Kent, I also remember the song "Marching To Zion" from my childhood or teen years. It was often sung by the choir {with the congregation joining in} in the beginning of the church service as the choir marched down the center aisle to the choir stand behind the raised area where the minister/s sat.

This summer I attended church service in my home church in Atlantic City, New Jersey and was blessed to hear and observe this song being sung again as a processional. The tune was slightly different, more percussive but not that much more uptempo than before. The refrain was emphazized "We're marching/marching up to Zion/that beautiful city of God/we're marching, marching up to Zion/that beautiful city of God."

I can't remember if there were other words to the song that was sung, If so, it certainly wasn't the entire song as I remembered learning it and hearing it sung before. One reason I can't remember the words of the song was that my focus was on the way the older man led the choir in their processional down the center aisle of the church. The other choir members were in twos, but this man walked in front of the choir by himself. He very much reminded me of a drum major in marching bands, not that he carried a baton or anything. It was just the way he walked, proudly swaying to the music. It was wonderful! I wish I had a video to share which shows this choir processional or any African American choir processional... Perhaps I'll look for one on YouTube, since I'm up because I'm on-call with my job...

On second thought, I'm gonna bid everyone a goodnight-actually, good morning. I'll try to find a processional video tomorrow, though posting a link to it would be off-topic. But, then again, when have I been overly concerned about going off-topic?

LOL!