Cantoring

Our entire family cantored for Lenten services tonight at our church, Calvary Lutheran in Grand Forks, ND. It required a bit of tricky planning: Abigail had ballet class after school, and she and Suzanna had church choir rehearsal before church. Also, we sang for both the 5:30 and 7:00 P.M. services and had to find a way to eat supper in between. The solution? Sing the opening of the 5:30 service, rush to the fellowship hall to gulp down supper, and then make it back to wrap up the 5:30 service. We all stayed the whole way through the 7:00 service.

Susan and I robed up and began the service from the back of the church, singing the opening while walking up the aisle with the pastor and the candle-bearing liturgical dancers (yes, liturgical dancers) to the altar. From there, we led the congregation in singing the first third of the service. We sat for the next third: the sermon and communion. We returned to the altar for the last third, and all three girls joined us to sing the prayers for the congregation. The congregational refrain asks the Lord to hear our prayers, but it is preceded several times by individual prayers--and those are what the girls sang alone. They had a hand-held microphone (Susan and I wore lapel mics) and sang very clearly, musically, and confidently. Not surprisingly, Susan and I were mighty proud.

Calvary folks are generous with their praise, and we heard a lot of "cute" about our family's singing. We have friends (and fellow Calvary members) who call us the Von Mobergs, an allusion to the singing Von Trapp family from The Sound of Music. These friends also indicated being a little intimidated by our "holiness" after having seen us serve in a pastor-ly capacity in church. That is something that anyone who knows me well will find extremely ironic!