Extract from Accord, October 2003:
The NNPM has only existed since 1996. it's raison d'etre from the start has been for Christians of different traditions to learn from each other through experiencing the different ways we worship and sing. At that first conference three speakers of different denominations were given these questions to answer:
What is the place of worship in the mission of the Church?
What is the place of music in that worship?
Their answers were published in Music in the Mission of the Church which is still in print.

Since then we have repeated the experience [on alternate years]. ... I personally have found it a liberating experience to be able to sing and pray with Christian sisters and brothers and not think of the things that divide us, except for the painful experience of the Sunday mornings when we go our separate ways for the Eucharist. In the end, what unites us is much greater than what divides us.

This is a slowly and painfully won realisation, though, in my own lifetime I have seen a climate of mutual suspicion, if not something worse, between catholics like myself and 'non-catholics', being broken down to the point where we are happy in each other's company.

I hope that the NNPM is still thought of as a place where all are welcome, as long as they put God first rather than our own disputes.

Stephen Dean [President NNPM]