Hi Azizi, and happy New Year!

I wonder if the processional thing is more a denominational custom, rather than an ethnic/racial one?

The processionals as you have described them are completely familiar to me, and are the 'norm' for most of the Protestant churches in my home town of Port Colborne. Well, the ones I know of anyway: United Church of Canada, Presbyterian Church, and Anglican. Having said that, I couldn't vouch for other congregations in other communities, but of those same denominations: it might be one of those customs adopted in some communities and not others, and not dictated by any central authority. Now I think of it, in my days in the church choir, we didn't always "procede" - we sometimes slipped in the 2 doors at the side of the sanctuary. I think maybe it was a) dictated in part by the wishes of the Minister and b) dependent on whether or not a Sunday was something important like Easter or Advent or similar.

In Wales, non-conformist and methodist chapels don't have processionals simply because they don't have choirs. I think the Church in Wales services start with a processional ...

Sorry - didn't mean to vere the discussion from Black Church Services. Just wanted to work out what may or may not be unique to various communities. I'm looking forward to seeing what develops here.

sian