Grandson David, John, and I were in church Tuesday to tape the choral parts of the Good Friday service. There were eight singers, an organist, the choir director, the pastor, an audio person, and the videographer. We were extremely careful to follow the state mandate of having no more than ten in a room together. Four members of the choir were in the front of the church, and the other four outside the sanctuary door in the Narthex. I took a photo of the church before we began rehearsing.
The fellows finished putting all the equipment in place, and they tested the balance of the voices. The unrelated singers in front were at least six feet apart. Grouping the rest was easy, since John, David, and I live together and could stand close to each other. When I took this photo, there was still light outside. The planners wanted us to wait until dark to tape the service, a detail I would have missed.
John and David were ready to sing.
I took the last shot when we were about to tape the procession. Going down the aisle was the audio man acting as crucifer, a singer as cantor, and Pastor as himself. The choir director’s back was at the door. I was glad to have the alto in our group in the shot, because it was her birthday. She was laughing and said, “I was excited that I needed to dress up and put on makeup!”
Half way through the taping, most of us swapped places. I opted to stay outside, because I am not a regular member of the choir. It is going to be interesting to see how all the bits will be spliced together. It’s Maundy Thursday now, and David is working. John is at the church taping music for Easter Sunday. I’ll watch the service being streamed tonight by myself, and they will watch after they get home.
Mehrling Muse 
Very nice. That’s funny, about the makeup. I never go without, but even though hubby is home, I haven’t donned it on, or maybe a gloss. No point in wasting it. He’s seen me plenty without and it’s not important to him. I get it.
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How nice!
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We are waiting until tomorrow to hear how we sounded. Still, the Bible says to make a joyful noise to the Lord. We hope its a bit more musical than noisy.
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Such a strange time, when even the most holy of religious days can’t be observed properly.
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You are right that we are not observing these days as we always did. I find I am thinking more deeply about the meaning of the services, so this shakeup is beneficial for me.
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I’m really hoping you all are fine. Careful if you do this in the future, though. Check out https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-29/coronavirus-choir-outbreak . They think that it spread more viciously because people take deeper breaths when singing.
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I saw that several days ago and had the same thought.
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Your congregation has been very creative to make this a great service!
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We are waiting to see it tonight. John is a bit nervous, since he was the one who shared the outline. We had done this service several times in NY. We hope people will find it worshipful here.
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They will be very grateful!
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We hope we aren’t hounded out of town. Oh, wait. We’re already out of town, living 45 minutes away.
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Ann, could you share a link so we could watch your Good Friday and Easter services? We would love to worship with you!
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The link should be EmmanuelLutheran.info
Welcome to our church! If you watch a service, I pray you will be blessed by it.
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Thank you!
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Interesting watching the steps you took Anne. I’ll bet it went well and you watched it this afternoon. My dentist did a post on Facebook and I imagine he did something similar to how your taping will be put together. He wanted to say that if you were a patient with an April appointment not to call – they would not be back for a while yet, at least until May and would call to reschedule – but what he did was put a toilet paper roll on the end of a fishing line and he cast out the line and next you saw his daughter catch the roll, and make a comment about they’ll work extra hours to keep up, then she tossed the roll to someone else and they did this about six times, each adding a little more about how they will compensate for the down time as to appointments. Pretty amazing since some of the shots were not family, but dental assistants or hygienists catching and throwing the roll of TP.
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Nice. Well, tomorrow will be my first time at Easter service. I think pets should always be allowed, but oh well. Happy Easter!!!!
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That’s great that you can go to church tomorrow on line. Happy Easter! Don’t play with the Easter lilies.
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I won’t. Thanks
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Looks like all was organized very carefully and very well! I hope you will eventually upload the singing, if you can. My John and I would love to hear it. Happy Easter! Stay safe!
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The fellows who did the audio and taping were superb.
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