A New Choir Room...A New Hope

Last night as I was walking back to my car, I saw a sliver moon over the church in front of a purple-gray sky.  It wasn't just the sky.  The world itself looked purple to me.  I had to take a picture.  My grandmother would have said, "If you had painted it that way, they'd say it looked fake."

Honestly when I first saw it I was on the other side of the church, but the moon was over a couple of light fixtures, so I walked around to this side for a more artistic photo.  The picture doesn't do it justice, mostly because you can't see how crisp the moon was or how purple the air was.

As I was looking again at this picture today, I realized something.  This is my new choir room.

Just a few months ago, as the pandemic reached its summer peak, I changed jobs.  I left my church home of 13 years and began my work at Oak Grove.  I had no idea what was coming when I accepted the position.  It was only after I accepted the job that the pandemic took hold and the horrors that lay ahead started coming into focus.  It soon became clear that we would not be singing together for a long time.

I don't like virtual choirs at all, but it was all we could do, so a month into my new position we started singing together digitally.  You've likely seen one of these choirs floating around the internet.

I'm not particularly good at it, but I can get all the faces on there, and I can get their audio lined up so it sounds like a choir.  And every now and then, just to poke a little fun, I stick a picture of Waldo in there too.  About all I can say for this is...it's something.  I am amazed at the way all the voices come together to make a choir.  Each individual video is shot in isolation: one person with some headphones and a camera.  And then, as if by magic, they flow together.

Alas, it still isn't singing together.

But the human spirit bolstered by the divine Spirit will not be quenched!  People much smarter than I am have worked tirelessly to learn about corona virus and Covid-19.  Finally, about a month ago, a glimmer of hope.  If you're outside, and you wear a mask, and you stay distant, and your group isn't too big...you can sing.

You can sing!

And so, starting in October, I invited children, youth, and adults to come to the grand lawn and sing together.

It wasn't about preparing for a worship service or a concert.  It wasn't about making music for anyone in the world except ourselves.  It was standing...at a safe distance...but close enough that our voices can mingle and create the magic we have missed for so many months.  Not computer magic manipulating electrons and ones and zeros so it sounds like we are singing together.  Actually singing together.

It's still not safe to sing inside, and we don't know when it will be.  So for now, this is our choir room.  The acoustics aren't great, and the HVAC feels non-existent sometimes.  But this is our choir room...and we could do a lot worse.

This new choir room has brought with it a new hope.  Hope that through all the tumult and the strife we can still hear the music ringing.  Hope that the music can still find an echo in our souls.  Given such a glorious choir room as this, how can we keep from singing?