August 21, 2006

Kingdom

“The one who sings prays twice,” goes an old saying. The written word combined with music is a most beloved treasure of our Anglican heritage. The opportunities to hear it done well, for example, in Evensong, are rare in our town.

Yesterday afternoon, our children’s choir sang the office to the settings of Telemann and Arnatt, Howells and Long, Marcello, Rawsthorne, and Corrette. I know of no other sound quite like that, especially when sung so well by those who seem so blissfully unaware of how very difficult it is.

To celebrate an occasion so utterly void of pretense and rancor and so delightfully exemplary of collegial joy is altogether refreshing in these ecclesial days and times. When it comes to children, I’m usually more on the curmudgeonly side of W C Fields. But when I hear these voices and these prayers “twice done,” I am once again convinced that the Kingdom of God must truly be of such.

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