Robes and Incense

 

I love that I get to sing in a church choir 5,500 miles from our home. Having grown up in a Baptist church and been in their choirs down the years, there isn't a lot I don't know about Baptists. But there is a ton of stuff I don't know when it comes to high church Anglican.

And I wanted to do it right, and not make obvious mistakes everyone around me will hear. So at the Tuesday night choir practice, the choir Master and his wife gave me the books and music you see here on my table. Just LOOK at the numbers of things I would need to learn! I carried it all back to my cottage, and gave myself a massive tutorial I hoped would do the trick.

The choir typically has a prelude, three hymns (sung by the congregation and the choir), and an anthem. Sometimes more, sometimes less. So those were my tutorial topics, and I rehearsed every day until the music and the words started taking shape in my mind, and heart. 

This morning the only way I could get those heavy books to the church was to put them in my travel roller bag, and pull it up the cobbled hill to the church. As I came in the front door an hour early (as a singer for many years, I had the habit of arriving hideously early :-), I saw another roller bag going down the aisle too. I felt right at home!

Our choir Master and his wife were out of town, so there was a substitute organist. He was terrific, sounding a lot like the organist in The Sound of Music, as the nuns sang "How do you solve a problem like Maria?"

Someone whispered, "He isn't wearing any shoes!" which made us all discreetly look, confirming that indeed he played the organ shoeless. 

It was a wonderful morning for so many reasons. I didn't make mistakes everyone around me could hear. The soprano voices soared in exactly the right places, making us all grin from ear to ear. The Processional made us all jump because we were sitting right next to the huge organ, and that opening chord was a real doozy. 

Standing with all the other choir members, listening to the sermon, noticing the congregants singing their hearts out too, all of this made the practicing and praying worth it all. What a lucky girl I am!

See you along the Way!

the SconeLady