We have attended our current church for twelve years, and in that time, we've found its atmosphere move from joyful and enjoyable to depressing. We thought that if we volunteered, we might get more out of the service, but that hasn't necessarily happened. I love our church, don't get me wrong, but something has been missing for nearly three years now. Today, I realized what it is: music.
Our lead cantor has a lovely voice, but all the music she chooses is slow and sad. She can turn the most joyful music into a dirge. For example, "Go Tell it on the Mountain" is a joyful and upbeat song about the birth of Christ. No one would ever know it by attending our church and hearing it played and sung. Our music is funereal, which is truly too bad, and it's no wonder others are leaving the parish to join others, most likely in search of happines rather than gloom.
I walked out of our visited church today happy and uplifted, the way I once felt when we began going to our current parish. I'm sure our priest has something to do with the doom and gloom tone of our parish; he isn't the most uplifting priest I've ever heard. Nor is he a fiery priest. He just...is. In fact, our spiritual life at our church seems rather barren and cold, much like our priest. After the Sandy Hook tragedy, our priest offered no words of comfort or solace the following Sunday. Nothing. Nada. Zip. He continued with his usual sermon rather than deviate and console us. Granted, we are thousands of miles from the scene of this current tragedy, but many of us have young children and needed some solace.
I've always considered church as a place of reconciliation, peace, love, comfort, joy, so imagine my frustration that our church is no longer offering those to me. The logical person would forgo this current parish and find one that ministers to needs better, but I'm often illogical. I'll stay; we have invested too much time and effort into our current parish. However, whenever I can, I will most certainly attend our neighboring church, one that offers joyful, soul-enriching music and a happy,
life-loving priest. Our current priest only has three years remaining at our church; I can outwait him.
I can also do what our Catholic church tells us not to do...listen to gospel and other Christian genres to remember joy in our church music.
