In the early 1960s, John Garcia Gensel, a pastor at St. Peter's Lutheran Church on Lexington Avenue inManhattan, began a remarkable ministry to the jazz community of New York City. It was a 9-5 gig but very different from most in one important respect – Gensel began at 9:00pm and ended at 5:00am! He met with musicians in clubs where they worked and he counselled them, married them, baptized their children and buried them.

Out of that ministry grew jazz vespers. As Gensel put it, "Jazz is probably the best music for worship, because it speaks to the existential situation of a human being." Sunday morning services made little sense for a "congregation" that had gone to bed at about the time most parishioners of St. Peter's were rising. Gensel decided on the merciful hour of 5 p.m. His first thought was to hold these services in the nightclubs where the musicians worked, but he was dissuaded by Duke Ellington’s sister, Ruth, who told him that if he held them in a beautiful place, musicians would come. And they most certainly did.

The musicians involved in or touched by his ministry read like a who's-who of jazz: Max Roach, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk, Erroll Garner, Philly Joe Jones, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Herbie Mann, Zoot Sims - the list goes on. Duke Ellington was a great friend and composed a piece of music for Gensel which he titled, "The Shepherd Who Watches Over the Night Flock."

The musicians of Getting in the Groove continue the jazz vespers tradition at St. Jude’s Anglican Church in Oakville at 4:00pm on the first Sunday of every month except for July and August. If you’re ever in the neighbourhood, we’d be delighted to have you join us. (http://www.stjudeschurch.net/)

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