Mark Mummert has accepted the invitation to serve as church organist at Christ the King Lutheran Church effective August 1. Dr. Albert LeDoux, music director, made the recommendation to church council on April 28 after a visit by Mark the prior weekend.
In recommending Mark Mummert Albert LeDoux said, “Mark brings a powerful dimension to worship and music at Christ the King Church. Music and liturgy are of highest priority for our congregation, and Mark will bring added dynamism to our assembly. He is an incredibly versatile and multi-talented musician and I look forward to our work together.”
Mark’s responsibilities at Christ the King Church will include both Sunday services and the Saturday Taizé service. He will also take over direction of the Chorus, replacing current director Kirsten Jordon, who is expecting her fourth child in September. “This works out well for everyone,” says LeDoux, “Kirsten needs a little more time for her family, and Mark will be a great leader for that ensemble. Kirsten will continue to direct the Choristers (after a brief hiatus), and Mark will also direct a youth choir.” Mummert will also have some duties with the Bach Society, accompanying the Bach Choir and playing in the Bach Orchestra.
Mark Mummert has been Seminary Musician at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia for eighteen years. He completes his service as Cantor at Christ Ascension Lutheran Church in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia on June 30, 2008. Prior to serving Christ Ascension Church, Mark served as Cantor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Glenside, Pennsylvania.
Mark is a composer of the first setting of Holy Communion in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) released in 2006. In the first setting, Mark composed the Kyrie, Litany, Glory to God, This is the Feast, and the Lenten Gospel Acclamation. Mark also composed the setting of the Benedictus for the ELW Morning Prayer rite, and his acclamations Holy God (Trisagion) and All of Us Go Down to the Dust are included in the ELW Service Music section. In addition, Mark served on the development panels for liturgical music, hymnody, and new hymnody in the Renewing Worship project of the ELCA that led to the ELW. Also, Mark served on the faculty that trained the synodical teams for the introduction of the worship book to the church in July, 2006.
Mark is an active member of ALCM, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. ALCM is a pan-Lutheran association of musicians and clergy throughout North America committed to the proclamation of the Word of God through music. For ALCM, Mark has recently served as Director of Professional Concerns (2003-2007) and also served as the Worship Chair for the 2005 Biennial Conference in New York City and for regional conferences in Lansdale and New Haven. Mark is also on the Advisory Council of the Institute of Liturgical Studies at Valparaiso University.
In August 2007, Mark served as the director of worship music for the ELCA Worship Jubilee and the ELCA Churchwide Assembly all held at Navy Pier in Chicago. He was organist for the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Orlando and organist for the National Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada in Winnipeg in July, 2005. Mark was keynote speaker for “Breaking Bread, Breaking Boundaries” in Toronto, July 2004, and the Kyrkomusik Symposiet (Church Music Symposium) of the Church of Sweden in Goteborg in September 2006. Mark returned to Goteborg in September 2007 for “God is Among Us: A Worship Symposium” where he presented a lecture (“Music in the Life of the Assembly: Formation, Integration, Proclamation, and Celebration”) and a workshop on the liturgical music of Evangelical Lutheran Worship (“Unity Through Diversity”).