram, currently the principal of Saint Bernadette school, was at the time a school administrator at McNick who also ran the Liturgy Choir. Mrs. Jeanne Spurlock was the Theatre teacher/Director.
“[The Liturgy Choir] started out as an email to teachers and staff asking for volunteers to sing for our first day of school Mass. I didn’t know any students yet for that first Mass and around ten faculty members showed up to sing, for which I was so grateful.” The group slowly but surely added more students and is now an even mix of students and teachers.
Loyer said she loves the students and how collaborative the group is. “Before picking music for each Mass, I send out a quick email saying, ‘Hey, here are the readings for the next Mass. Are there any songs you think would really fit this Mass?’ Sometimes I don’t get any responses and sometimes I get a lot,” she said.
Loyer wanted to bring students and teachers into the mix since, in the last few years, students and teachers have not been regularly involved in McNick’s music ministry. “I’ve been told that people felt like the music that was at Mass the previous years was not very collaborative. My understanding is that there was one organist and one cantor who weren’t students or teachers at McNick. Since they didn’t work at McNick, they didn’t have the chance to collaborate regularly with students or faculty and staff,” Loyer said.
Liturgy Choir sessions are very flexible, based on when each person can make it. If a student can’t sing or play one Mass because, for example, they are an altar server for that Mass, they can just join back up for the next Mass. They try to do 2 practices for every Mass and practices are mostly on Tuesdays from 2:45 till 4:15 p.m. Loyer also offers one on one practices during lunch or study halls to catch up on missed rehearsals.
The Liturgy Choir does not currently count as class credit yet, but she is hopeful that in the next few years, the Liturgy Choir can become a class so that students can earn class credit for their hard work and honing skills they have.
Anyone interested in joining the Liturgy Choir should email Loyer, talk to her in person, or join the Schoology group. She posts when to pick up music, when rehearsals are, and asks if anyone has questions.
Each rehearsal starts with snacks, warming up, talking, and stretching, and then the choir pulls out that week’s music and gets ready to practice. Loyer always makes sure her students do the three most important things: “Did you eat? Did you drink water? Did you sleep for at least 6 hours last night?”
“Liturgy Choir is a symbol of community,” Loyer shared. “It’s a way that people can lead differently at Mass if they’re not Catholic or they don’t necessarily want to go up and read the readings in front of everyone or want to be a eucharistic minister or aren’t ready to be a Kairos leader yet. It’s another way people can lead in ministry and be actively involved in Mass.”
The McNicholas Milestone 