Latest Americancatholicism Podcast Episodes
Episode 31: Found Family, Found Footage
Meet Father Rivers - March 24, 2024 18:37 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsIn this episode, we interview Michael and Martha DeFrancesco, a Cincinnati couple who enjoyed a life-long friendship with Fr. Rivers that can only be described as “found family.” Martha and Michael share personal memories and wonderful details about Fr. Rivers the man (rather than the legend). T...
Episode 30: Having Church all Week with Scott Patterson
Meet Father Rivers - February 23, 2024 21:46 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsWe’re still talking about that phenomenal recording of Fr. Rivers and the Hawkins Family in a new episode of MFR! And we talk about so much more as well. Bonus content from our interview with composer and former Church musician Scott Patterson, featured in Episode 29, forms the content of this e...
Episode 29: Freeing the Spirit with Fr. Rivers and the Hawkins Family
Meet Father Rivers - January 23, 2024 19:53 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEric and Emily and special guest Scott Patterson discuss a concert Fr. Rivers hosted on August 19, 1971, recorded live at the Detroit Institute of Arts auditorium and produced by the National Office of Black Catholics. The concert—and the week-long workshop that preceded it—were intended as “an ...
Episode 28: Christmas with Fr. Rivers
Meet Father Rivers - December 19, 2023 13:34 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEric and Emily discuss an archival recording of a Christmas liturgy Fr. Rivers designed and presided over from 1972, then later published in his 1974 book Soulfull Worship. Emily and Eric discuss the recording, play clips, and compare and contrast worship practices from 1972 until now. Fr. River...
Episode 27: The Making of a Black Catholic Hymnal with Marjorie Gabriel-Burrow
Meet Father Rivers - November 28, 2023 18:55 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEric and Emily explore a great accomplishment for Black Catholics in the US many years in the making: the Lead Me Guide Me hymnal, published by GIA Publications in 1987. After some background on the hymnal’s development, hosts introduce Marjorie Gabriel-Burrow, who chaired the committee that bro...
Episode 26: The "Soul" of Rivers with William Foster McDaniel
Meet Father Rivers - October 31, 2023 15:14 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEric and Emily interview a key musical collaborator of Fr. Clarence Rivers: pianist, composer and arranger William Foster McDaniel. Billy recalls meeting Fr. Rivers in Paris in 1966, where both were pursuing graduate studies. He details how he later worked and traveled with Fr. Rivers for years ...
Meet Season Two of MFR
Meet Father Rivers - September 29, 2023 13:16 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsHosts Emily and Eric catch up after a break from podcasting, sharing the projects and events that kept them busy this summer, including travel to present on Fr. Rivers at the National Black Catholic Congress in the Washington, D.C. area. They introduce the second season of the show with a fascin...
Episode 25: Meet Season Two of MFR
Meet Father Rivers - September 29, 2023 13:16 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsHosts Emily and Eric catch up after a break from podcasting, sharing the projects and events that kept them busy this summer, including travel to present on Fr. Rivers at the National Black Catholic Congress in the Washington, D.C. area. They introduce the second season of the show with a fascin...
Episode 24: The Anaphora, Captured
Meet Father Rivers - May 26, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEric and Emily receive a unique and precious gift: a wedding video recording from 1994 in which Fr. Rivers leads his original Eucharistic Prayer, the Anaphora of the Lion and Lamb. Eric and Emily talk to the bride and groom, Pam and Matt Fellerhoff, about their experience and play audio clips fr...
Episode 23: Fr. Rivers and the Black Catholic Studies Reader
Meet Father Rivers - April 26, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEmily and Eric examine a new book that contains two essays by Fr. Clarence Rivers: the Black Catholic Studies Reader: History and Theology, recently published by Catholic University of America Press. We speak with editor Fr. David Endres, a priest of Archdiocese of Cincinnati, seminary dean, and...
Episode 22: Music that Speaks to the Soul with Bro. Louis Canter
Meet Father Rivers - January 21, 2023 00:48 - 51 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEmily and Eric welcome Bro. Louis Canter, OEF, life-long Catholic liturgist, pastoral musician and composer, to the show to talk about an old box of music, slated for destruction, that he found at a pivotal time in his young career. The box was full of colorful music from a publisher called Stim...
Episode 21: The Rivers Reading Club
Meet Father Rivers - November 28, 2022 15:44 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEmily and Eric welcome Black Catholic podcasters Nate Tinner-Williams and Lorna DesRoses to Meet Father Rivers to celebrate Black Catholic History Month (November) with the first-ever Rivers Reading Club. Participants discuss one of Fr. Rivers’ most provocative and insightful pieces of writing: ...
Episode 20: It's Black Catholic History Month... and Here's Your Homework
Meet Father Rivers - November 15, 2022 16:20 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsHappy 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 chapt...
Episode 19: Keeping the Fire Burning with Ken Canedo
Meet Father Rivers - October 28, 2022 15:40 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEmily 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 a...
Episode 18: Rivers as Inspiration with Ken Canedo
Meet Father Rivers - October 14, 2022 17:32 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsCatholic 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...
Episode 17: Rivers as Composer with Fr. Jan Michael Joncas
Meet Father Rivers - September 27, 2022 08:00 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEric 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 F...
Episode 16: Doing the Sankofa Thing with Fr. Joseph A. Brown, SJ
Meet Father Rivers - August 30, 2022 08:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsFr. 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 t...
The Queen's Men Part II
Meet Father Rivers - July 31, 2022 13:04 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEmily 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 des...
The Queen's Men Part I
Meet Father Rivers - July 12, 2022 08:00 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEmily 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 a...
The Teaching Years with Fr. James Heft, SM
Meet Father Rivers - June 21, 2022 08:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsAs 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 teach...
A Pastor's Perspective on Fr. Rivers with Fr. Tom DiFolco
Meet Father Rivers - May 31, 2022 08:00 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEmily 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 fo...
Episode 11: Wilton Cardinal Gregory on Fr. Rivers
Meet Father Rivers - April 26, 2022 08:00 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEmily 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 yo...
Episode 10: And the 2002 Berakah Award goes to… with special guest Dr. Don E. Saliers
Meet Father Rivers - March 29, 2022 09:00 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEmily 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 ...
Episode 9: Dr. Mary McGann on Fr. Rivers' liturgical vision
Meet Father Rivers - March 15, 2022 09:00 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsIn 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 Worship." In it, Mary gives a helpful summary of Fr. Riv...
Episode 8: Heir Apparent Part II
Meet Father Rivers - February 22, 2022 10:00 - 47 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsIn this episode, Eric and Emily continue their interview with liturgist, composer and pastoral musician Rawn Harbor, discussing Fr. Rivers as a composer who defied categorization, and the ongoing genesis of Black Catholic liturgy and liturgical music begun by Fr. Rivers. Click here for Episode ...
Episode 7: Heir Apparent
Meet Father Rivers - February 04, 2022 10:00 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsEmily 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 app...
Episode 6: Interview with Bishop Cheri
Meet Father Rivers - January 17, 2022 10:00 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsIn 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 litur...
Episode 5: Friends in Clarence
Meet Father Rivers - December 15, 2021 05:00 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsHost 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. C...
Episode 4: All the Questions I Didn't Ask
Meet Father Rivers - November 21, 2021 05:00 - 57 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsHost 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...
Episode 3: Single-Handedly Starting a Revolution
Meet Father Rivers - October 27, 2021 18:15 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsIn 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...
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