By Anne Marie Amacher
The Catholic Messenger
Two parishes have received grant money from Oregon Catholic Press (OCP) to enhance their community’s liturgy and music programs.
Our Lady of Victory Parish in Davenport and Sacred Heart Parish in Newton were selected out of hundreds of applications, according to a release from OCP.
“Every application was of remarkable merit and each parish’s needs were worthy of assistance, making the selection process quite difficult,” the release said.
Cheryl Zimanek, accompanist for the contemporary choir at Our Lady of Victory, applied for the grant. The parish received $2,500 this year, which will go toward purchase of the latest version of the “Spirit and Song” books from OCP. “These newly revised books will replace the original version of the ‘Spirit and Song’ books that we have been using for many years,” she said. The new books contain new and revised contemporary Mass settings.
The parish has received grants from OCP before for $1,000. That money was used for music needs including the OCP solo instrument book that contains songs found in “Music Issue” and “Today’s Missal” and includes parts for C and B-flat instruments.
Father Bill Reynolds, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, said this is the first time the parish has received an OCP grant. Kathy Hammerly of the parish did the work to obtain the $1,500 grant.
“We had proposed three projects with grant requests of about $7,000,” Fr. Reynolds said. A grant award of that amount would have gone toward sending music personnel to the National Association of Pastoral Musicians Convention, repair of the organ, and music books for children. A final decision has not been made concerning which parish projects will receive the funding.
