20-voice Synod choir will ‘put some spice on it’ at closing worship

The 20 singers and their conductor took stage in the Kansas City Convention Center, with 30 quick minutes to rehearse and get out of the way. They had never met in person.

“Put some spice on it,” director Bryan Johnson urged the altos. And they did. “You sound great,” he said. “I’m going to take that back to Chicago with me.”

Johnson leads sacred music at Trinity United Church of Christ, one of denomination’s largest congregations. Its several choirs have hundreds of singers. The church’s motto is “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.”

In Kansas City, Johnson is serving as music director for the UCC’s national meeting, the General Synod. The singers, almost all of them white, are delegates and visitors who volunteered for the Synod choir.

The group’s size and race don’t matter to Johnson. “For me, it’s really not a challenge, in the sense that good choral teaching is good choral teaching,” he told UCC News. “I use the same pedagogy with five singers or 500.”

The rehearsal on Sunday, July 13, may have been their first in person, but the Synod singers had been at it for a while. Over the last six months, the they’ve worked from sheet music and audio recordings Johnson sent them – in some cases his own arrangements. They also had one Zoom rehearsal earlier in July.

They’ll sing at the Synod’s closing worship service at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 15.

They’re bringing their whole selves and varied traditions to the process. “The cultures are different, of course,” he said. “With gospel music in the Black church there’s a lot of hand-clapping, a lot of drums and different things. With Synod we also have to be careful that we choose music that’s palatable to the ear, so that everything is not driven by instruments but is really driven by the voices and the melody.”

Johnson, whose past Synods have included larger choirs – and even a virtual one in 2021 – said he appreciates the opportunity every time. He thinks the singers do, too.

“General Synod is so cool because people remember me from years ago,” he said. “They’re so flexible.” And they get to sing in a way they may not experience in their local churches. “Churches don’t have all of the resources musically. They’re small choirs – nine, 10 members. Sometimes they don’t have enough. When Synod comes together, it’s more resources. And it’s such a wide variety of likes and musical styles.

“I love the relationships. I meet people from all over the country and all over the world. I learn different styles of music that I probably would not do at Trinity. So, I love it.”

Choir members said they love singing in their local churches – and at Synod, too.

The Rev. Ruth Shaver is interim pastor at Seekonk Congregational UCC in Massachusetts. “What I love about my local church choir is that they’ve rejuvenated with new music,” she said. “We have a guitar choir, bell choir, youth choirs. And they’re loving singing praise to God again. And I love singing with them, because they’ve welcomed me with open arms.” She said she signed up for Synod choir because it’s so much fun “to sing in front of a thousand people.”

Stacy George, from Hammond Street Congregational UCC, Bangor, Maine, said that church’s choir is “always singing something innovative, new, and with our organ, doing something beautiful.” At Synod, she said, “it’s fun to sing in front of everybody of this faith formation.”

At Webster Congregational Christian UCC in Havre de Grace, Maryland, choir member J.J. DeVoe sometimes substitutes for the music director. The choir there, he said, is “the reason I joined the church a year ago.” “We’re a very small but mighty church, and our choir is even smaller and mightier” – 10 to 15 people, he said. “We really get to sing some hard music.” He’s in the Synod choir because “I love to be on stage.”

The Synod singers have worked on eight pieces in various styles and from various cultures. Some will be hymns for the whole congregation to sing. Others are anthems the choir will offer. Titles include “Be Love,” “Take the Sweet Grass,” “We Are Marching / Siyahamba,” “A Fire is Meant for Burning,” “We Will Be the Light,” “One Heart,” “This Little Light of Mine” and “Hope Will Not Fail.”

“I am very proud of this group,” Johnson said. “We’ve had a great time.”

---

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.