Harmonic Hazards

On Tuesday, Fr Thesis was walking the streets of his new parish in west London and marvelling at the spectacle of a public house very visibly and audibly full of people singing in support of the English national football team. He found himself reflecting on the contrast between this, and his church, where, of course, nobody sings even in a sedate (nay devout) way. He has been quite peppery in his criticism of the Church of England for not pushing the case for congregational singing, as has Fr Giles Fraser, predictably enough, and others have made the same point to me. 

To an extent, I can see several levels on which this resentment is slightly unfair. The Government has not positively authorised communal singing at the mass sporting events it has licensed, though you can argue it was fairly predictable that it would occur. As for snarking at the coronavirus's apparent ability to be rendered inactive by the fact that a singer is paid to perform rather than doing it for free, the nonsensical distinction between professional and amateur performers is drawn out of understanding for artists whose entire income-streams have collapsed, while those of the WI Choir haven't. Still, even though we all accept that the restrictions are to an extent unavoidably arbitrary, when the arbitrariness becomes too blatant it threatens compliance.

It's been a surprise to me how much the congregation at Swanvale Halt misses singing, or say they do; perhaps when they're able to do it once again they'll be a bit more enthusiastic about it, he says sourly. I know many churches have experimented with singing outside at the end of their normal services, and while our physical surroundings present a challenge to this we will have a go at it to celebrate our curate Marion's last mass with us on Sunday week, and see how it goes. At least the Council have cut the grass in the churchyard - they've been leaving it to encourage the wild-flowers and the municipal coffers - so our more unsteady members stand less of a chance of tripping over!