Staff Member: Maureen "Mo" Putnam
Maureen "Mo" Putnam
Director of Music & Liturgy
Phone: 763-265-4930
Email: Click Here to Email
What does a Director of Music and Liturgy do? Mo chooses a blended style of music to help create meaningful liturgies. These selections come from hours spent searching through numerous resources in order to offer a wide variety of musical styles, different ethnic backgrounds always with an effort to wed the texts with the scriptures, catholic traditions and rituals.
Mo also tries to stay updated on current events and inner workings of our church and parish in order to weekly write relevant intercessions and welcome scripts. Mo also has a true passion for building a parish music program: she schedules and rehearses our three music ensembles (Adult choir, youth choir and handbell choir), she coordinates and rehearses our monthly mini-concert series, and she works individually as needed with our cantors and instrumentalists. Overall, she hopes that our music ministry is viewed as a hub, or an avenue for all musicians to feel safe and welcomed to share their talents.
Aside from Christ Our Light, Mo enjoys working with the School of Theology’s Chapel Choir at SJU and playing gigs. At home she loves working in her flower gardens, playing board games, painting, quilting and walking her “third child,” a Shepadoodle, Phoebe. As empty nesters, she and her husband Tom Speckhard miss their kids, but they are enjoying hearing about Aidan’s life in New York and Sophie’s journey at the U of M.
What is your favorite thing about COL? “I love teaching and experiencing music with others this includes both during rehearsals and at our liturgies. I strongly believe that music has a transforming power: it encourages us to hope, to grow in our abilities, to deepen our faith and to build lasting relationships. Thus I love my job!”