By Mary Knapke

DAYTON DEANERY — The Jubilee Singers want you to experience the Stations of the Cross like you never have before.

Now in its 10th year, the choir is providing music and opportunities for reflection at Stations of the Cross services at Dayton-area parishes this Lent. The services combine prayer and music for a unique way of experiencing the Stations.

"Our hope is to reach people through the power of the Holy Spirit," said Jubilee director Paula Kern, who said the group’s focus is on ministry rather than performance.

COURTESY PHOTO

The Jubilee Singers perform at Dayton-area parishes during Lent.

Founded in 1997 with a dozen musicians, Jubilee now includes 20 volunteer members from several parishes in the Dayton area. Some singers are professional musicians and work as parish directors of music ministries, while other members are amateur musicians and work full-time in other fields. Most are in their own parish choirs in addition to participating in Jubilee.

At the group’s Stations of the Cross services, a hymn is sung at each Station, followed by a contemporary prayer that allows the congregation to reflect on that Station’s meaning in their daily lives. For the second time this year, liturgical dancers also provide "living stations" — a handful of people who act out each scene.

"I think it’s been an incredible addition to what we do," said Jeff Cutlip, the singers’ marketing director. "It puts a human face on the station." Kern added that the living stations seem to draw in and engage children in particular.

The Jubilee Singers grew out of a group of Catholic musicians who came together in 1996 to perform the musical "Song of Mark" by Marty Haugen. The popularity of that event "told us how hungry people are in this area for liturgical performances," Cutlip said.

Jubilee began by visiting two or three parishes each Lent to present the stations; now, the group’s schedule is typically nearly full months before Lent begins. Although the group was cohesive and was providing music for a variety of services, the musicians didn’t select a name until 1999, when the church’s upcoming Great Jubilee of 2000 inspired the name Jubilee Singers.

While Jubilee Singers has gained recognition for their accompaniment to Stations of the Cross services, they also perform at Advent programs, benefit concerts, evening prayer, funerals, parish missions, weddings and other events and are looking to further expand their repertoire. Four Jubilee members — a quartet of soprano, alto, tenor and bass singers — also occasionally perform as AVSC, or A Very Small Choir.

Cutlip agreed with the sentiment. "There are certain songs that I can barely get through because of where I am in my life, what’s going on in my space and how poignant those readings and those prayers and the songs are," he said. "Sometimes it hits me."

Cutlip is also a parishioner at St. Francis of Assisi and owns local company Paradigm Creative Strategies. In addition to serving as Jubilee’s marketing director, he is a member of the group’s board. Both Kern and Cutlip are founding members of Jubilee.

Kern said the musicians’ evident emotion during Lenten services seems to free the congregation to express their own emotions as they experience the message of the stations. Above all, Kern and Cutlip said, reaching out to the congregation is Jubilee’s primary mission.

"Music is very important, but we are to be a part of the assembly," Kern said. "It is not about us, and it is very important for our congregation here at St. Francis to sing. If they are sitting back and listening to us perform, as it were, then we are not doing our job. With Jubilee, it’s the same thing. If we come to the point where the congregation is just sitting back and listening to us, where we’re not moving them emotionally or asking them to join in . . . then again, we’ve missed what we’re about.

"We are only vessels for Him to work through," she added. "And our hope is that we do reach these people and let them hear something that they’ve never heard before."

For more information about Jubilee Singers, including their Lenten Stations of the Cross schedule, visit their web site at www.jubilee-singers.org.