In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re currently in the middle of a global pandemic – a situation that has presented to the world significant challenges. Despite changed and challenging times, the worship of God continues – and always will – and part of that worship of course is through music. Like many other congregations, we have successfully established live, weekly worship using Zoom. We chose this, in preference to the more common pre-recorded mode, because the congregation has traditionally been very interactive in worship, and we didn’t want to lose this element.

But what do we do about music? Like most places of Christian worship, music plays a huge role in our community. We are passionate about praising God through music of substance and do so with piano, guitar, strings, flute, organ, drums and voice. Fairly early in the piece (prior to Stage 4 restrictions in Victoria) we did quite a bit of work recording our band (including our organist) capturing contemporary, traditional and locally written songs we use as part of worship. These recordings are incorporated into our weekly online worship, complemented by words and visuals. Those who can’t connect online can participate in worship via phone, and are provided with weekly mail outs of song words for the upcoming week and other materials to ensure they don’t miss out.

We’ve been extremely lucky to get ahead of the game in this regard and post-Covid, it will be interesting to consider possibilities to continue using enhanced media and streaming to enhance the life of the church.

Beyond our congregation though, we join with many, rejoicing in the singing of songs and the writing and playing of words and music that glorifies God. This time of separation will come to a close and with it I expect an enriched, thankful, highly resilient and blessed community of Christ.

A final comment in relation to music – the worship of God through music doesn’t depend on huge technologies, Sunday mornings, smart techies or hours of work from week to week. It doesn’t rely on choirs, musicians and teams. The worship of God through music and song is as close as the songs in your heart or the whispered fragments of praise and reflection that we may find ourselves consciously or unconsciously offering to glorify God at any time or in any place.

The band at work in less-isolated times.