Upon This Rock

Shades of the '60s, it is time for a singing nun again. Eleven years ago, Belgium's Sister Luc-Gabrielle zoomed to the top of the charts with her bouncy folk song, Dominique. This time the good sister is an Australian, Sister Janet Mead, 36, whose folk-rock song, The Lord's Prayer, is already in 20th place on the Billboard "Hot 100" chart and starred for a continued climb upward.

The daughter of a railway worker, Sister Janet joined the Sisters of Mercy 19 years ago and now teaches music and other subjects to 14-and 15-year-old girls in Adelaide. In 1972 she also began to prepare folk Masses and succeeded so well that Adelaide's St. Francis Xavier Cathedral is jammed to its 2,000 capacity every week. Among the Sunday-night favorites is The Lord's Prayer, set to music by a 22-year-old teacher named Arnold Strals and sung by Sister Janet in a voice reminiscent of Judy Collins. Recorded by Australia's Festival Records, it has sold 50,000 copies there, and is expected to reach the million mark on the A & M label in the U.S.

Sister Janet will begin cutting two new rock albums, including some of the Psalms, next month. But she intends to keep on teaching. "I have my life to live, my work to do," she says. "The record won't change that."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.