Saturday, July 3, 2021
Olin Johannessen, Director of Technology Integration / Associate of Music and Youth Ministries
A letter from the newest member of the St. J’s staff!
Dear St. John’s Parishioners,
Hello. I know many of you already know me, but for those who don’t, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. For those who do, I hope you’ll read on, and get a sense as to who I am, where I come from, and some insights into what I hope to bring to the SJC community as I embark on this new part of my journey through life.
My family moved to Portsmouth when I was one year old. Not long after, my mother, Judy Howard, began attending St. John’s, with little me in tow. Growing up the only child of a single mom, community was a big deal for me. Neighbors, schoolmates, teachers, friends — they were really important to me. I can remember Father Allen coming to our home for supper with some frequency. It was always a big deal, an honor. I can remember Father Dave (Carter) and his wife Christine inviting me and my mom over for playdates with their young children, Carrie and Beau (Dave Jr.). Fellow SJC youth, Andrew and Sam and Betsy LeBlanc walking with me to Little Harbour School, and having me over to their house for after school play time and countless spaghetti dinners.
I can remember summer kickoff Sunday gatherings at Great Island Common, with the dads and older men manning the BBQs, or youth group trips to the right field bleachers at Fenway Park to see the hapless Red Sox play, with Teddy Blood and Mark Allinson as our sturdy and stern, but caring chaperones. I remember singing in the children’s choir with Mrs. Dean, and sharing in the excitement when a friend would be awarded the coveted Christmas Eve solo in the first verse of “Once in Royal David’s City.” I remember learning to be an acolyte; which side of the silver cross to face toward the altar and how to hold it as high and straight as possible; how to kneel properly, where to find the secret buzzer under the top step that we would ring to alert the attendant in the bell tower to sound the bell during communion; how to look intently focused while fighting off sleep during the longer sermons… I can remember youth formation retreats at King Pine ski area and conference center, or Thaxter Hall dances and lock-ins with Sarah Kelly, Lystra Hayden, and Olivia Nold. I can remember carting enormous timpani into the choir loft for Easter Sunday services, or a 6-foot long marimba up to the altar for a special performance of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” My whole life growing up was enriched by my community at St. Johns.
After ten years away, encompassing my undergraduate degree, a move halfway across the country (and back), a career in the music industry, and a two year graduate degree, I, along with my then-girlfriend Ashley, made the decision to move back to the area, as I was preparing for a new job as the Grades 6-12 Choral Director for the Portsmouth School Department. We were asked to meet with then-Director of Music and Liturgy, Abbey Siegfried. Decidedly more interested in Ashley’s skills as a classically-trained singer, Abbey welcomed us into the Parish Choir. I remember Rob stopping by that meeting, and welcoming us into the church. We knew immediately that we had found our spiritual home in St. John’s, but there was no telling at that time just how much it would come to mean to us. This community has supported Ashley and me as we entered into marriage, and throughout the pregnancies and births of our two amazing sons, Easa and Amos. Ashley is entering into her tenth year as a staff member with SJC, and her value to this community has grown immensely as years go by. We have been raised up by the love that so many have shown to the four of us, and continue to marvel at the way that this community raises caring and loving people. Have you ever seen the way that our boys look at Bridger Westhelle, Jacob Starbranch, Seth Kozak, Zuri Wemple?? And the way that those boys (and many other youth!) look out for and have fun with our sons?? This community means love and it’s so abundantly clear to me.
As I made my way along in the school district, learning how to become a choral director, I noticed how my interactions and involvement with the musical community at SJC were becoming more frequent, and more significant beyond singing in the Parish Choir. I recall the pride I felt after being asked to accompany the annual Christmas Pageant, and the terror and insecurity I felt when Abbey asked me to serve as co-director of the Parish Choir with the far more experienced Peter Urquhart after her departure from her role. Luckily, she’s a great mentor and planner, and I had lots of support to buoy my confidence along the way. She wouldn’t have put me in that position should she have felt I couldn’t be successful, and it was a huge learning experience, and boost to my confidence as a choral director.
Truth be told, there isn’t one area of my personal or professional life in the past ten years that hasn’t benefitted from my involvement here at SJC. During my years as choral director in the Portsmouth Public Schools, some of my proudest moments were played out here, as I brought my high school choir into the sanctuary to perform our annual benefit culmination concerts, raising money for important aid institutions in the Seacoast such as Crossroads House, the Children’s Advocacy Center for Rockingham County, and Haven, all while performing beautiful and engaging choral music for grateful audiences. I will never forget the pride I felt in my students as they performed in this beautiful space we call home while working to help support these wonderful organizations that do such important work in our community.
As we have endured this global pandemic for the past year and a half, my involvement with SJC has continued to blossom and grow. When we first entered lockdown, I helped Ashley learn how to capture and edit film in order to create pre-produced church services using iMovie. I helped the team with researching technological options for hardware that needed to be purchased to support this work. I helped Jennifer learn how to use Garageband to create virtual choral anthems and hymns for our weekly musical offerings. I gently suggested that perhaps church segments could be recorded earlier than Friday so that perhaps the editing work that Ashley and Jennifer had to complete could be done during regular business hours, rather than all day Saturday and with staying up until 3:00am waiting for the service to finish uploading to YouTube. I turned my home office into a home recording studio where Ashley and I spent countless late nights recording musical meditations after putting our children to sleep in the room below. I sat and watched our virtual church services, offering feedback — sometimes welcome, and other times perhaps unsolicited — on how to improve our offerings, and how to create more engaging content that would help our community feel more connected to their clergy and staff while in isolation. I worked with Ashley and Justin Haight to envision, plan, and create our first (and hopefully, only) virtual Christmas Pageant. I took on several choral scholar anthems and virtual parish choir productions to lighten Jennifer’s load as she pivoted to planning our return to in-person liturgy and music. The list goes on.
Throughout all of this, my connection to the work and the people of St. John’s has deepened and strengthened, and now, through God’s grace, I’ve been given the opportunity to join this team of deeply dedicated and caring people who hold up our community and give us all a space to feel at home. What a beautiful gift!
As I begin my official tenure with SJC, you can expect to see me working toward this New Beginning, as Anna Kay and Rob have so named it many times. We are indeed living in a new world now, and a big part of my mission is to help us continue to grow in our offerings as we eagerly plan for the kickoff of a new program year in September. We are so blessed to be worshipping in person again (finally!), and yet we continue to offer virtual church for those who, for myriad good reasons, cannot always be with us physically. We want to be able to welcome those souls into our traditions as we reclaim our physical space, and give them the same richness of experience that we’ve all come to know and love as members of this body. Technology can be a heavy lift for many, but it is part of my purpose to lighten that burden for all, and bring us together in as meaningful a way as is possible so that we can all focus on the important work of loving each other.
You will also see me joining forces with all clergy and staff across multiple disciplines: with both adult and youth music programs; with the Choir School program; with coordination and administration of various parish initiatives; with the upper youth non-musical programming; with families of young children… The future is just beginning, and I am honored and proud to be part of it with you all.
With love and humility, despite my possession of the longest job title of any employee of St. John’s,
Olin
Olin Johannessen
Director of Technology Integration
Associate for Music and Youth Ministries