In this episode, we discuss the second of Michael DeFrancesco's interviews with Fr. Rivers in the last few years of Rivers’ life, recently posted to YouTube. Emily and Eric are joined by Fr. Tom DiFolco, retired priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and fellow friend of Fr. Rivers. The three point out interesting features of the second DeFrancesc…

In this episode, we discuss the first of the interviews Michael DeFrancesco conducted with Fr. Rivers in the last few years of Rivers’ life, recently posted to YouTube. Emily and Eric listen to clips of the interview and discuss their broad-ranging implications for worship today. For Episode 32 Show Notes, click here.…

In 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). They also share a few treasures in the form of footage …

We’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 episode of Meet Father Rivers. Eric tells us more about…

Eric 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 act of freedom on the part of contemporary American Bl…

Eric 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. Rivers' signature style is on full display in this special …

Eric 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 brought the hymnal to birth. Marjorie, an internationally…

Eric 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 as his pianist and arranger and shares a recording of …

Hosts 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 fascinating, 1968 article from National Catholic Reporter in…

Eric 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 from their memorable celebration. Eric and Emily discuss…

Emily 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 editor of US Catholic Historian. We also speak to one…

Emily 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 Stimuli, Inc., by a composer named Fr. Clarence Jos. River…

Emily 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: a chapter called “The Oral African Tradition Versus th…

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 collecti…

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 …

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 elements of Fr. Rivers’ com…

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). Th…

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 ge…

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, contributi…

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 o…

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 o…

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 challen…

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 continue…

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…

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 Worship." In it, Mary gives a helpful summary of Fr. Rivers’ liturgical vision and the innovative contribution…

In 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 8 Show Notes. These include photos of the beautiful ves…

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 …

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 …

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 t…

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’ gravesit…

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. R…

In this episode, Emily describes her first contact with Fr. Clarence Rivers, interviews her mom, Gabrielle Strand, about their experience of one of Fr. Rivers’ liturgies, and documents the notes she took on her first phone call with Fr. Clarence.By Emily Strand

In this pilot episode of Meet Father Rivers, host Emily talks to Dr. Cecilia Moore, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton, about how and why she arranged for Emily to meet Fr. Clarence Joseph Rivers, and why Rivers remains an obscure yet important figure in American Catholic history.…