From a reader. Ouch. The reader added that she is a parishioner at this parish, but not any kind of liturgical specialist.  She gave me a little more information in another note that fleshed out the relational and personal issues that seem to make either the pastor or the music director reluctant to do anything different than what’s being done.

I was hoping you and your readers could help me decide what to do about a music situation at my parish.

To begin with, my parish is wonderful. It’s active. It’s orthodox, and it’s blessed with one of the best (if not the best) priest in our sad, aging-hippy diocese.

But the music is downright horrible.

It was so distracting at the Christmas Eve Mass, that people began to laugh uncontrollably at one point.

It’s not just that the selection of hymns is bad, it’s that the performance and the performers are really, really, really bad.

Edited at request of letter writer

It was so distracting, and so bad I feel compelled to say something, but I’m not sure how. I realize most of these people are volunteers, trying to serve God by lending their voices to our worship of him, but I once heard a priest say that those who have good voices should raise them in song to God, and those who don’t should keep their mouths shut and they’re pleasing him just as much.

I also realize that this sounds completely un-Christian and uncharitable of me, but it was that bad.

The correspondent has requested that I edit the letter, so there’s no earthly way the parish could be identified, so I have. For those late to the party, the gist was that the quality of the musicianship was terrible – not just off-key, but inappropriate for worship in many different ways, not suited to the occasion, and, incidentally, musically awful. You can read the comments so far to pick up the rest of the gist.