Danielle Blog

St. Paul’s UCC

I don’t think I’ve mentioned here what ended up happening in my quest for a church. First, I tried out a United Church of Christ (UCC) church that is nearby. It was small, but the people were friendly and I liked the minister. However, the choir was about 5 people and didn’t fit my desire for a choir with a substantial number of people that could sing songs with separate parts.

The next church that I went to for a while, including Maundy Thursday and Easter services was a good fit. I liked the minister a lot and the choir was big enough and seemed happy with their director and sounded good. But the minister ended up leaving over the issue of whether or not the church was going to be open and affirming. I’ve been through the search for a minister and the interim ministers that come and preach while the congregation is searching…
…and I just decided that I couldn’t go through all of that again.

So, I tried out another church in St. Paul. It has been the church that I’ve been going to now for a while. I was initially attracted to the friendly and welcoming congregation and minister. I didn’t get to hear the choir for a week or so, because they happened to not sing on the Sundays when I was attending. But when I heard them, I could tell that they were a good choir. On one of the Sundays when the choir hadn’t sang, I got the impression that the people sitting around me were some choir members. So, I asked them about the choir and they had nothing but good things to say about the director and the choir.

Now, this was all happening just as summer was approaching and the choir was disbanding for the summer. So, when fall came around, I ended up joining the choir.

It has been a really good experience so far. The director is picking out pieces that are within our abilities when it comes to difficulty in singing. She spends quite a bit of time making sure that the nuances of a piece sound really good. At first, I thought that the music wasn’t hard enough, but you know, I like this level of music, I’ve decided. When you are learning a new piece of music per week, it is nice to be able to feel like you’ve really mastered it. And that instead of having sections of the song where you don’t really sing or aren’t sure of your part, you know the whole thing really well. That is what used to happen in choir in school, you got to the point where you knew every note and how to pronounce every vowel at just the right volume to sound perfect. But that isn’t the sort of thing that church choirs usually have time to work on. Usually, it is a mad rush to learn the basics of the piece and you learn certain key points, but miss out on parts of the rest of it.

My only complaint at this point, is that we sing in a choir loft that is so distanced from the congregation that it is hard to feel like I am connecting with them. Really, if I don’t dance around the issue, I’d admit that we aren’t connecting with them. At least not emotionally. That is one thing that my last choir director complimented me on. Also, I’ve had numerous people in my last congregation tell me that they watched me (me!) for facial expressions and to get the meaning of the music. I felt honored and humbled, yet proud (can you be humble and proud at the same time?), that they would do that. I always made a point to look out into the congregation as we were singing (and try not to lose my place in the music) and use facial expression to indicate the meaning of the music, so it was special for me to hear that my efforts were making a difference. And I miss that. There is talk that the congregation will leave the current church building someday (who knows when) and move to a smaller one, because there just isn’t enough membership to warrant and maintain such a huge building. If that is the case, I think we, as a choir, will be closer to the rest of the congregation and will be more connected. At least, I hope so.

For now, we just sing with energy and precision (most of the time) and hope that they are hearing the message. I think they are, and well, I know that God hears us, and that, after all, is the point.