4 - A Song for Combined Choirs

My synagogue participated in an interfaith Thanksgiving service the night before Thanksgiving. Sponsored by the Evanston (IL) Interfaith Clergy Association, its theme was “Celebrating Diversity - Living in Unity.” The American-ness of the Thanksgiving holiday has the capacity to join us together, in gratitude for our blessings, and despite our religious differences. We are all given the opportunity, by governmental decree, to pause to give thanks. Three choirs joined their voices to sing praise and gratitude, from Beth Emet, my congregation, from the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, and from the First Congregational Church. The Archbishop of Chicago, Francis Cardinal George gave the sermon. I was asked to dedicate one of my psalms to Cardinal George, and it was read by Beth Emet’s Rabbi Peter Knobel. I hope the Cardinal liked my selection.

Four

A Song for Combined Choirs
In honor of Francis Cardinal George

Together we sing Hallelujah.

With many voices singing, we come before You,
Joined in multilayered harmonies,
Ancient chants and recent chords,
Building a pillar of ascending melody.

How can we praise God in one voice?
How can we sing Your song with varied timbre?

Listen, O Eternal, to the chords that grow;
Listen, as Your tone within us is altered
By the songs of our days,
Is varied by the cadence of our lives.

Yet it sounds out,
Pure as You have placed it within our throats,
Glowing as moonlight
Through the atmosphere of the city,
Rising, shaded and changed, to fill the ear
With the melody of the Holy One.

Together we sing Hallelujah.