I had the joy of hearing the Choristers of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, in concert earlier this year. Only the boys were on tour which meant they performed music with only alto and treble voices. Perhaps a third of the pieces they sang had passages for unison voices. Unison singing is difficult to do well. Not only do the pitch, rhythm and diction have to be flawless, the singers have to listen to each other and match the quality of their voices. When they sang in unison, it was with one voice. That was amazing.

The boys also sang a six-part motet, that is six lines of music sung at the same time. The complexity is unbelievable. Again, listening is essential. The singers have to make their part audible without drowning out any other parts.

A church is something like a choir. There are lots of different voices that contribute to the result. The church is better because of the diversity. Sometimes there are many things happening at the same time reflecting different interests and abilities of members. Other times a church has to speak with one voice. For example, we confess a common faith in God Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We all work together to share the Gospel with others. We promote love rather than hate.

As in a choir, it takes a lot of listening for a church to work properly. Without listening and working together we just make a lot of noise, but with a common effort we can make beautiful music.

Read Psalm 92:1-4 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne