From the Associate for Music and Liturgy: Singing the LORD's Song in a Strange Land

From the Associate for Music and Liturgy: Singing the LORD's Song in a Strange Land

From the Associate for Music and Liturgy: Singing the LORD's Song in a Strange Land

# From The... - Letters to the Congregation

From the Associate for Music and Liturgy: Singing the LORD's Song in a Strange Land

Alongside Babylon’s rivers
    we sat on the banks; we cried and cried,
    remembering the good old days in Zion.
Alongside the quaking aspens
    we stacked our unplayed harps;
That’s where our captors demanded songs,
    sarcastic and mocking:
    “Sing us a happy Zion song!”
Oh, how could we ever sing God’s song
    in this wasteland?

- Psalm 137, "The Message"

This Psalm captures about how I felt as I began reading the news last week going around the choral world: "There is no safe way for choirs to rehearse together until there is a vaccine or 95% effective treatment in place, most likely 1-2 years."

And not just choirs. 

It wasn't safe for any groups of people to be singing now, and especially in enclosed spaces with low humidity and relatively little ultraviolet light coming in. Group singing in church will be a high-risk activity until a lot of things change.

This was the verdict from two scientists - epidemiologists and virologists, themselves choral singers - who did a webinar on the evening of Tuesday, May 5, attended live by 5,000 and watched by tens of thousands more later. (I watched most of it; it's about 2 1/2 hours long. For those interested you can read about it here. There's a good article written by a voice professor and church music director here that focuses especially on church singing.) 

Some of you might have seen the stories about church choirs leading to outbreaks of COVID - there was one right here in Mt. Vernon earlier in the year, and a more recent outbreak at a congregation in Calgary, possibly as a result of a choral rehearsal happening earlier in the week.

So what are we doing at St. Columba's?

If you happened to watch St. C's livestream on Sunday, you may have noticed that all of the participants except for the Presider and the Soloist (myself) were wearing masks - and the soloist was the only one singing, moved away from everyone else by 16 feet. We made sure the ventilation system was on also. Even with this, there still may be some risk, and Alissa has been very clear with all participating that their work on Sundays is optional.

I believe God always works to bring the most possible good out of bad situations. Not that God wills bad to happen - no, never! But God is so powerful that God can still yet do good things.

The hope and the challenge for us is to learn how to sing the LORD's song in a strange land. 

We've started to do that already. Some of you might remember the Palm Sunday procession where Al recorded his trumpet solo. The Sudanese congregation sent in a music video. And right now, our accompanist, Paula Mayfield, is taking the lead in using video and audio software to put together recordings made from home by herself and some of St. C's musicians. 

With God's help, we will come through this time stronger.

I hope you will add your voice, too, as we work to get stronger. I'd strongly encourage you, when you watch the Facebook live-stream, to not watch it like you would a TV show, but to pray - and sing! - along. 

To help make this happen, we've been planning each Sunday service with home participation in mind. This means music that is easy to learn quickly and sing at home, both during the service and outside of it. We're needing to do different music now than we would in church, since many of our hymns are not covered by streaming licenses, but this means we get to learn some new songs that are tuneful, but that don't skimp of theological depth. 

And we need that theological depth now - all of the resources of our tradition - to face what we're dealing with now. 

The hope, though, is that God is always present with us. And we can sing together, even though we are apart. The worship of God will always continue. As one of our songs we sang at the Great Vigil says - the Church still keeps that song alive...the heart will ever sing! 

We are the Church - we are the local expression on the east hill of Kent of Christ-believers from all times and all places. Our building may be a lot more empty now, but we have now been spread out and sent out into the world in a way we never could have imagined.

From wherever we are, remember: we are the Church. We will still keep the song alive, even in a strange land. It's the LORD's song, and we are called to sing it.

Stay home, stay well, stay sane - and sing strongly!

Martin

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