Early life and education Clarence Rufus Rivers Jr. was born in
Selma, Alabama, to Clarence Rufus Rivers Sr. and Lorraine (Echols) Rivers, with his family moving to
Cincinnati when he was young. Early after his ordination, he worked at St. Joseph Church, a historically black parish in Cincinnati's
West End neighborhood. He was also an English teacher at
Purcell Marian High School in the
East Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati. He began to gain notoriety for his music during the
Civil Rights Movement, beginning with his "An American Mass Program", which combined
Gregorian Chant with the melodic patterns and rhythms of
Negro Spirituals. (He was influenced in this tradition by Sister
Mary Elaine Gentemann, who had composed such a Mass in 1945.) Rivers' most beloved hymn was "God Is Love", which he first performed at the first official
Mass in English in the United States after the
Second Vatican Council (which had opened the door in
canon law for
vernacular Mass rather than
Latin). The song was used as the Communion Hymn during the Mass, which was held during the 1964 National Liturgical Conference in
St. Louis. It received a 10-minute
standing ovation. Cardinal Maurice Otunga, Archbishop of Nairobi, Kenya presided and then Auxiliary Bishop Eugene A. Marino of Washington, DC preaching a ghostwritten homily written by Father Rivers. He became the founding director of the
National Office for Black Catholics' Office of Culture and Worship during the
Black Catholic Movement, and there organized various conferences and workshops in addition to spearheading the NOBC's cultural journal, "Freeing the Spirit" (a motif Rivers would re-use in various other contexts, including as the title of a short memoir). During this time, he added to his team one Robert Ray, penman of the "Gospel Mass" choral setting sung by choirs worldwide ever since. Rivers received the
North American Academy of Liturgy's prestigious Berakah Award in 2002, an association of which he had been a founding member.
Death He died unexpectedly at the age of 73 on Sunday, November 21, 2004, the
Solemnity of Christ the King. == Legacy ==