I rode into the Tabernacle with my carpool buddies on Thursday night and as we actually walked onto Temple Square, there was a large number of choir members just standing around talking to one another instead of heading towards the doors to go in. At first I thought that maybe they hadn't opened the doors yet, but then I realized that many just wanted to relish in the opportunity to socialize! After all, it had been over 18 months since we had seen each other and I think we all just wanted to soak it in. After catching up with people and giving lots of hugs, we put on our masks, went inside, and sat on the benches (socially distanced of course). I sat next to my friends Wes and Ryan.
The meeting consisted of several individuals sharing their thoughts and testimonies. We heard from Bishop Caussé of course, who was presiding, and we heard from outgoing President Ron Jarrett and his wife, and then heard from the incoming presidency, including new President Leavitt and his wife, along with the two newly called counselors. Having an actual presidency, similar to presidencies in other church organizations, is new to the Tabernacle Choir. But it makes sense to follow the same pattern. Plus, I'm sure the whole Tabernacle Choir organization will benefit from having a full presidency since there's always a lot going on in the background to make things operate smoothly.
You can read about (and watch excerpts of) the meeting HERE and HERE, if you're interested.
I think my favorite part was just being able to sing together. Yes, we were masked. And no, we weren't in the loft as usual. But it was still nice to sing an opening hymn ("Called to Serve") and closing hymn ("God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again) and hear each others' voices again.
The current plan is to start rehearsals on 9/21. And whirlwind rehearsals they will be as we will only have a couple of weeks to prepare all of the music for upcoming General Conference. The way THAT is working, is they are dividing the choir in half for any given session. That way, we can sit every other seat and try and maintain some distancing. We have yet to be told which session each of us will be singing in. But that should be forthcoming, soon I'd think.
After the conclusion of the meeting, we picked up some additional music from our music lockers and headed for home. Despite the disappointment of not having the night be what we had all hoped it would be (a return to singing), I can't deny that it was nice to be all together again. And barring any significant changes in covid, we're less than a month away from actually being able to sing.
In the words of President Leavitt: "We need to resume performances. For nearly a year and a half, COVID-19 and its variants have interrupted our progress. Well, the time has come for us to reboot our work."
Until next time, God be with you.
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