Church Music by Denomination

The Anglican Church in Australia

Anglican Church music in Australia comprises a large, well-known repertoire of hymns, Anglican chant psalms, anthems, polyphony and litanies, and choir training is offered through the Royal School of Church Music. Music instruction (choral and instrumental) is strongest in Anglican schools and Cathedrals, but graded choral music instruction is also available to both children and adults in Anglican parishes through the RSCM and the Guild of Church Musicians. Tertiary courses for clergy and laity in the history and liturgical practice of Anglican and ecumenical Church music are available at the University of Newcastle, NSW.

The Roman Catholic Church in Australia

In Australia, Roman Catholic Church music is extremely diverse and multicultural. A core repertoire of European Church music in English and Latin is sung in Catholic Cathedrals. Music approved for Catholic liturgical worship in Australia is nominated by the Australian Conference of Catholic Bishops on their website http://www.catholic.org.au  The Bishops consult with Catholic composers and musicians on musical matters via the Australian Pastoral Musicians Network, and with parishioners via Parish Priests and each local Bishop's Diocesan Liturgical Commission and Music Subcommittee. The Australian National Catholic Liturgical Commission coordinates and oversees Catholic music in Australia.

Catholic music instruction takes place within the Catholic school system in Australia, rather than in Catholic parishes. However numerous Catholic ethnic migrant communities (such as the Filipino, Tamil, Samoan, Tongan, Anglican Ordinariate and Vietnamese communities) usually provide extra community classes in their respective Church music traditions, and maintain their own language-specific choirs. The Catholic religious orders, and many formal and informal lay apostolates (such as members of Richard Connolly's Living Parish movement) also have their own specialised music traditions, such as the Gregorian chant practised in (among others) the Benedictine and Dominican orders, and the Living Parish contemporary hymn repertoire.

The Uniting Church in Australia

In Australia, Uniting Church music is predominantly parish-based, with a strong community choral tradition of hymn-singing. This congregational tradition is reflected in the Church schools of the three denominational traditions (Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational) that joined to form the Uniting Church parishes of Australia.

From 1999 to 2002, Uniting Church members raised funds and built the Wesley Music Centre, now situated in Canberra ACT. The Centre is a state-of-the-art Church music venue, with everything needed for Church music conferences, recording, teaching, and both concert and liturgical music events. So far 84 Church music students have received Wesley Centre scholarships to assist their Church music studies. Wesley Centre buzzes with Church music activities, with Church musicians visiting from all over Australia.

From June 2010-June 2011, 120 public musical events, including organ and choral concerts in Wesley Church, were held at the Centre. Weekly lunchtime concerts, well patronised by the local community, provide performance opportunities for music students from the Wesley Centre, the Australian National University, local secondary schools, private music studio pupils, and visiting international musicians. A full program of music courses, recording sessions, private music lessons, University of the 3rd Age courses, music examinations, master classes and public lectures were also presented.

Wesley Centre has hosted four national ecumenical Church music seminars and courses since 2005, with 550 Australian Church musicians attending. Joint ventures with music organisations (e.g. the Music Teachers' Association, the Classical Guitar Society, and the Carillon Society), and assisting with charity fund-raising, ensures community integration.

See the Wesley Centre website at www.wesleycanberra.org.au/music for further information.

The Lutheran Church

The Lutheran Church of Australia produces the worship music resources The Lutheran Hymnal, Sing the Feast, and Sing to God, and provides a free liturgical planning facility on its national website. Detailed Lutheran Church music evaluation procedures are publicly available, together with an evaluation form for use by lay and clerical music selectors. The texts and music of the entire Lutheran Hymnal are freely available online (see http://www.lutheran-hymnal.com), complete with audio files, which greatly simplifies congregational learning. The Australian Lutheran Church is committed to ongoing ecumenical engagement, and has been in theological dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Uniting Church since the 1970s. The LCA is a member of the National Council of Churches in Australia, an associate member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), a communion of c.95% of Lutheran churches in the world, and a member of the International Lutheran Council (ILC). The LCA is in a unique partnership with the Lutheran Church-Canada (LCC). A Lutheran Hymn Writers Conference will take place in Columbia, Illinois in January 2013. 

http://www.lca.org.au/worship-2.html

Pentecostal / Evangelical Churches in Australia

This diverse group of Churches includes, among many thriving Church music communities, the global mega-Church, Hillsong, based at Baulkham Hills, in Sydney, New South Wales. Church music in the Pentecostal / Evangelical tradition ranges from old-style choruses, spirituals and Gospel music, to contemporary hymns and choruses with repetitive aspirational or scriptural texts related to the preaching theme of the day. The emphasis is on facilitating total congregational participation in worship through communal song in the Holy Spirit. Media and technology are used extensively to accomplish this goal, with song leaders, contemporary soft rock genres, amplification, coordinated videos, and plugged-in bands prominent in the larger Churches. Church music performance training is provided primarily to school age youth, potential worship / song leaders, and instrumentalists. The entire Australian Pentecostal / Evangelical music repertoire and worship support system is publicly available on CD / video, and these products compete effectively with secular music in the Australian music marketplace. Church music memorisation and performance from audio, rather than learning new music from notated scores, is the norm in Pentecostal / Evangelical Churches, and is regarded as an essential part of faith development. Several well-known Pentecostal / Evangelical songs, such as "The Power of Your Love", have crossed over into other Church denominations, and have become part of the standard repertoire in many Australian Church Parishes.

The Greek Orthodox Church

The Armenian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church 

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The Maronite Church

The Melkite Church

The Coptic Orthodox Church

The Vietnamese Catholic Church

The Korean Catholic Church

The Samoan Catholic Church

The Tongan Catholic Church

The Sudanese Catholic Church

The Maltese Catholic Church

The Polish Catholic Church