Position Announcement
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Walla Walla, Washington, is currently seeking a music director/organist/choir director. Candidates should be highly skilled at the organ, have the ability and desire to lead a choir, and be familiar with the Anglican musical tradition. Interested applicants should send a cover letter and resume to the attention of the Worship Committee at stpauls@stpaulsww.org or 323 Catherine St., Walla Walla, WA 99362. The complete position description can be found here.
About Music at St. Paul’s
St. Paul’s is an Episcopal church, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, in the Diocese of Spokane. We are a medium-sized parish, with about 110 people in the pews on a given Sunday, but with many more active in the community. As we are not a confessional church, our worship describes and makes us who we are as a people and holds us together as a community. Nothing affects our worship more than our music.
The music program at St. Paul’s is well-established in the Anglican tradition. We value high-quality
, thoughtfully selected sacred music that authentically represents who we are as a congregation. Music, liturgy and architecture (ours is a gothic revival church) fit together and contribute to overall synergy of atmosphere. Our hymnal can be considered our “Book of Common Praise.” As the hymns further our spiritual growth, the goals of the hymnal are to embody practicality and aesthetic excellence and contain theological and literary merit, poetic beauty, and integrity of meaning. Most hymns are led on our Casavant Frères pipe organ (specifications), and the skill of our organist to play this instrument to its fullest potential has become integral to inspiring worship. Additional instruments include a new Fandrich & Sons grand piano and four octave sets of handbells and chimes.
We are a singing church. We have a full SATB adult choir with about 20 volunteers and paid section leaders. The choir leads the congregation in singing hymns and psalms and prepares an anthem for every 10:30 a.m. service, and for various other services throughout the year (Easter Vigil, two Festival Easter Day services (8 a.m./10:30 a.m.), Festival of Lessons and Carols, Christmas Eve service). Along with the music director, the choir also teaches the congregation new hymns throughout the year.
We also value diversity of musical styles in various settings. Every year we look forward to a youth-led service featuring our talented youth instrumentalists. For some occasions, the music director also introduces the congregation to world music by selecting choir anthems that reflect other sacred traditions. Our handbell choir, led by our assistant music director, performs several times a year at St. Paul’s and in the community. Another well-loved community event is our First Thursday concert series, which brings professional musicians of all genres to St. Paul’s for free monthly concerts. And this year—thanks to the acoustical richness and aesthetic qualities of St. Paul’s worship space—the Walla Walla Symphony is bringing guest soloists for a new chamber music series.
For more information about our church, please refer to the other pages of our website.
