Liturgy

Kate Williams earned a Master of Arts in Liturgical Ministry in 2016 from CTU, where she was also a recipient of the Bernardin Scholarship. She works as the Vice President of Sacred Music at GIA Publications, Inc. Her passions include serving as a workshop leader, consultant, and musician in multicultural and multigenerational communities, mentoring young people, and building bridges through music ministry.

Why liturgy and justice matter for today’s church?

While not all Catholics are called to the work of Common Ground all the time with every issue, what is humbling about this inclination towards peaceful discourse is that it prioritizes each person’s human dignity, and their worthiness of engagement. It forces us to remember who we are and whose we are, even in times of great distress, turmoil, and division. It is challenging and frustrating work, but it is work that we can be proud to expend our time and energy on, because we know that at its core, it is honoring each of God’s created beings.

What has this looked like in your own ministry?

Whether in my work as a music minister, or my work in music publishing, it is important to me to remember the privileges and platforms that I have, and to ask myself what exactly might be my responsibility to do with that. As decision makers in ministry, what are our biases? Who’s voice is amplified, dominant, abundant? What language is prefered or assumed? What style and genre of music do we gravitate towards as a “norm” and who might be left out by our limited selections? Where have we placed our resources of time and treasure? I do my best to make sure that a constant self-examen is always a part of my daily work: what practices and motivations do I assume, and how is this held in tension with the deep rehearsing of love of the sound of God’s people–friend and stranger.

How has your ministry been informed by your time at CTU and as a Bernardin scholar?

Learning to love the diversity of Image and Likeness of God is best done when fully immersed in the fabric of its lived experiences, walking alongside those who have seen and heard first hand that which we could not learn alone. The Bernardin Scholarship gave me more opportunities for deep discussion, for using the foundations that Bernardin built during his time on this side of heaven, and dreaming about what the legacy of his vision of radical love might look like today. It makes me proud to be associated with Cardinal Bernardin and the many who’ve embraced his legacy of love and commitment to this example.