FULL OF SONG
Reflections on Returning to Full Congregational Singing
By:Michael Silhavy
“Tey come back, they come back full of song.” Psalm 126:6
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iturgical and music ministers, whether full- time, part-time, paid, or volunteer, do not need to be reminded that these last 30+ months
have been filled with grief and disappointment, to name only a few emotions and experiences. Parish musicians and other staff members have lost their jobs and seen their positions truncated. Rites of Christian Initiation, weddings, infant Baptisms, Confirmations, graduations, and other events were celebrated in the leanest way possible. Congregational repertoire taught in the weeks and months before the pandemic runs the risk of being forgotten. Our church doors were closed, and we were reminded, if not required, to stay at home. Once we could return to worship, rules and regulations altered our normal way of gathering together. We progressed from no singing to a single voice singing to
limited singing and, finally, back to some semblance of singing as we previously knew it. Many of us feared and continue to fear that the necessary precautions of pandemic worship—an assembly listening to congregational repertoire rather than singing it, the withholding of the Cup, the elimination of the Sign of Peace, and so much more—run the risk of becoming the new norm, not the exception.
Despite all these setbacks, pastoral musicians, along with their staff colleagues or volunteers at the parish, heroically and creatively found new ways to minister to parishioners during this time. Te good news is that liturgical life is returning to a more familiar pattern in many parishes. In this time of year when the Lectionary (and nature, in some climates) calls us to sing of the life that follows death, might this be a season of sure and certain hope for our music and liturgy?Can we hope in the good that will come out of all the bad we’ve been through? Can we ourselves find the strength to “rejoice and be glad” as we listen to the Gospel reading
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