PNWAC Jubilate! Choir endowed chair in music at Africa University
By Tom Richardson | Photo by Vicki Brown
Music training at Africa University will benefit from new resources this year from the Pacific Northwest Conference Jubilate! Choir Endowed Chair in Music. James Salley, the associate vice-chancellor for institutional advancement, has announced that $10,000 will be awarded from the chair for the 2015-2016 academic year.
The first annual distribution of funds from the chair marks the realization of a long-held dream for the members of the Jubilate! Choir. They made the pledge of an endowed chair in music at the official opening of Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe in 1994.
“The music of Africa has touched us so deeply,” said Patti Jones, a choir member and driving force behind the effort. “To be able to know that training in music at Africa University will continue to grow through this chair is wonderful and exciting.”
An original gift of $31,000 raised by choir members and congregations in the Pacific Northwest Conference has grown to $338,000 in current deposits and planned gifts to fund the endowment.
“This is the first campaign that successfully utilized planned giving vehicles—two gift annuities, one life insurance designation, and a will bequest—to meet its goal of $400,000.00,” said Elaine Jenkins, director of planned giving in the Africa University Development Office. She notes that planned gifts exceeded more than one-half of the total funds raised for the endowed chair in music.
“This endowment is an enduring legacy from the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference for Africa University,” said Tom Richardson, director of four Jubilate! Choir tours to Africa University from 1992 to 2013. “The Dream is Alive is both a song and a reality.”
Jubilate! began in 1978 under the leadership of Patricia Butts, Tom Richardson and the Rev. Larry Warren as a program of the Worship Section of the PNW Board of Discipleship. It has been the source of summer worship/arts events, world choir tours and, currently, the weekend workshops of the Jubilate! Worship Arts Institute headed by the Rev. Carol Mariano. Jubilate! is affiliated with the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts.
The PNWAC Jubilate! Choir Endowed Chair in Music at Africa University remains open to contributions, bequests and planned giving through the Pacific Northwest Conference Treasurer’s Office and the Africa University Development Office.
Adapted from a release by Tom Richardson, director of the Pacific Northwest Conference Jubilate! Choir.
