Singing against the darkness

Photo by Ben Gray
ELCA missionary, photographer for the ELCJHL

The lights went out on the Syrian choir tonight at St. Anthony Coptic Church, near the Holy Sepulcher, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service.

And they kept on singing.

As in, they quite literally didn't skip a beat. It was pitch black now in the packed chapel, only a faint glow from a candle near the altar, but they sang as if nothing had happened.

The women sang in tight little harmonies, based on a scale that seemed to have 50 tones where ours have only 7. They sang LOUD and PROUD.

The lights came back on a few minutes later, and you could hear the collective sigh of relief as the visiting congregation relaxed back into their pews.

Priests read the Scripture in Arabic
photo be Carrie Smith

We are much more comfortable praying in the light.

More scripture, more prayer, more incense, as the winter storm outside raged on.

Swept up by the sounds of the Gospel read in Arabic (which I only partly understood) and the chill of the wind blowing through the church's open door, I admit I was not thinking deep thoughts about Christian Unity. I was thinking "We're so lucky we only had to deal with a little microphone problem at OUR service!"

And then, as the Coptic choir sang "Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and glorious", the lights went out again.

Again, the music never stopped. The men 's voices, accompanied only by a triangle and small cymbals, pierced the darkness until, once again, the lights came back on.

At the cookie and coffee reception, I thanked the Syrian priest, Father Antonios, for his sermon.
"And I was so impressed at how the choirs kept singing when the lights went out!"

Fr. Antonios chuckled...no, really, guffawed...and said: 

 "Bwahaha! They can do anything to us, and we will keep singing! No lights, no church, we will keep singing! They can drop bombs on us, and we will keep singing!"

Best sermon of the week, right there.

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

"Blessed are you when people hate you, and persecute you, and revile you on account of my name."

"How can I keep from singing?"