By: Chris LaRosa (TEC New Orleans)
“Jesus Christ is sung in your harmony and symphonic love. And each of you should join the choir, that by being symphonic in your harmony, you may sing together in one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father.” - St. Ignatius of Antioch, To The Ephesians 4, AD 107.
After having a vision of angelic choirs singing to one other in Heaven, St. Ignatius of Antioch first taught our Church to sing praises in multiple parts, joining different harmonic voices together to glorify God. In his seven known letters, St. Ignatius describes a Church that was alive with beautiful music.
In my hometown of New Orleans, we express ourselves and infuse every aspect of our lives with music. We dance to the parading marching bands and the corner street musicians, say goodbye to our friends with jazz funerals, and listen to the beautiful sounds of practicing trumpeters and drummers coming from yards and open windows in every neighborhood. We naturally celebrate life, love, milestones, and moments through our music and musicians. It permeates our world.
Faced with the challenges of ‘social distancing’ and ‘stay-at-home’ life, the TEC New Orleans community naturally rallied around our melodies and musical memories to keep us connected, to find encouragement, and to share our faith. On two Friday evenings in May, our Community Support Team hosted online musical ‘Zoom Jam Sessions’ with ten of our musically-talented community members entertaining and inspiring all who joined in to sing along.
With emailed song sheets in hand, we began the first night with a piano rendition of our ‘Song of Blessing,’ after which our musicians and singers treated us with some of their favorite popular or praise-filled selections. Some highlights included guitar renditions of ‘Good Good Father’ and ‘Great Are You Lord,’ an a Capella version of ‘Salt and Light,’ ‘10,000 Reasons’ played on ukulele, ‘Amazing Grace’ played with electric bagpipes, some southern Louisiana ‘Jambalaya on the Bayou,’ a classic ‘Up With People’ song, and even an instrumental of ‘Shout To The Lord’ on the cello. Each evening, we concluded with a reassuring verse of ‘Be Not Afraid,’ our usual closing song for our Sunday night Reunions, as we praised the Lord and spent some precious community time together despite being apart.
Although we had come together simply to praise and sing, there were a couple of valuable lessons that we learned on those nights, as these jam sessions held much more meaning and significance than I first realized.
Although we had come together simply to praise and sing, there were a couple of valuable lessons that we learned on those nights, as these jam sessions held much more meaning and significance than I first realized.
Because of the pandemic restrictions, our TEC community has had to confront two challenges: the cancellation of our two summer TECs, and the accelerated, permanent closure of our host retreat center. Suddenly left with the possibility of not reuniting in person for the foreseeable future, these jam sessions had unexpectedly become smaller versions of our summer Reunions, and by default, the only times when we could still see the smiling faces of our TEC family while sharing the music we love and praising the Lord. The combination of our music and technology allowed us to have the community experience that we did not know we would be missing for perhaps many months to come.
But as I scrolled through the tiny digital faces and whimsical nicknames of Zoom attendees – I noticed faces and names that truly touched my heart and made me smile: the nun who gave the Signs reflection on my TEC in 1988; the retired teacher who directed my first TEC team; the old friend that moved to Texas 20 years ago; the guitarist who now lives in Colorado; the community member from Minnesota who came down and worked a TEC years ago. Face after face, name after name, there were people I’ve known for years or decades and with whom I’ve shared dozens of fun-, faith- and music-filled moments. They had come here across the miles and the years because of the allure of the music shared through our community, to rejoin their voices with ours and sing those songs we had once sung in person. For a few moments, we were all together once again, one big Reunion across the decades, showing that we not only had been, but still are, a part of this one great community of love and Christ experience that we call TEC.
In these days of new challenges and forced separation, we found a new way to connect and reunite our community members, thanks to the blessings of technology and the vast talent of our local singers and musicians. In the spirit of the often contradictory ways of our Faith, the sickness, separation, and sadness had led us to healing, togetherness, and joy. Praise God!
