Last night we had our weekly Saturday Night Service. We had held non-musical services all week for the tragedy, and that morning we had already held a women's event that had been scheduled. (The music planned for that was adjusted for the events of 9/11 and prayers for the situation were added. I wasn't involved with that event's planning or the music, but it sure was a good event that helped many.)

But last night we had to choose the music for the first regular service to occur after 9/11, and it was interesting how we thought about it, I think.

We wanted to aconowledge these events and pray, and help people heal from them, but we also were very aware that the primary focus at a communion service should be Jesus, and when we think of Jesus we are to praise... so we chose with some care.

We opened with a spiritual, "I Want Jesus to Walk With Me." The tune is majestic and terrible in its minor beauty, and the song is a sort of prayer. I remarked, to acknowledge what was on all our minds, that when we had first introduced this song just two weeks previously we could never have contemplated needing it so much NOW.

After the brief and familiar prayers that followed, we did a blues gospel piece called "God Don't Never Change." I remarked that blacks in the time it was written, IMO, knew a lot about joy in the midst of suffering, and perhaps we could try their model.... it went well.

For an offertory I asked the congregation to sing with me, "God Leads Us Along," and it was very quietly and beautifully sung.

During the communion I tolled autoharp chords for the piece we would close with. Planning to sing it fast and happy, I played it now just very slowly and sparely as people received communion.

We closed with that piece, done uptempo as it should be-- "Wings of a Dove."

Before the service, people had stopped by my music station to talk about what had happened. Tears were shed, soft words were said. But as people left, we deliberately did NOT engage anyone in talking about it and when people brought it up we encouraged them to lighten up for a little while and rest in Christ's joy... a break needed from all this, to gather new strength to grieve yet more.

(All those songs are posted I think.)

Thinking all this over today, I've volunteered to do the same weekly at another church that has no music and a broken, drug-infested town of miscreants occupying the few homes left from a previously-booming mine town.... it's a sad place on the best of days. I offered to do a Sunday AM version of what we do on Saturdays, since I do not go to our church on Sundays, and to do a weekly weeknight thing with music only, no prayer, just as a community service.

~Susan