National Forum Of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians
The National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians annual meeting was held July 3rd- 6th, 2025, hosted by Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Clearwater, Florida.
The National Forum has undertaken a number of projects which were discussed during this meeting. Many of our projects concern the education of our choir directors, choir members, seminarians, and clergy. We are spearheading important youth initiatives as well. We also recognize the importance of preserving our history and liturgical music of years past.
Here is a summary of our most salient discussions:
We announced that the National Forum is now a 501C3 entity.
We announced the $10,000 grant approval for the archiving of the works of one of our foremost composers, Tikey Zes.
We discussed the $350,000 endowment we have made to Hellenic College/Holy Cross Seminary and how to go about creating and implementing programs to utilize this endowment. This endowment is earmarked for the education of our seminarians in all areas of Western style liturgical music.
We also approved $3,000 to create a National Forum APP. This app will offer educational materials and a variety of useful items of information for our church musicians.
We approved the Church Music Leadership program and $11,000 to begin coding Module 1. This is a three-prong education approach for youth, choir directors/church music ministry leaders, and clergy.
Educational Programs
The youth program is a totally online program designed for Sunday Church School programs and lends itself to individual education in the hymnody of our church. This will be conveyed through the Canvas platform. The prototype is complete, allowing us to apply for various grants to code and subsequently offer the program.
The choir director/music ministry leaders track is composed of two tiers which lead to a Director Certification. However, the program is also tailored for all of our musicians, offering modules of in-depth music education with emphasis on our particular Orthodox church music and considerations.
Our Clergy track will contain modules particularly important for the health and longevity of our Clergy’s voices. It will also offer suggestions for “team creation” between Clergy, Choir and the Psalterion. Creation and sustainability of choirs and the Clergy’s role will also be addressed.
Youth Initiatives
Another important youth initiative “under production” is the Saint Romanos Church Festival.
This “friendly” competition will bring children together to sing hymns they have selected from a themed library of hymns. The children are required to “investigate” various aspects of the hymn selected: composer, approximate year of composition, to which category of hymn does their selection belong, and in what part of the liturgy or service it is sung.
There will be Metropolis-wide competitions and the winners will advance to the national competition.
Liturgical Music Projects
We continue to produce liturgies incorporating the official English translation of our Archdiocese into new liturgies such as the Kevin Lawrence liturgy and into our legacy liturgies such as the Roubanis liturgy and the recently completed Anastassiou Enharmonic liturgy (which will be followed by the production of the Diatonic liturgy in 2026).
Publications
We also discussed the 50th Anniversary of the “National Forum Liturgical Guidebook” and the special inclusions for this issue.
This publication provides information important to choir directors, clergy, and chanters as well as the hymn substitutions for every Sunday and major Feast Day, as well as all of the antiphon verses for those liturgies.
It will also contain commemorative selections from our initial publication. We also discussed the possibility of offering the guidebook internationally.
Symposium and Committees
It’s important to note that we also held a new music symposium which was interwoven with our business meeting sessions. Many of our newest composers submitted over 200 pages of new music, especially relating to hymns sung during Lent, Holy Week, and the Pentecostarion.
We also created a new committee, the National Forum Liaison Committee, to foster better intercommunication between our sister Orthodox disciplines with special attention to our music counterparts therein.
Looking Ahead
Lastly, we spent considerable time discussing the National Forum’s Golden 50th Anniversary.
This year-long celebration kicks off at our Archdiocese 2026 Clergy-Laity Congress, with many special events being planned during the Congress and throughout the year.