Chester Topple, recalled the day he met Avery in Santa Fe. “We are the Church,” for example, could easily be sung during the current pandemic: “The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place, the church is a people.” “Dick and Don were far ahead of their time writing songs for the ages,” Piatt said, adding, “they can be sung today.” “I can attest they were thoughtful, provocative and challenging sermons.” He left behind “boxes of sermons” and “he spoke directly to people,” Piatt said. “He was the consummate preacher,” said Cindy Piatt, the organizing force behind Avery’s remembrance. Included were Isaiah 6:1-8 (“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” “Here am I send me!”) and words from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5:13-16 (“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.)” Avery himself conducted the choir during at least one song.Īvery selected not only the songs he wanted sung at his service of witness to the resurrection, but the Scriptures he wanted to be read. One was a virtual choir from Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center in Abiquiu, New Mexico, where Avery and Marsh put on workshops for three decades. View their work, housed on the website of the Presbytery of Santa Fe, by clicking here.Ī number of choirs lent their voices as part of the virtual service. One Sunday, many of the people touched and blessed by Avery’s long and productive years of musical and parish ministry aired an hourlong remembrance of their friend and pastor, who lived to be 85. Marsh, who for decades was Avery’s collaborator at First Presbyterian Church in Port Jervis, New York, died April 10, 2010. Richard Avery, a pastor and half of the prolific songwriting duo Avery & Marsh, died March 15, 2020, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Presbyterians of a certain age can still sing - still do sing - the songs of Richard Avery and Don Marsh: “Every Morning is Easter Morning,” “Hey! Hey! Anybody Listening?” “We’re Here to be Happy,” “We are the Church,” and so many other songs, memorable for their catchy tunes and their lyrics embracing an authentic faith and calling for justice for all God’s children.
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