A request of the ChoralNet Community

Hello ChoralNet Community,

I would like to make a request* of you all and ask you to spread the word. My son, Ben, is missing. He left in a huff Saturday afternoon and hasn’t been home or in contact since. He is on a national missing persons database and was last seen in a town in Arkansas just west of Memphis. That is a decision point, highway-wise, so he could be anywhere.

He has mental health issues and does not have his medication. He is also a wonderful musician, Dean of his local AGO chapter and directs choirs. I won’t go into details except to say he is one of us and just beginning his career and work in Sacred Music.

*Now to my request. On Thanksgiving after dinner, he played a BEAUTIFUL improvisation on the folk Hymn “Wondrous Love” along with several Mendelssohn “Songs Without Words.” If you are in church work, could you somehow work in “Wondrous Love” to your services this week and dedicate it to Ben? Could you spread the word to AGO chapters and choirs directors and pastors? Ben is very religious and he might attend a service somewhere and maybe would know we are thinking of him and praying for him and many people love him and we can get him back home.

Ben is a baptized Lutheran and has served Episcopal churches for the last ten years. I am Presbyterian and his father–not a religious guy but is the one who suggested this idea–is Roman Catholic. One of Ben’s aunts is a Methodist minister. He could show up at any of these denominations or any church, really, wherever he is. In any event, it would comfort his heartbroken parents to know that people are singing and playing “Wondrous Love” for him.

Much love and please pray for Ben,

Marie