“… as we sing together we belong to one another in the song. We agree, in effect, not to be soloists, self-absorbed meditators, or competitors, but to compromise with each other, join our voices as if joining hands, listen to each other, keep the same tempo, and thus love each other in the act of singing. For a congregation, its corporate song makes a theological statement: ‘We are the body of Christ.’ In the early church, the fact that the whole congregation sang together, in unison, was understood to be theologically important because it demonstrated the loving unity of all Christians ….
“Today also, togetherness in song models togetherness in love, and reminds us that we are not a crowd, a mob, a swarm, or a flock, not a chance agglomeration of individuals, but a unified, Christ-centered community. Though we do not submerge our identity in the crowd, singing together brings us together, demonstrating how we belong to one another in Christ.”
c. 2000 Brian Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song, Westminster John Knox Press.
What do you think?
