Cricket Cooper is Rector at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Pittsfield, MA. She has been a participant and presenter at many MMC events and has been a member of the MMC Board of Trustees since 2014. 

Like many people, my first introductions to paperless music in 1970’s worship left me with mixed feelings.  Frustratingly, there only seemed to be two “moods”: either a hyper-caffeinated clapping frenzy, or the other extreme intended to be meditative but too often flagging into a sort of sad despondency.  

Music that Makes Community offers a repertoire of paperless music that can span and speak to the entire spectrum of emotions we call upon in prayer.  We also learn that through our leading, we can shift intensity and mood by bringing the volume or tempo down or up, by breathing energy into the music with our whole bodies, or silencing a chant to a hum so that prayer petitions may be spoken over the top.

The beautiful thing about the songs in our website resources is precisely that they are meant to be led “by heart,” meaning that any piece of music that the leader chooses can be used in a variety of situations.

Paperless music can serve as a powerful welcoming gesture, unifying the diverse voices that have assembled, regardless of religious tradition or musical experience. Paperless wedding music provides a unique opportunity for guests to bless the couple with the gift of their voice as well as their presence. Singing together can also make space for the couple and guests to be more fully present, to relax into and savor the moment.

Scott Weidler is Program Director for Worship and Music at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Chicago, IL. He is a Music that Makes Community Presenter and has been Board of Trustees Member since 2014.

Scott Weidler lead Khudaya Rahem Ker at the MMC Presenters' Retreat at Holy Cross Monastery in September, 2015.

When I first got involved with Music that Makes Community and was starting to spread the word across the church, it was not uncommon for people to think I was talking about a workshop on using screens and projection in worship. Sadly, that was the only kind of “paperless” experience they had had.

When I had a chance to describe what we were up to, people very often would respond with something like, “Oh, how wonderful it is when a congregation knows something so well that they can sing it from memory.” Mm, well, yes, it might be wonderful, but that isn’t really what we’re about either. How might a visitor feel in that context?

Richard Bruxvoort Colligan is a Psalmist from small-town Iow. He was a participant at Music That Makes Community in Minneapolis in 2014. He serves events across denominations and publishes via PsalmImmersion.com. 



Epiphany is one of my favorite liturgical seasons because its very theme points to participation: manifest this Holy Presence that we have longed for in Advent and have celebrated at Christmas. 

A paperless song holds the possibility of full engagement by the community, leaving no one out because of reading ability. A few years ago, when I was part of Marcia McFee's Worship Design Studio podcast, I was craving that full-participation feeling on behalf of my community. That's how "Your Light Has Come" arrived as a kind of processional chant. 

The lyrics hover around Isaiah 60, a text that hits "refresh" on the screens of our imaginations: "Pay attention. Something big is happening and you are part of it!" "Your Light Has Come" intents to help us be in touch with that invitation and call. 

       Lift your head, raise your eyes, look around:
            Your light has come! Your light has come!
       Light the world, heal the earth, bear the Christ:
           Your light has come! Your light has come!

Jennifer Baker-Trinity serves as a church musician and writer in the scenic Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania and was a participant at MMC in Chicago in 2011 and 2014.

This experiment Rev. Rob Boulter did with O Come O Come Emmanuel at MMC in Baltimore is one idea for how to use the practice of a paperless song leading to sing Christmas carols with groups who may not know all the words or tune but want to participate. How great would a setting like this be on a busy street corner full of dazed last-minute shoppers?

A few years ago, my husband who is a pastor met with a family caring for their ailing mother with Alzheimer’s. It was Christmastime and my husband offered to sing with them. He began to sing “Away in a Manger,” making the incorrect assumption that they would join in the singing. One woman sang, the mother whose memory was failing her. Her family, however, remained quiet. What kept them from singing? Unfamiliarity with the song? Uneasiness with singing in general? Something else?

When leaders of Music that Makes Community gather people for singing, they are wise not to assume that some are “in the know” and others are not. A leader doesn’t preface teaching with “Well, most of you know this, but...” The assumption is instead that all of us have something to learn; we are in this together.

Now is the season when many church or community groups will go caroling. Songbooks are gathered and groups go out in small or larger numbers to sing for others. It is considered a ministry, a way to bring the gift of music and the holiday spirit to those who are homebound or lonely. Yet as I think about this tradition, I wonder if the experience of MMC can refresh this practice?

Rev. Cricket Cooper is Rector at St. Stephen's Parish in Pittsfield, MA. She has been a member of the MMC Board of Trustees since 2014.

Several years ago, I attended Emily Scott’s workshop on paperless music at the Episcopal diocesan convention in Vermont.  The afternoon workshops were followed in the evening by a large, diocesan dinner for a few hundred people, in a ballroom of a local hotel.

In the midst of the din of food service, clattering flatware, jovial conversations and reunions, suddenly a frightened voice pierced the room, calling for a doctor.   Amid the sounds of scuffling and raised voices far in a corner of the large space, most of us were instantly drawn into that horrible place of unknowing.  What had happened?  How serious was it?  Could we help?  What should we do?

Jason Chesnut is a Co-Pastor of The Slate Project, a new worshipping community in Baltimore, MD. He was a participant at MMC in New York City in 2014 and is co-hosting our event in Baltimore November 20-21, 2015.

When I walked into St. Peter's in midtown Manhattan for the Music That Makes Community conference, I honestly had no idea what to think. I mean, I like music. I like singing. But an entire conference on this? It seemed unnecessary. 

A few days later, I was stunned. Not only had I stretched myself like never before at any conference (and I'm a Lutheran pastor, y'all - I go to a lot of conferences); I had also learned a skill that I have used almost every single day since then. Our own #BreakingBread (worship rooted in the ancient and the arts) regularly employs the skills of paperless music in Baltimore.

Jacob Slichter is an MMC presenter, writer and drummer based in Brooklyn, NY. He has been a Board of Trustees member since 2014.


Cricket Cooper lead "Teach Us to Care" at our MMC Presenters' Retreat in September, 2015. 

Various members of the congregational council are milling about just outside the meeting room, talking about the news, their kids, problems at work.  Suddenly, someone bursts into song and invites everyone else to join in.

Scott Weidler is Program Director for Worship and Music at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Chicago, IL. He is a Music that Makes Community Presenter and has been Board of Trustees Member since 2014.


Bishop Claire Schenot Burkat at the Separation Wall in the West Bank.

I was in the West Bank visiting a small village that had been cut off from neighbors and family when the Separation Wall was built through their town. This was shortly after becoming involved with Music that Makes Community. I was privileged to be part of the staff that accompanied the ELCA Conference of Bishops to the holy land. My job was coordinating their worship and leading their singing.  That day in the West Bank, half the group of bishops was in a town hall listening to heart-wrenching stories while the others were at the Wall planting olive trees as a sign of peace and solidarity with the Palestinian people. It was a poignant day for everyone.

The printed schedule (which changed by the hour) said that the two groups would reconvene together for “worship” near a particular gate in the wall (which was chain link fence with barbed wire, at that point) at a certain time.