What does it feel like singing in church right now?

If you remember how it was in the "before times," like I do, it might feel a little tricky. After all, we spent over a year worshipping online, and it's hard to sing along with Facebook worship. A lot of us might be feeling out of practice in singing in church. (And the masks don't help, as necessary as they are!) Plus, we've left the chairs intentionally spread out - again to help with social distancing. But this makes it harder for us to hear each other since we might feel like we're singing by ourselves.

Add to this that we might not remember some of the songs we sing for the special seasons each year at St. Columba's. Except for Christmas, and perhaps Easter, many of the hymns that we sing in other seasons of the church year might be unfamiliar to you if St. Columba's is the first Episcopal - or even liturgical - congregation you've been to. This means that a lot of the music of Advent, Epiphany, and Lent may be totally new to even a majority of people worshipping now. Most of those attending the 9 a.m. service were faithful people at what used to be the 8 a.m. Eucharist, which didn't have music.

So during this Epiphany season, rather than singing hymns that carefully draw on themes from each of the lessons we're reading each Sunday, we're mostly singing hymns with words that talk about some of the key themes and events we celebrate in this season - like the visit of the three magi, the baptism of our Lord, Jesus' turning water into wine, Jesus' healings and miracles, and Jesus transfiguration on the mountain where he glowed with light next to Moses and Elijah. 

We've chosen 8 hymns that we'll be singing repeatedly throughout the season. For those attending the 11 a.m. Eucharist, we'll practice many of them during the announcement time. 

Here's the list so you can listen for them when they come up:

- Songs of thankfulness and praise - Hymn 135

- Christ, be our Light - My Heart Sings Out (Episcopal hymnal supplement)

- Sing of God made manifest - Hope Publishing (Words by Priest Carl P. Daw, Jr.)

- Christ is the world's true light - Hymn 542

- When Christ's appearing was made known - Hymn 132

- Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring - Hymn 537

- I want to walk as a child of the light - Hymn 490

- The people who in darkness walked have seen a glorious light - Hymn 126

We'll be 3 or 4 of the songs off of this list each Sunday so that we hopefully learn (and learn from!) each one of these Epiphany songs. 

I hope that this Epiphany Season, when we "sing of God made manifest," we will find in the people we meet and in our own hearts our savior Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world. 

- Martin