To be or not to be?
To mask or not to mask?
To sing or not to sing?

These are my questions!

“Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing, end them?”

With consideration of official guidelines and recommendations, the most current scientific information and consultation with organizations trying to help get us all through these times; with a deep desire to be able to gather in groups and worship in ways that most closely resemble our traditions; with great concern for my husband, myself and all those with whom I interact, I have decided that the way to answer the question is:

To be?
Yes, I want to live in the fullest way possible, even in this crazy world that we have.

So…

To mask?
Yes, in current times, with the best information that we have, it is still more than reasonable to mask when indoors with groups of people. It may even be reasonable to expect others to do the same, especially when gathered as a church family to worship. Within our church family there are very young, very old and every age between, immune compromised people, people whose work revolves around immune compromised people and many others with various challenging health conditions. How can we best create the most loving, safest way to gather as the church family in our beautiful sanctuary? Open the windows and mask!

And...

To sing?
Yes, but taking into consideration the best information that is available, only when using masks. In the past two years, many people have commented that not being able to sing in church and not being able to have a choir leading worship has been very difficult to accept. I have also been eager to leave it all behind. It would be wonderful to have us all singing again as soon as possible. The information that I have has led me to understand that it is currently safe to sing as a group as long as all participants are conscious of distancing and all participants are masked. On Easter Sunday we plan to have a choir of 12 singers. Within this ensemble there are varying concerns about singing in a group but all have agreed to mask during rehearsals and on Sunday morning out of concern for each other. So, is it safe to sing as a congregation? In my search for this type of information, I have been encouraged to know that it is considered safe if the congregation is willing to follow the same mitigation strategies of the choir.

A question for you. How and when do we go about having our whole church family join in singing again?

Thanks for your consideration!

David Sateren
Director of Music