The GUILD

A unique innovation at the 1933 conference was a conscious effort to add a music component to the growing conference for ministers and clergy. In 1933, the Ministers Conference listed Dr. John Finley Williamson of the Westminster Choir School, a leading authority on church music, served as the director of a session for Church Music Directors. The Chaplain reported: “This [addition] aroused so much interest that there have been requests that we provide in future conferences for the attendance of church music directors”. As a result of such an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response to the expansion and enrichment of the ministers conference, the program for 1934 included an official welcome to the choir directors, a schedule of their meetings, and the announcement that Mr. John Milton Kelley, Assistant Director of the Westminster Choir School would direct the program.

The Choir Directors and Organists Guild was added to the yearly gathering to develop the music ministry of the churches along with the training of clergy for greater service to the church and community. The Rev. Samuel A. Devan, university chaplain from 1930-1940, wrote about the integral and invaluable addition to the conference as it takes on the special work of church music particularly in the African American context. To this date, the Hampton University Ministers Conference-Choir Directors & Organists Guild Workshop remains the oldest of the conferences founded and sustained by colleges and universities.