It is that time of the year when the church choir resumes weekly practice in prepara­tion for the Christmas services. The start of the new ‘choir season’ has led me to reflect on what it means to be a member of a choir.

In these days of self-promotion, and self-interest, being a member of the choir offers a striking contrast. Singing in the choir is about being a part of something larger than oneself - it’s about “us” not “me”. We strive for unity as we sing in one voice, listen to each other as we harmonise the voice parts, submit to the authority and direction of our conductor, learn to be patient with ourselves as we correct our mistakes, and humble ourselves, allowing the Spirit to work in a way that is beyond any human effort.

The lyrics of the songs we sing teach us about God, and help us grow in faith. Some­times, when we are faced with a week’s challenges or joys, the words of a hymn or song that we have rehearsed would come to mind and speak to our need. The lyrics became not just a song, but our meditation and our prayer.

Singing in a choir is a lot like life in the church. We are a part of the body of Christ, we each do our part, given our strengths and weaknesses, out of our gifts and interests, and somehow God uses imperfect people like us to do powerful things.

I pray that as we resume rehearsals for this season, that we will stay focused on the glory of God and God alone. As reminded by C.S. Lewis in his Christian Reflections on Church Music --- “What is looked for in us, as men, is another kind of glorying, which depends on intention. How easy or hard it may be for the whole choir to preserve

that intention through all the discussions and decisions, all the corrections and disappointments, all the temptation to pride, rivalry and ambition, which precede the performance of a great work, I do not know. But it is on the intention that all depends … We must beware of the naive idea that our music can ‘please’ God as it would please a cultivated human listener. That is like thinking, under the Old Testament, that He really needed the blood of bulls and goats”.

“The aim and final reason for all music should be nothing else but the glory of God and the refreshment of the spirit” --- J.S. Bach

Suzanne Tong

Choir section leader