She Did What?

I had choir practice this morning, and let's just say that we tend to have fun. So much fun, in fact, that one member had to give up puns for Lent. And we periodically do nearly as much, if not more, talking than singing in practice.

After rehearsing a song for Maundy Thursday, one of the members asked if the altos (they're always so much trouble!) could get help with a few notes. She was having a hard time in one place where they go from an F sharp to a B.

The choir director, played the F sharp B B B. And then continued for a few more beats. Does this sound familiar? he asked.

Ummm, yeah. It's Here Comes The Bride.

The woman who was having trouble and giggled. Yeah, I've heard that one a couple times.

The choir director rejoined, Well, you might want to work on that so you don't have to hear it again.

She blushed. I've taken care of both of them, one way or the other.

We all laughed at that one. And that kind of tells you how irreverent this choir is.

Yeah. Because you could say that she has taken care of her husbands. She divorced one husband when she was young, and her longtime husband died about four years ago.

On the plus side, none of the altos had trouble hitting that series of notes after this exchange.

At Least We (They?) Have Fun

I joined a new church last summer. And really, we joined a new religion entirely. I was born and raised Catholic. I was married in a Catholic church, and the wee ones are baptized Catholic.

We left the Catholic church though for a number of reasons, the final straw being the unacceptable (and unavailability) of religious education for the wee ones. We landed in an Episcopal church that is very different from any church I've been a part of before, and not only because of its very small size and tight-knit community.

The Sunday School for this particular church happens between the morning services, wich is different from what I was used to. It occurs in the hour or so before the service that my husband and I would attend. And adults are urged to attend the adult formation classes that occur simultaneously. Yeah... I'm not really into that. Being such a small church though, it would be obvious if I weren't there.

Then I found out that the choir practices at the same time as Sunday School. I enjoy singing, although I'm not a great singer, and they were happy to have another member -- especially a soprano, since there were only one and a sometimes member at the time.

I didn't quite realize what I was signing up for, but I'm in now. Not only do we practice on Sunday mornings, but we have a weekly practice on Wednesday evenings for a couple hours. And once a month or so, we have a couple hour practice on a Saturday morning.

Yesterday is a good example of such a practice, as we have a multi-church choir concert that we're performing in next Sunday (yeah, apparently kids aren't the only ones with choir concerts -- who knew?). In fact, we're performing in Navajo, English and Latin. Memorized.

Shockingly, I actually have the songs down pat after yesterday's almost three hour rehearsal.

Yep, I said a three hour (straight) choir rehearsal. Needless to say, we were a bit slap happy near the end, and me being the new one to the religion, they started pulling out their Episcopal jokes to tell me.

How many Episcopals does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two and a fifth.

In most relgions, whenever two or three are gathered in His name, he is present. For the Episcopals, whenever two are gathered, there's always a fifth present.

Or, as another choir member pointed out, for every four Episcopalians, you find a fifth.

Why do Episcopals all sit in the back of the church?
Because there are no pews in the parking lot.

Episcopals believe they are the only people God trusts enough to take summers off from Church.
What's the best part about being an Episcopalian?
Being Episcopalin never interferes with your politics... or your religion.

Yeah... and apparently they refer to themselves as Whiskey-palians. I just can't quite see having this kind of a conversation in a Catholic church. Maybe it's the churches I ended up at, but this denomination is definitely more my speed!