Let the congregation sing

Daniel Thomas, CGS musicianOne of the bright spots of our current situation has been seeing members of our community come together to make sure worship was able to continue even as we were compelled to remain at home.

Over the last couple of months our members have learned new technology, overcome trepidations and apprehensions, and embraced a new way of gathering – and although we are separated by distance and mandate, we are together in hearts, minds, and souls. It was especially heartening to see our community gathered onscreen at Easter, and I look forward to seeing the same for Pentecost.

I’m so grateful to those people who have also shared their time and talents as lay leaders, readers, musicians, singers, and now, video producers. And, as it looks like we’ll be doing this for at least the next couple of months, it’s time to bring more of us into the virtual fold.

You’ve seen Rebecca and me leading our hymns and liturgical music, but we want more of you to be involved, so I’m inviting you to help lead our congregation in our liturgical pieces. We will continue using pieces from “Now the Feast and Celebration” so the music will be familiar and easy. As you’ve seen some of our choir members do, you would play the music from your space and sing along to the track. You’ll see some of our members doing this over the next couple of weeks, but I would love to have people signed up for the entire summer. This would be a perfect opportunity for those of you who have maybe been timid about participating in the past, as it requires just the one song. We can even put the song into whatever key is comfortable for your voice.

If you are interested, please contact me. If the thought of doing this makes you nervous, contact me anyway and let’s talk about how to turn those nerves into boldness of spirit.
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Singing, and singing together, has always been one of the greatest ways to build community – and more than ever, we need to embrace new ways of creating that atmosphere. Seeing new faces each week, and singing along with them, is a beautiful way to raise our voices to God and share our gifts and love with each other.