Neat article, but I found THIS line, “Pay musicians and singers if you must. “ to be inexplicable. As a church singer, volunteer, I firmly believe that every parish has wonderful talent that can make the sacred music. Hire leaders, yes, but paying professional ringers is CHEATING. And it robs the volunteers of opportunity.
Most of the congregation are afraid to sing, and it's like pulling teeth to get people into the choir. And when they get there, they're still afraid to sing. We have 14 sopranos and you can't hear most of them.
You need at least one staff singer per part. Two if there's not a strong volunteer in that section.
I'm persistently recruiting singers from our former ECUSA parish. We need 'em badly!