By Marek Zabriskie
At Christ Church Greenwich we are blessed to have an incredible Men and Boys’ Choir, a terrific girls choir and six other choirs. We too often take this for granted. There are only ten Episcopal churches in the country with such a strong choristers program.
It’s not uncommon for our teenagers to write their college essay based on their experience in our chorister’s program as it’s an incredibly formative experience. They also make enduring friendships in our program.
Every other year, our choristers travel to Europe, usually England, to sing for a week in residence at one of the historic and venerable cathedrals. They make European friends and literally perform and lead worship in ancient settings front and center before worshippers.
This year, we are only losing one girl chorister, who will start at Middlebury College next fall. Her parents say that she goes around the house singing all the time. She has an angelic voice – one of the best voices that I have ever heard.
Within two years, however, we anticipate having 40 girls and 25 boy choristers and at least 15 small children in our St. Nicholas Choir. That’s a thriving music program for children and youth.
Christ Church has had a long, strong history of its commitment to choristers. We have raised generations of young singers who have gone on to live very successful lives in many different arenas. The skills that they learned the Royal School of Church Music in America (RSCMA) program at our church has nurtured gifts that last a lifetime.
Singing in the choir is team sport. Everyone participates. No one sits on the bench. Each chorister must rely on his or her teammates and be accountable to the rest of the team.
Together, they are challenged by two wonderful Ministers of Music to sing pieces that seem beyond their ability to perform – at least at first. Then comes the hard part – lots and lots of rehearsals. Eventually, they master the piece and proudly present it as their own.
And unlike every sport played across this sports obsessed nation, where boys and girls are segmented by age and gender, our choristers have adult teammates. It is perhaps the only opportunity where an eleven-year-old boy can perform next to a businessman five times his age. It is truly an inter-generational experience where youth have excellent adult role models, who join them in serving God.
Our choristers learn where a particular hymn has its roots in the Bible, why we are singing this particular piece of music during this particular Church Season and during this part of the worship service.
As they memorize and rehearse the music, they not only appropriate the sounds and words, but they appropriate the Christian faith at a very deep level. Each chorister internalizes the Christian faith. St. Augustine famously said, “Whoever sings, prays twice.”
Unlike some children who squirm in the pews, feeling no outlet for their energy, choristers are not passive participants in worship. They lead us and are ministers in their own right.
Cindy DeDakis, the former President of the RSCMA, once told me, “I feel that I am doing more to prepare future Vestry members than future adult choir members, because the choristers learn how much effort is entailed in making great worship occur.”
The assistant minister of music at one of the great Episcopal churches once told me, “I think that I am the only member of my chorister program who is still making a living as a musician, but all of my friends have been incredibly successful in their careers. I think it has a lot to do with the skills that we learned as choristers.”
They learn about excellence, teamwork, listening, learning, perseverance, accountability, reliability, and passion. All of these are elements that lead to a rich and successful life.
We want our children to grow up in a church where God is at the center and worship is primary. In such a setting we learn that God has a claim on our lives. We are free agents, but not completely.
We were put on this planet not to ruin it, hurt others or be selfish, but to contribute, give back, live a moral life, care for those in need and share what we have with others. We hope that our children will sense that the worship of God on Sunday is the most important activity of their week.
I envision a church which helps children to grow. But I don’t mean a church growing in numbers so much as growing in an understanding of what it means to be Jesus’ family and to call him “Lord” and to follow him in our daily life.
In such a church, children and adults love God as much with their minds as with their hearts in a church that is not afraid to ask the hard questions and to listen to those who think differently than we do.
Such a church will help us to test our faith, search for meaning and purpose in our lives, address guilt and grace, sin and forgiveness, life and death. It will help all of us to wrestle with the great theological and ethical dilemmas of our day and know that we are never alone, even if we are unsure of what we believe or fear that we believe nothing at all.
In such a church others will walk beside us as we move forward on our spiritual journey. We want our children to grow up in a church that is hospitable all ages and all kinds of people, a place where Jesus, who sat at table with sinners and saints and befriended the marginalized and said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, I shall give you rest” is present with us.
I hope that it will be a caring community, where people can turn for help when their sorrows outweigh their joys or when they feel as though they are lost in a dark wood at any stage of life. Even when they cannot pray for themselves, others will pray for them, help carry their burden, listen deeply with the ear of the heart and truly be present to them.
I hope that it will be a church that cares for everyone, not just it’s members. I hope that it will be a church with a social conscience, where everyone is deeply concerned about those living in poverty, the homeless, immigrants, aliens, victims of warfare and violence, and to ensure that no one feels unwanted or unworthy.
I hope that it will be a church that helps children and youth to become committed in service to others, seeking to alleviate hurt and suffering and in the process discovering the abundant life that Jesus promises each of us.
I hope that it will be a church marked by generosity of spirit, not foolishly claiming to be the sole owner of truth, but realizes that it has an important theological perspective, but not the only one.
I hope that it will be a church that is generous with its resources and where each member is encouraged to give of his or her time, talent, and treasure and to resist the temptation to use all or his or her money, gifts and energy merely for his or her own selfish purposes.
In such a church, the focus will not be on how much money we can keep for ourselves, but how much we can share with others. I hope that our children will experience a church with open hearts, open hands and open pocketbooks that is not content to do piddling little things on behalf of Jesus, but dares to make a crucial difference in the lives of others.
I hope that it will be a church that is truthful. There was a day when most people in our country believed that our governments, corporations, educational institutions and news media told the truth and did the right thing most of the time. That no longer is true today.
It’s assumed that these institutions are hiding something or are lying to us. Each of us is tempted to swim in a narrow lane of information only listening to what we want to hear and not challenging our cherished presuppositions.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come unto me.” I hope that the children and youth of Greenwich who enter our doors, will find a church that is gracious, generous-spirited, secure in its faith, committed to the Bible, bold in its vision, unbounded by its love, energized by its hope, courageous in its convictions and willing to take risks on behalf of God.
If our children find a church close to the one that I have described, perhaps they will be as excited to be part of it when they 70 or 80 as they are today. How wonderful that would be.
