We at NPM, the creators of this podcast, want you to know that we’re working on big ways of supporting you. First off, we remind you that we’re hosting a free webinar tonight to discuss the pastoral music survey results from last November’s national pastoral music survey. Join us either tonight, March 23, at 7:30 pm Eastern Time, or tomorrow, March 24, at 9:30 pm Eastern Time. Register online by clicking here.
Not only that, we’ll be making some big announcements today about the ways we’re supporting YOU in light of COVID-19, whether you’re an NPM member or not. So stay close to NPM National’s social media today, and please join us tonight or tomorrow night for the Faces of Music Ministry webinar.
And now, the episode at hand.
When I was in high school, I sang and danced in our high school’s musical, Crazy For You. Crazy For You is a Gershwin musical with tons of dancing- especially tap dancing. For our Saturday matinee performance, the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf came to watch and “feel” our performance. The students came to the front of the stage and placed their hands at the edge of the stage as we tapped. They told us later- via an interpreter- that they could feel the vibrations of our tap dancing by putting their hands on the stage.
Fast forward 8 years later. I worked at a Catholic church that was about to merge with the neighboring church. I was told that they had a deaf ministry that would transfer over to our parish once we were merged. I knew no sign language, I didn’t know how to interact with a deaf community. It seemed so abstract to me...until the first week we were merged. Members of the deaf community walked up to the organ console and placed their hands on it. They said that they could feel the vibrations of the organ as I used more pedal and 16’ stops.
They were thrilled, and I was floored. Here was a way to communicate with the deaf community that I remembered, even from years ago.
That’s the context from where I begin today. The next two weeks of the podcast will discuss deaf culture & music ministry from a clergy member who devoted most of his priesthood to being their advocate, and a woman who is a “deaf choir” director, and yes, that’s a very real thing. This two-part series will help us, as a hearing people, explore the context of a deaf person, and see the ways they “hear” and experience music, which yes, they do!
Now, just to be clear: I’ve worked with the deaf community for 7 years, and the terms “deaf person” and “deaf people” are not negative. But the term “disabled person” or “disability” hold more tension than the former, and we’ll get into that today.
This week we begin by speaking to a priest who dedicated his priesthood to both a hearing and deaf community. We hear how he started in this ministry, and what we need to know about deaf culture, as a hearing people.
SHOW NOTES
Fr. Walt Rydzon has been a priest in the Diocese of Pittsburgh for almost 40 years. He has served the hearing and deaf communities at both St. Justin Parish and Saint Mary of the Mount Parish until he retired in 2016. Fr. Walt currently lives in Ormond Beach, Florida and volunteers in the deaf ministry at a local Florida parish.
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