Scottish Catholic Observer

Renowned Catholic composer James MacMillan, who believes that Sacred Music holds the key to healing our broken culture, will give an address at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Glasgow, tomorrow evening for the launch of the Academy of Sacred Music.

The academy will run as a charity with the aim of restoring Sacred Music, and its associated values, to the heart of our culture. The composer is a patron of the charity.

“If modernism has also brought in its wake a desecration of the human spirit, we must penetrate the mists of contemporary banality to restore the idea of the sacred, in which our true and fullest freedom resides,” Mr MacMillan (above), who represented the Artists of the World at last month’s opening Mass for the Year of Faith at the Vatican, will say at tomorrow evening’s launch event. “Without it our lives will become meaningless. I believe it is God’s divine spark which kindles the musical imagination now, as it has always done, and reminds us, in an increasingly dehumanised world, of what it means to be human.

“…[I]n spite of the wilful amnesia of some and the aggressive manoeuvring of others, the religious artist will continue to be an essential part of human flourishing in our brave new world.”

Fr John Keenan, from the Glasgow University Catholic chaplaincy, will also give an address at tomorrow evening’s launch and will speak of the academy as an ‘inspiration.’

“The academy is really an inspiration, gathering together many hopes, that the glory of Creation, the Mystery of the Incarnation and Sacrifice of the Son of God for our Salvation, and the unexpected surprise of a New Creation, will be manifest afresh in the melodies and descants of music,” Fr Keenan is expected to say. “In proportion it is also the recognition of the burden of responsibility most artists feel to ponder in their hearts and bring to light what they know was consigned to them in trust from a source beyond the human heart.”

The formal launch of The Academy of Sacred Music will take place at St Andrew’s Cathedral, at 7.30pm tomorrow evening. The launch will be followed by a reception in the cathedral foyer.