As restrictions have been lifted so recently, during August any members of the church choir who are around are free to turn up and sit in the choir seats and encourage the congregation in hymns and service setting. We are highly visible because the cameras which broadcast the service are often trained in our direction.
Singing a service on the fly like this generates its own set of problems. If there is a descant, do we sing it? How do you alert others that there is a whole verse of a hymn on the service sheet that is not in the hymnbook? What if we don’t have the right service sheet at all? Which seats should we occupy? Who sings the Gospel acclamation? And so on.
Actually the congregation don’t need much pushing to get them to sing – it was more of a problem to stop them during the months in which they were supposed to be silent.