by Judy Cates

CTA's Arts in Ministry referral program brings performing groups together with appreciative audiences. Here's a profile of the All Saints Gospel Choir, which wowed CTAers at the 1998 national conference, and will return in 1999.

It was like three funerals," says Arlene Skwierawski, director of the All Saints Gospel Choir (ASGC). In 1995, three old Milwaukee parishes -- Holy Angels, St. Leo and St. Agnes -- were closing and forming a new one, All Saints. The priest shortage had taken its toll. So had neighborhood racial and cultural change. Parishes were just reacting, not creatively adapting to attract new members. Director of the Holy Angels choir since 1969, Arlene felt parishes should be humble enough to say, "You don't need to do it our way. We'll learn from you." She brought that attitude to the creation of a new merged choir. It took time, prayer and gut-wrenching collaboration. Today the swinging harmonies of the interracial gospel choir prove the Spirit is at work.

Though mainly a parish and not a concert choir, ASGC participates each year in the Unity Explosion, a national gathering of black Catholic gospel groups. Last summer, ASGC took a two-week concert tour to Limoges, France. A Marquette University High School teacher had brought French exchange students to Mass at All Saints. The interracial gospel choir so intrigued them that they wanted to take the choir home to France. Funds for the trip were raised by donations, performances and a grant from a Milwaukee foundation. The response of French audiences was overwhelming. The choir sang at some performances for two and a half hours. Choir members never ran out of stamina because the crowds energized them. They had learned a few songs in French, spirituals and gospel songs, and the audiences sang and clapped along . As a result of the Limoges tour, ASGC has been invited to perform in Martinique.

Milwaukee is a profoundly intercultural city -- with a summer-long schedule of lakefront ethnic festivals, and a range of Hispanic groups, Vietnamese, even Laotian and Mung communities. In some close-knit immigrant groups, a leader will choose a church and all the members will come forward en masse to be baptized. It's possible, Arlene says, that a pastor could one Sunday discover he has 400 new parishioners. All Saints Parish has many biracial couples, and is helping to welcome a group of African refugees who were already Catholics when they emigrated. Like the parish, ASGC is about 60 percent African-American and 40 percent Anglo-American. Members range in age from 10 to 75. Many participate as families -- parents with their children. Some adults started with the group as teenagers and now bring their own children to sing.

Like her choir, Arlene Skwierawski has a life story of intercultural harmony. A Sister of Mercy in Chicago until 1968, she then went back to Milwaukee, her hometown, to teach in the inner city schools until retirement in 1994. Pentecostal students taught her about gospel music. She went to their churches to learn, then took the music back to the Catholic Church in the hopes of attracting black members. She also spent several summers in Honduras and now doubles as music director for Spanish Masses. She works with a multicultural community theater, and has started seven youth choirs.

She directed one in 1976 that sang at President Jimmy Carter's inauguration. ASGC returns to the CTA National Conference Nov. 5-7, 1999. If you missed them last year or just want to repeat the experience, be there!