Well, after 18 years of choir directing; this too has come to pass. Like Jesus said as he was hanging on the Cross: "It is finished." I have no regrets, no malice or hatred towards my faithful choir members or any of the "flock" at H**C. Some higher Church officials, at times, dictate the future of things in their parish without thinking the important decisions through. They tend to look at the short term picture not long term.
We, as Orthodox Christians, look at our Church as "life boats on the stormy sea of life." Higher authorities sometimes make sudden decisions that steer the life boat onto the rocks of, self-interest, greed, and love of money, thus jeopardizing the spiritually of all who are trying to grow closer to God and His Church.
Liturgical music in the Orthodox Church is an important part of liturgy. Without semi-trained choir members and a director that knows the "rubric" of each service, liturgical worship can be disrupted. Examples of distractions are: loud individual voices heard over the entire choir, bad vocal intonation, and long pauses between the choir and clergy. In fact, according to the Holy Fathers of the Church, this type of worship is considered to be heresy. According to the Abridged Typicon (a book of the order and conduct of divine services) it sums up liturgical singing this way:
"The majority of the faithful are not experts on singing. But ask this
majority what it expects from Church singing and what kind of
it wishes, and the majority will answer: give us such singing which
will touch the heart; which will move us to tears of emotion; which
will lift up our spirit and help us to pray."*
The bottom line is: without a trained choir director at the helm of the choir; spirituality and worship place second fiddle greed and love of money. Worship may well become a "spiritual cesspool."
Thanks for the memory.
Peace
*Taken from: "Abridged Typicon" St. Tikhon's Seminary Press. 1985.
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