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Thursday, May 27, 2021

Is It Safe to Sing at Church Yet? Depends Who You Ask.


A mix of musical expression is likely to continue as congregations navigate the ‘new normal’ of the continuing pandemic with some people fully vaccinated and some not.

On Pentecost Sunday, some members of Southwood Lutheran Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, sang hymns without masks for the first time in more than a year.

They vocalized “Multilingual Grace” in four languages after music director Denise Makinson taught them how to express thanks in Spanish, Arabic, Swahili and Korean.

“I do have to say it was quite emotional yesterday to hear the congregation singing
all the hymns,” Makinson said in an interview on Monday (May 24). “It was definitely something I missed.”

Pentecost is often celebrated as the “birthday” of the Christian church. It frequently includes a reading from the New Testament Book of Acts about the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus’ followers, who then begin to speak and understand languages they had not known.

“I think they were also emotional about it, to hear people’s voices,” Makinson said of Southwood’s congregants.

Some people sang with masks on, others with them off — a mix that is likely to continue across the country for a while as congregations navigate the “new normal” of the continuing pandemic when not everyone is vaccinated. Read More

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