Dear Grace Pres Community,
We are all aware of the ways Covid-19 has affected our personal lives and the lives of many people around us. Additionally, we can see some of the ways that Covid-19 has impacted the life of our church. Other than the need for online worship, possibly the biggest change we’ve begun to process is altering the ways that we present music, specifically vocal music, for worship.
Recently, I attended a webinar hosted by the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), National Association for Teachers of Singing (NATS), and Performing Arts Medicine Association, among others. They presented preliminary findings on the effect that singing has on the spread of Covid-19. In short, the news was pretty grim for the near-term future of singing. It appears that singing increases the number of particles distributed from one person’s airway into the air around them and increases the distance those particles can travel. Masks do not appear to help the “singing spread”, and there seems to be no way to ensure safety while singing in a group.
So, what does this mean for Grace Presbyterian Church? Well, unfortunately it means that, for the near-term future, our choir will not meet, and we will not share in congregational singing. You will see more recorded music even as we return to in-person worship. The good news is that our section leaders and our praise band have been working diligently to record solos, hymns, and praise and worship music for us to utilize, so we still get to enjoy familiar faces and voices that we have come to expect and enjoy. This is also a wonderful time for our string players, or anyone who doesn’t use breath to produce sound, to contribute to worship. We also are working to find ways to safely present solo vocal and wind-instrument offerings, but that is not yet certain.
Obviously, this is not the way I envisioned closing my time at Grace Presbyterian and know that I grieve these circumstances with you. No one wants to enjoy singing at Grace more than I. However, hope is not lost for music in our congregation. We have a team in place who will continue to monitor the situation and help determine when we will sing again. New research is constantly being presented, and there are studies producing findings that give me real hope that this will not be as long a period of time as we feared. Singing and music are integral to us as humans and as people of God, and I am confident that we will get to continue sharing in those gifts; we simply have to adjust for the time-being.
Sincerely,
Sean Foster
Director of Music Ministries
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Dear Grace Community,
I’m grateful to Sean for his attention to the music life of the church and our safety. I’m grateful for his leadership in putting together a task force to study this more.
We announced earlier in the spring that Sean is leaving for graduate school at the end of July. In April, the Session appointed a search team to look for a new Director of Music Ministries. We have now put that search on hold as we seek to understand more about what music will look and sound like this fall. I am confident and hopeful that in time we will return to robust choir, band, and congregational singing.
In Christ,
Catherine
