No Singing in Church? No Problem.

By Robin G. Jordan

This article also began as a response to a comment left in the comment section of the Church Leaders’ article, “What Does Worship Look Like When There Is No Singing in Church?”  In the comment it was claimed that Scripture mandates singing in church no matter what the circumstances are. Scripture, however, is more nuanced in what it says about singing than the person who left the comment would like us to believe. It is easy to go through Scripture and cherry-pick passages that appear to support such a claim, ignoring the context and other factors that must be considered in the interpretation of these passages. That approach to Scripture is known as “proof-texting.”

One of the things that may be causing people to react negatively to the prospect of not being able to sing and even to risk singing is because it is something that they have become accustomed to doing and they do not know what to do in its place. They are not used to silence, much less to long periods of silence.

Too often worship planners have used a song as “busy work,” something to keep the congregation occupied, while the ministers do something else such as prepare the table for communion. They have filled every gap in the service with music and singing.

A number of contemporary services are little else but singing and a sermon. When the singing is omitted, all that is left is the sermon. Attendees are prompted to ask themselves, “What was the point of coming to church? I could’ve listened to the sermon at home.” They are apt to question the need for an in-person service or gathering in the first place.

Replacing the singing with instrumental music may unnecessarily lengthen the service at a time when worship planners should be shortening services in order to reduce the length of time that attendees may be exposed to airborne COVID-19 particles.

A growing body of evidence points to the airborne transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Singing and loud talking have been implicated in the spread of the virus particularly in enclosed spaces that are poorly ventilated and in which the air is recirculated and not replaced with fresh air from outside of the building. In such circumstances the airborne particles can linger in the air for up to 3 hours, according to one study. The smaller the space, the greater the concentration of airborne particles, another study found. When we sing or speak loudly, we increase our rate of exhalation. If we are infected with the virus, we exhale more virus particles into the air. When we sing or speak loudly, we also breathe more deeply. We increase our rate of inhalation. If virus particles are floating in the air, we inhale more particles.

One of the early recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control was that in-person services or gatherings should initially be held outdoors. If they were held indoors, they should be held in a large, open room with the doors and windows open and ventilated by electric fans. The White House removed this recommendation from the CDC guidance that was eventually published, claiming that it was “too precise.” In the recommendation the CDC recognized the need for good ventilation in any space that a church used for its in-person services or gatherings.

The open letter which 239 scientists from 32 nations sent to the World Health Organization urging the WHO to recognize the growing body of evidence of the airborne transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus also contained some practical advice.

--Provide sufficient and effective ventilation (supply clean outdoor air, minimize recirculating air) particularly in public buildings, workplace environments, schools, hospitals and age care homes.

--Opening both doors and windows can dramatically increase air flow rates in many buildings.

--Supplement general ventilation with airborne infection controls such as local exhaust, high efficiency air filtration, and germicidal ultraviolet lights. (These would be placed high up in the ceiling to avoid damage to people's eyes and skin).

--Avoid overcrowding, particularly in public transport and public buildings.

This advice is applicable to church sanctuaries, worship centers, and other venues where churches hold in-person services and gatherings. It is particularly applicable to settings in which many choirs rehearse—poorly-ventilated, windowless rooms in the church basement or undercroft.

Among the things that Scripture tells us is to sing and make melody in our hearts. By "heart" this passage in Paul's Letter to the Ephesians means our inner most being. In other words, we are singing and making melody without vocalizing the lyrics of the song aloud.

Paul's urging in the church at Ephesus to “sing hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs to each other” can be understood in a number of different ways. A number of these ways do not require what we consider choral singing or congregational singing.

For instance, the members of a Christian household can sing together, or one member of a Christian household can sing a hymn, psalm, or spiritual for its other members. The same household can make a video of the household singing together or a video of the household member singing and share it with the other households of their church. The video can be sent electronically to the other households or it can be played at an in-person service or gathering of their church. On Youtube I have found a number of videos of families playing musical instruments and, or singing God’s praises.

As Paul advises the church at Corinth, "When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up." Very few churches in recent times follow that practice. A temporary moratorium on choral singing and congregational singing provides churches with an opportunity to recover the practice, using videos made by their members.

A practice that I have commended elsewhere is a practice of the early desert fathers. It is a practice that can be followed in one’s own private devotions as well as in a service of public worship. One of the monks would chant a psalm while the other monks listened to the psalm and reflected on it. Silence followed the psalm after which the monks prayed silently or aloud as the Holy Spirit moved them. The monks sung and prayed through the entire psalter in this manner. We can listen to a recording of a psalm, observe a period of silence, pray, listen to a recording of a psalm, observe a period of silence, pray, and so on. Members of the congregation might take turns recording themselves singing or reciting a psalm.

