The parishioners of Holy Trinity Cathedral are very fortunate to have a choir for Sunday services. Regretfully, many churches today have no choirs. The singing of hymns during a church service is a way to open our hearts and minds to devotion. It leads us to a place of worship where one can be open to receive God’s word into our hearts and minds. Our choir may not be large but it does add greatly to the services.
The words in our hymns have been carefully written and chosen to reflect the scripture. The choir’s focus in presenting anthems, psalms and hymns is to assist in worship. Those of us who sing in the choir feel it is a form of praise to God and we do enjoy being there.
I’m sure you have all noticed new hymns being introduced at services from time to time. These are not randomly chosen and put into the leaflet. It is done by teaching the choir the hymns at Thursday night rehearsal and then perhaps presenting them to the congregation during communion first and, at a later date, they are then used in a service. After a verse or two has been sung it becomes a bit easier for all who don’t know the hymn to join in. It has been our director, George’s, practice to do this with the choir. After singing it a number of times at different services the hymn becomes familiar and soon becomes a regular addition to services.
We often visit other parishes when we are on vacation. Many times we have been in parishes where they have no choir. It always seems as though something is missing in the service. Sometimes I feel the need to sing out to help the congregation in the singing of their hymns. The usual response I hear from the folks during their coffee hour is how much they enjoyed my singing. They tell me they no longer have a choir and how much they miss it. We don’t always realize how much we rely on the choir to lead the congregation in the singing of hymns until it is not there.
We have lost quite a few of our members this past year. Most have moved out of our city. The choir is always open to new members. Our rehearsals are usually about an hour and a half long on Thursday evenings. Anyone interested in singing in the choir is asked to please speak to our music director George Ryan. For those of you who have sung before but feel you can’t sing with us on a regular basis consider joining us for some of our special services at Easter, Christmas etc.
Come join us and help us make a joyful noise unto the Lord!
