In the parking lot of Carmichael’s St. John the Evangelist Church at high noon, the Memorial Day weekend weather was pushing toward a sizzling 100 degrees. A festive yellow canopy billowed gently overhead as people filed into an outdoor Mass to the soft sweet sounds of the Sacramento Catholic Gospel Choir.

For the next 60 minutes, from a jubilant rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” to a soulful “God Gave Me a Song,” the 20-member gospel choir sang from the heart music that spoke to the soul.

And no one seemed much concerned about the weather.

Directed by Arvis Whitaker, the choir is a kind of ecumenical work in progress, with members from a variety of faith backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities. Their mission, says Whitaker, is to literally own every song they sing.

“If you don’t have goose bumps running up your arms, if something doesn’t happen to your neck, it doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “When we sing, I’d like people to not only go away humming the song but also remembering the verses.”

Whitaker is himself a kind of walking one-man band. Born and raised in Richmond, CA, Whitaker was the sixth of seven children, all of whom began playing a musical instrument not long after taking their first steps. By the age of four, Whitaker discovered he had a natural gift for music and soon mastered everything from piano to violin and viola.

His mother, who was choir director at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, introduced her children to classical music and jazz, but it was gospel rhythms that filled their home.

“Playing the piano gave me great comfort and I played every day,” recalled Whitaker, who was performing gospel music at his church by age 14.

After earning a bachelor’s degree at California State University-Sacramento in 1969, Whitaker moved to the capital city and served as choir director and music teacher at St. John Vianney Church and School in Rancho Cordova prior to becoming choir director at St. Rose Church in Roseville in 1980. At both parishes, he took up the challenge of introducing choirs to a type of music which has strong American roots in the Protestant churches of the South.

“Gospel music wasn’t written with the liturgy of the Catholic Church in mind,” explained Whitaker, “but it is universal, just as the Catholic Church is universal.”

Carol Bradley was a member of the St. Rose choir before moving to Carmichael and joining St. John the Evangelist Church. She was bitten by the gospel music bug, which she says has a spiritual appeal regardless of a person’s faith background.

“It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes I feel so tired I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it to choir practice, but I end up floating home,” Bradley said. “It’s very soul lifting.”

Bradley and Whitaker, with the support of Columban Father John Lagomarsino, pastor of St. John the Evangelist, and former parochial vicar Father Tongele Ngbatana, formed the Sacramento Catholic Gospel Choir in 1996. The singing group started with eight and quickly grew to include 20 members.

The choir’s diversity is a reflection of gospel music of the 21st century, which Whitaker says has not only become more complex but encompasses everything from black and Southern gospel to contemporary gospel music.

Wilton resident Patricia Baker, who is a member of St. Vincent de Paul Mission Church in Rancho Murieta, plays bass guitar for the gospel choir. A Native American, Baker says singing and playing gospel music is a spiritual link to the singing of the Indian community she learned to love as a child.

“Gospel is spiritual to me, very close to the Native American spirit,” she noted. “It comes from your soul and expresses love and hope—everything a person holds inside.”

Like the majority of the choir members, Wilma Gullatt was raised in the Catholic Church. She sang for several years in a Bay Area gospel choir prior to moving to Dunnigan, so one of the first things she did upon moving to the Sacramento Diocese was to search for a gospel choir to join.

“As a child going to Mass, it seemed the music had about two notes and I thought there had to be more to music than that,” Gullatt said. “If you’re African American and you’re in the Catholic Church, you miss that rhythm that is part of your culture.”

Virginia Williams, who was raised a Protestant, has also found a home with the gospel choir.

“I was raised with a church full of glorious music,” she said. “I wanted something joyous and found gospel music is a wonderful expression.”

Over the past four years, the choir has performed at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, for several area parish Masses, held interfaith gospel concerts and shared its music ministry with the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Richmond and at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Sacramento.

Joan Burcell, president of the Catholic gospel choir, says that wherever the choir performs, the musical message comes straight from the heart. And the fact that its voices represent many faiths is the added blessing.

“There is such trust and understanding. We’re singing to the same God,” Burcell said.

The Sacramento Catholic Gospel Choir’s annual gospel musicale, “Gospel Jubliee 2000,” is scheduled for 3 p.m. on July 9 at St. John the Evangelist Church in Carmichael. Performing choirs include “A Few Good Men,” from a Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Stockton, the inspirational choir from Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Richmond and the Sacramento Catholic Gospel Choir.

From August 8 to 21, the choir will tour and perform at several Catholic churches in Alaska.

For more information on the Sacramento Catholic Gospel Choir, call Joan Burcell at (916) 961-2705.

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[Catholic Herald - Cover Page]