We’re Back: My Experience at In-person Worship for the First Time in Over a Year

All Glory, Laud, and Honor. Today is Palm Sunday and I played for a masked and socially-distanced congregation of 25 people.

I’ll admit that I shed a few tears when we recited the psalm. Adding my voice to the collective prayer was a powerful feeling that I hadn’t experienced since March of 2020.

But my favorite part was seeing so many friends and familiar faces! I look forward to more reunions as we continue to meet for in-person worship. While it’s been a blessing to have a wonderful live-stream service, there’s obviously no replacement for the community that is St. Peter’s.

I felt completely safe and appreciated that pre-registration was required to attend and everybody did a good job of masking and keeping distance.

The music was (mostly) subdued for a Palm Sunday Service. There was a soloist who sang two hymns during the service at the procession and at the offertory. I used this as an opportunity to literally pull all the stops on the organ for John Cook’s piece titled “Fanfare”.

We’ve come a long way from March 2020. When we started live-streaming church services, the setup was an iPhone on a tripod. A year later we have an integrated system with multiple cameras that are controlled remotely. The average congregant probably won’t even notice anything!

I’m looking forward to Holy Week and Easter where we will have up to 75 souls in the pews for each service. Be sure to say hi!

Kindly,

Garrett