Sing to God a new song; sing to God all the whole earth.
Sing and bless God's holy Name; proclaim the good news of salvation from day to day.
Declare God’s glory among the nations, God’s wonders among all peoples.
For God is great and greatly to be praised. Psalm 96: 1-4
Over and over again in the Psalms, we are told to sing God’s praises. In fact, all of the Psalms are meant to be sung. Singing together in worship creates a sound and an energy like nothing else. Singing lifts our hearts and soothes our souls, and each voice that joins in adds to the wonderful sound. I believe that congregational and choral singing can move us in ways that nothing else can. It is one of the things that I have missed the most during Covid.
For well over a year now, we have all learned new ways to sing our praises to God. For many of you in the congregation, this has meant singing your favorite hymns from your living room on Sunday morning while watching the service online. Choir members have had to learn music and make recordings on their own so that their voices could all be combined on the computer to form a choir. It was wonderful that technology allowed us to continue our worship in song, but as lovely as all of that was, it didn’t lift my spirits in the same way as singing with others in person. What a joy it has been to have all of you singing each Sunday as we have been regathering this summer!
As we look ahead to the fall, we hope to continue our regathering with the return of the choir singing in person. We will, of course, still be mindful of Covid as we will be singing with masks and allowing for a bit more space in between singers. In spite of these limitations, I look forward to rehearsing and singing together again. Working with each other and blending our voices can be truly a mystical experience.
If you enjoy singing, we would love for you to join us. Our first choir rehearsal is scheduled for Thursday, September 9 at 7:30 pm in Upper Parish Hall. The choir plans to be back in worship on Rally Sunday, September 12 for a festive service with trumpet, organ, and piano. For more information, please email me at cbenner@3crowns.org. I look forward to hearing all of your voices soon!
Faithfully,
Craig Benner
