Meet Father Rivers

In Episode 3, Emily tells the story of Fr. Rivers’ early career and the efforts toward liturgical inculturation that eventually brought him fame. She talks to Dr. Jessie Thomas who was a child at St. Joseph school in Cincinnati when Fr. Rivers was a young priest in the late 1950s. Emily recounts an early incident of liturgical disobedience by Fr. Rivers, effectively protesting the exclusion of Black ...

Host Emily Strand recounts Fr. Rivers’ death and remembers her reactions. She interviews Deacon Royce Winters, Pastoral Administrator at Church of the Resurrection in Cincinnati, Ohio and Director of the Office of African American Pastoral Ministries for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, a personal friend of Fr. Rivers. They visit Fr. Rivers’ gravesite at Gate of Heaven Catholic cemetery in Cincinnati. ...

Host Emily Strand turns the podcast in a new direction: to find and speak to others whose lives Fr. Rivers touched and with whom she feels a unique kind of Christian fellowship. She interviews Eric T. Styles, a liturgist, writer and Notre Dame Rector who also befriended and was mentored by Fr. Clarence at the end of his life. Together they recall the deep and lasting effects Rivers had on their young...

In this episode, co-hosts Emily Strand and Eric Styles interview Bishop Fernand Cheri, auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans, Louisiana, archivist of Black Sacred Song and long-time personal friend of Fr. Clarence Rivers. Bishops shares his memories of traveling to Africa with Fr. Rivers and the liturgical insights Fr. Rivers helped instill in him. Then Emily and Eric introduce a new team member, Johnathon...

Emily and Eric interview pianist, pastoral musician, liturgist, workshop presenter and composer Mr. Ronald (Rawn) Harbor. Rawn met Fr. Rivers in 1973 and became his primary accompanist and eventually a liturgist in his own right under Fr. Clarence’s careful mentorship. Rawn discusses his own approaches to composition and even shares a recording of a psalm arrangement that he’s particularly proud of: ...

In this episode, hosts Emily and Eric interview Dr. Mary McGann, RSCJ, who, in January of 2002, published an article in the journal Worship called “Timely Wisdom, Prophetic Challenge: Rediscovering Clarence R.J. Rivers’ Vision of Effective Wors...

Emily and Eric detail how Fr. Clarence Rivers received, in 2002, the prestigious Berakah Award, an award given by the North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL) to honor distinguished contributors to the field of professional liturgy. The hosts interview scholar of liturgy, musician and clinician Dr. Don E. Saliers, theologian-in-residence at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, who composed the text of...

Emily and Eric interview Wilton Cardinal Gregory, the seventh Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and the first African American Cardinal—ever!—in the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Gregory shares how he first encountered Fr. Rivers, what Rivers’ work meant to him as a young seminarian, priest and Bishop, and how he continues to pray in t...

Emily and Eric interview Fr. Tom DiFolco, retired priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati who was mentored by Fr. Rivers, forming a friendship with Fr. Rivers as a fellow priest that greatly enhanced Fr. Tom’s own priestly ministry. Fr. Tom has served the Black Catholic parishes of Cincinnati for 25 years, and he opens up about the joys and challenges of his ministry and—most especially—how he has be...

As a newly-ordained priest, Fr. Rivers served as an English teacher, guidance counselor and drama coach at Purcell High School in Cincinnati in the late 1950s into the 1960s. There, he changed lives. Emily and Eric start their investigation of Fr. Rivers as high school teacher with Purcell teaching colleague, Fr. James Heft, SM. Fr. Jim was fresh out of college at the time of his encounter with Fr. R...

Emily and Eric continue their investigation of Fr. Rivers’ career teaching high school English and drama at Purcell in Cincinnati. Fr. Rivers started a drama troupe at Purcell, an all-boys Catholic high school, called the Queen’s Men. 1962 Purcell High School grad Dan Sack sits down with Emily and Eric to tell them about his first-hand experience of Fr. Rivers as a director, teacher and life-long fri...

Emily and Eric conclude their investigation of Fr. Rivers’ career teaching high school English and drama at Purcell in Cincinnati. Former Queen’s Man Kenneth Stevens shares his memories of Fr. Rivers as a teacher, director and inspiration for Ken’s long and productive career in the arts. Ken describes Rivers’ influence on his own career, contributing to his can-do attitude and his ability to look at ...

Fr. Joseph A. Brown, SJ is our guest on this episode: a Jesuit priest and professor of Africana studies and scholar of Black Catholicism and liturgy. Fr. Brown is a poet, an artist and was a friend and colleague of Fr. Rivers. He tells how he first heard Fr. Rivers’ music and shares his belief that Fr. Rivers’ scholarly works are an undiscovered gem of American Catholicism. Hosts and guest discuss ho...

Eric and Emily interview celebrated Catholic liturgical music composer and liturgy scholar Fr. Jan Michael Joncas, who has penned such classics as “On Eagles’ Wings” and “I Have Loved You” about Rivers as a composer. Fr. Mike shares two of his own compositions for liturgy in which one can hear Fr. Rivers’ influence clearly (full songs included). The conversation situates Rivers as an American Catholi...

Catholic composer and musician Ken Canedo discusses the influence of Fr. Rivers on his life and career in liturgy and music. Ken is the co-composer (with Bob Hurd) of the Gospel-styled song “Alleluia! Give the Glory”. Ken and the hosts talk about the advice Fr. Rivers gave Ken when he met him as a young composer and what ...

Emily and Eric continue their conversation with composer Ken Canedo by asking a tough question about whether Fr. Rivers got co-opted and left behind by the White folk movement in the American Catholic Church. Ken provides a thoughtful response that involves (of all things) Catholic missalettes and lack of accompaniment, and discussion turns to the ways Fr. Rivers may have unintentionally hindered acc...

Happy Black Catholic History Month! In this brief but important episode, listeners get oriented to this celebratory month and receive a homework assignment for next episode. But don’t fear—this is homework you’ll want to do! The fine folks at Orbis Books have given us permission to share a chapter Fr. Rivers published in the 1998 scholarly collection, Taking Dow...