Singing In Worship - Letter From Praise Church Council

Dear Praise Family,

Most of you probably realize that we are coming up on the one-year mark of first impacts of the Coronavirus from 2020. We don’t think that we need to tell you how disruptive that this has been for our church as we have struggled through this! It has certainly changed the way that we do things, and even through the frustrating time, we have seen God’s faithfulness to our congregation in many ways. His word says that He is faithful, and He has proved it yet again!

As we move further into 2021 and begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the introduction of a vaccine, along with decreasing post-holiday positivity rates, we are hopefully looking forward to beginning to bring things back toward “normal.” One of the first steps that we are taking is introducing singing back into our services.

After consulting with some Christian medical professionals in the area and reviewing the Connecticut State guidelines and CDC guidelines, we have found that their guidance allows for singing in our services as long as we continue wearing masks and maintain social distance from non-family members. We have also found that many churches in our area have been singing during services and have done so at a relatively low risk to the health of the church community.

Therefore, our church council has come to the conclusion that it is of relatively low risk to sing together during our morning worship services, while wearing masks and social distancing. As an elder board, we have been considering the health risks of singing and have also been considering the spiritual benefit of being able to sing in our services as well. Our call as elders is to shepherd the flock and not just care for our physical well-being, but to care for the spiritual well-being of the church as well. We believe that being able to lift our voices in song will be of spiritual benefit for our church body as a whole, as we sing His praises for who He is and all that He’s done.

For those of you who currently attend our services in person but may want some more distance as we sing together, we will have a section of the church where increased distance can be created during the singing. We will also be making our service available online, as always, for those who want to join remotely.

Please continue to pray for our church, that as the Word is proclaimed and as we sing praises to God for all that He has done that He would continue to bless us and show us His grace!

In Christ,
The Praise Church Council
Travis Boucher
Mike Eldred
Tom Palmer
Mike Sosnicki
Pastor Evan Langlois