In Episode 3, Emily tells the story of Fr. Rivers’ early career and the efforts toward liturgical inculturation that eventually brought him fame. She talks to Dr. Jessie Thomas who was a child at St. Joseph school in Cincinnati when Fr. Rivers was a young priest in the late 1950s. Emily recounts an early incident of liturgical disobedience by Fr. Rivers, effectively protesting the exclusion of Black forms of music in Catholic worship. News and show contact information is shared.

In this episode, Emily describes her first contact with Fr. Clarence Rivers, interviews her mom, Gabrielle Strand, about their experience of one of Fr. Rivers’ liturgies, and documents the notes she took on her first phone call with Fr. Clarence.

In this pilot episode of Meet Father Rivers, host Emily talks to Dr. Cecilia Moore, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton, about how and why she arranged for Emily to meet Fr. Clarence Joseph Rivers, and why Rivers remains an obscure yet important figure in American Catholic history.