Paul Mason's Bio
Paul is married to Margaret and they have four sons. Having raised the family in in the Melbourne suburb of Glenhuntly (1983-1993) and in the Sydney suburb of Wahroonga (1994-2011), Paul and Margaret now live in Wollongong, a regional coastal city 80km south of Sydney.
Paul is a professional liturgist. He holds a Master of Arts in Theology and a Master of Arts in Liturgy from Australian Catholic University and the Catholic Institute of Sydney (CIS), and is a member of Societas Liturgica. Paul is Coordinator of Liturgy for the Diocese of Wollongong and Executive Officer of the Wollongong Diocesan Liturgical Commission. Prior to his appointment at Wollongong, Paul was Pastoral Associate at the Catholic Parish of Lower North Shore in the Diocese of Broken Bay, a member of the executive of the Broken Bay Diocesan Liturgy Commission and chair of the Broken Bay Music Ministry Forum.
Paul is a member of the Council of the Australian Academy of Liturgy (AAL) and a founding member of the Australian Pastoral Musicians Network (APMN). Paul is a also a member of one of the four sub-committees of the National Liturgical Music Board (NLMB). Paul has published articles in Worship Magazine, the Australian E-Journal of Theology and the Australian Journal of Liturgy. Paul's book “Psalms for All Time” includes brief articles on each of the seasonal psalms with historical background and liturgical application.
As a composer, Paul has specialised in liturgical music. His “Mass of Glory and Praise” was published by Willow in 2004 and launched at the Sydney Archdiocese "Sing the Mass" event. His collection of musical settings of the Grail translation of seasonal psalms are included in the book “Psalms for All Time" published by Willow in 2007. Paul's hymn "Love Never Ends" was recorded by Kamahl in 2007 and published and recorded in 2009 in the collection "As One Voice: Next Generation". More recently, Paul turned his attention to the implementation of the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal, with three settings published by Willow in late 2010. Paul is currently working on two new volumes of psalm compositions.
As a musician, Paul began singing in St Leo's CBC school choir, in Box Hill Victoria. He studied AMEB piano and theory and began singing and playing piano professionally from the age of sixteen. Paul played in rock and jazz bands such as Australian Crawl and Crosswinds. Paul was a member of the Holy Name Wahroonga parish and choir since moving to Sydney in 1994 and directed the WYSPERS youth music group in that parish for fifteen years. (WYSPERS is short for Wahroonga Youth Singers and Players).
Paul holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering from Melbourne University. He worked in the IT industry from 1976 until 2004 in senior sales, marketing and general management positions at Burroughs/Unisys, Fujitsu and Ericsson, working with customers such as Australia Post, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, supplying large-scale systems, networks, applications development and outsourcing.