One thing that should be kept in mind in interpreting Scripture is that God exists outside of time and space as we know it. He is not a finite being like ourselves. The past, the present, and future are one to him. In interpreting a passage, we cannot rule out the possibility that God in inspiring the author of the passage was aware that those who read the passage might live in a world far different from that of the writer and took consideration of these differences in his intended application of the passage. The author of the passage may have thought in terms of singing to each other in the same room or from one room to another. God, on the other hand, knew that one day we would have the telephone, the radio, the television, the internet, and other means of communication that we cannot even imagine. Singing to each other via these means is still singing to each other.

Scripture does not enjoin us to sing without regard to our health and safety or the health and safety of others. It does not require us to play Russian Roulette with human lives as some churches are doing. In times of persecution Christians have refrained from singing lest they attract the attention of their persecutors. They have not needlessly exposed themselves to danger.

If we examine the history of singing in the Christian Church, we will discover that there have been a number of times in its history when there has been no singing at all in services of public worship or when the singing was limited to a choir or schola cantorum. In the Western Church in Medieval times only the choir sung at Mass. The priest chanted the service; the choir embellished it with their singing; and the people said their private devotions. The disappearance of congregational singing can be in part attributed to the rise of monasticism and then monastic choir.

In the Western Church congregational singing was not recovered until the time of the Reformation. How larger part it has played in a church’s services of public worship has depended upon the ecclesiastical tradition in which the church stands and the denomination to which it belongs.

In the Quaker tradition congregational singing has played no role at all. The congregation sits in silence and waits upon the Holy Spirit.

In the Anglican Church the vested choir and choral singing would play a large role due to the influence of cathedral music and the Oxford Movement.

In the Methodist Church hymn singing has played a large role. John Wesley encouraged congregational singing. He and his brother Charles Wesley translated and wrote hymns. Their theology is embodied in their hymns and John Wesley’s sermons.

While some ecclesiastical traditions use musical instruments to accompany singing; others prohibit their use. At one time the organ and the nose flute were banned from the Christian Church because they were used to accompany pagan sacrifices and entertain customers at brothels. Women’s choirs were banned as a consequence of the Arian controversy. The followers of Arius used them to lure Catholic (orthodox) Christians to their churches.

In Roman Catholic Church a common complaint made by post-Vatican II pastoral musicians was “Catholics don’t sing.” I attended a number of Roman Catholic weddings in the late twentieth century where the only people singing were the priest and the cantor.

Some Roman Catholic parishes not only sang but also sang with enthusiasm before COVID-19. A number of Roman Catholic music publishers have produced excellent hymnals. But the enthusiastic congregational singing that was heard in these Roman Catholic parishes was a relatively late development.

The Eastern Church has a long tradition of congregational singing albeit it is the liturgy that Eastern Orthodox congregations sing. An ability to sing the liturgy was a requirement for ordination to Eastern Orthodox clerical orders.

The practice of singing a “worship set” at the beginning of a service is a relatively late development, traceable to the last half of the twentieth century, to the Praise and Worship Movement and the Seeker Service Movement. Since that time this practice has spread to other Pentecostal and evangelical churches. Referring to it as the “worship time” is misleading.

Singing is a form of worship but it is not the only form of worship. Worship means to give honor to God. We can give honor to God in many different ways. Telling others of God’s wondrous deeds is one of these ways.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob that God desires true worshipers, those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. Jesus is not referring to the worship of the lips but to the worship of the heart. Heart worship is embodied in a life that honors God in every way.

Even though we may temporarily be unable to sing in church, we can still worship God. We can honor him with the way that we live, treating others as we would be treated, loving our neighbor as we would ourselves, caring for his health and safety as we would our own, loving our fellow Christians as Jesus himself loved us—with a sacrificial love in which we choose to temporarily give up singing for their health and safety. We can show our love for Jesus by keeping his word, obeying his commandments, and following his example.

We can also sing God’s praises at home or wherever we find ourselves. If we cannot sing aloud, we can sing and make melody in our hearts as Paul urged the church at Ephesus. I have found a wealth of “hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs” on Youtube and other websites and have posted the lyrics of these songs and links to mp3s and videos of them on this weblog, A Prayer Book for North America and All Hallows Murray. One of the ways that I pass time since the COVID-19 pandemic has limited my activities is to play videos of new songs, make a note of their lyrics, and then learn the new songs.

I believe that it is a mistake to compartmentalize our singing of God’s praises to church on Sundays. I believe that we should be praising God in song throughout the day and well into the night. The desire to offer God our unceasing praise and thanksgiving is what underlay the early cathedral (or popular) offices of Lauds and Vespers, and the later monastic cycle of psalmody and prayer. As Peter tells us, “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”