The music we bring: A chaplain’s perspective
At a St Mary’s DSG service, the music might take us from a familiar Anglican hymn to an African-language chorus, from the sung responses of the Eucharist to a contemporary worship song. Our Chapel Choir helps lead our singing throughout the year, while this year our orchestra has joined the Senior school for a service and our marimba bands have accompanied congregational singing at Community Prayers.
Moving between these different musical traditions and bringing together voices and instruments takes skill, preparation and generosity. We are fortunate to have a Music Department led by Mrs Spies, the dedicated direction of our Chapel Choir by Mr Ndlovu, and Mrs Joseph’s regular accompaniment of Junior School worship and Whole School services. Mrs Nel also generously lends her musical talents, while our Assistant Chaplain, Mr Evans, brings his guitar to Chapel. Behind the scenes, Mrs Spies and Mrs van der Merwe work alongside our girls on the sound and technical teams. It is a considerable team effort, much of it unseen, and we are grateful for the time and care so willingly given.
The Chapel Choir deserves particular recognition for its continuing ministry in the worshipping life of the school. Behind their singing are regular rehearsals, music learned alongside the demands of schoolwork, and time willingly given to services throughout the year. They lead our congregational singing, enrich familiar songs with beautiful harmonies and prepare special pieces for certain services. When the rest of us listen rather than sing, their music is still part of our shared prayer. It is an offering in worship, not simply a performance.
Other voices and instruments have become part of that offering too. Colleagues from the Junior School, Security and Catering teams have shared their gifts as singers and soloists, bringing us familiar songs such as Goodness of God, while students have contributed on violin and drums.
The variety of music heard in Chapel services reflects the people who gather there. Our students, staff, families and alumnae come with different languages, traditions and songs that are precious to them. Choosing music for all of us is no small task.
A Chapel skit once gave voice to some of the competing requests: “Why do we always sing this song?” “Why don’t we sing more hymns?” “Can we sing something in my language?” And, just as often: “Can we sing that one again?”
Each question comes from somewhere. A song may remind us of home or of the church where we grew up. It may carry the words of a prayer we know by heart, bring back the feeling of singing beside someone we love, or belong to a language in which prayer feels especially natural.
The desire to bring music into worship is an ancient one. The Psalms are full of invitations to sing, play instruments and praise God. Psalm 150 calls for trumpets, strings and cymbals. At St Mary’s DSG, we add our voices to that long tradition, bringing with us the music that has shaped us and making room for the treasures others bring.
A treasure chest of song
Some time ago in Chapel, we spoke about the traditions and experiences each of us brings as treasures. We imagined placing them in a shared treasure chest. Adding someone else’s treasure does not mean losing our own. The chest becomes richer because there is more in it.
This is a helpful way to think about the music of our community. A song that is deeply familiar to one person may be entirely new to another. We bring the music we treasure, but we also have opportunities to discover something precious in the music others bring.
We see this when parents join us for a Confirmation service, or when alumnae return to Chapel. There can be a moment of recognition when a familiar melody begins: faces lift, eyes light up and voices grow stronger. Sometimes there is surprise, too: I know this song. I did not expect to hear it here.
Those moments matter. They tell someone that a part of their story has been recognised and welcomed.
The music we share
As an Anglican school, our worship draws on the hymns and sung traditions of the Church. These include music that will be familiar to those who worship in different parishes across our diocese. At a Eucharist, music is woven into the liturgy itself. The responses and prayers we sing shape our worship and connect us to the wider Church.
The seasons of the Christian year also have their own music. There are Easter and Christmas hymns we look forward to singing, not only because they are familiar, but because their words help us tell the story of our faith. Hymns teach us about God and deepen our understanding of faith. They give us words for praise, but also for questions and doubts that are not always easy to express.
Alongside these traditions are African-language choruses and much-loved gospel songs, including music made familiar through gospel collectives such as Joyous Celebration. There are contemporary worship songs shared by churches and worship communities across the world. There are also the choruses and worship songs that many adults remember from the 1990s, still capable of bringing a congregation to life.
Then there are the songs our youngest girls can sing with confidence, and those that speak to our older students. When the whole school gathers, the youngest children and the adults in the room all need a way into the worship.
Our languages matter, too. Singing in a language that is close to home can be an experience of recognition and belonging. Learning to sing in a language that is less familiar can be an act of welcome and attention to someone else. This calls for care: we want the words we sing to be meaningful, understood and appropriate for those who are singing them.
With so many traditions, languages and generations represented, it is impossible for every service to include everything or for every song to be everyone’s favourite. Anyone who has helped choose music for a service will know how easily one person’s “We always sing this!” becomes another’s “Please can we sing it again!”
That tension is part of belonging to a diverse community. It asks patience of all of us, and it asks us to trust that there is room in the treasure chest for more than our own favourites.
Finding our voices together
Familiarity matters. When we know a song well, we can look up from the words, sing with confidence and give our attention to what we are singing. Learning a new song takes repetition and encouragement. The song that feels awkward today may become one of the treasures we carry with us in years to come.
One of the delights of Junior School Chapel is seeing younger students dancing, raising their hands or moving freely to the music, seemingly unconcerned about who might be watching. That freedom can become harder as we grow older. Yet there are wonderful moments in Senior School Chapel too, when students stop worrying so much about what the person beside them thinks and allow themselves to join in fully. Their enthusiasm is infectious, and it becomes easier for others to join in as well.
There is a familiar saying, often attributed to St Augustine: “When you sing, you pray twice.” Words that we might speak once can take on a different life when they are sung. A melody carries them, gives them room to settle and sometimes helps us remember them long after a service has ended.
Music also asks something of us as a community. To sing together, we listen to one another. We find a shared rhythm and breathe with the phrases. We may sing the same tune or contribute different notes to a harmony, but we are taking part in something together.
Research suggests that singing with others can help people feel connected, even when they do not know one another well. In our school Chapel, that sense of connection is a gift, though our purpose reaches further: we gather to offer our worship to God.
This is why the words we choose matter. We want our music to be joyful and, at times, great fun. We also want it to be thoughtful, faithful to Christian teaching and suited to the purpose of the service. What we sing reflects who we are, and it helps to shape who we are becoming as a community.
An offering of praise
When our orchestra joined us in Chapel, Psalm 150 seemed particularly close at hand. Every instrument has its own voice, yet together they offer something richer than any one could offer alone.
The psalm’s final invitation is for everything that has breath to praise the Lord. Breath is one of God’s oldest gifts. In worship, we offer the breath we have received back to God in praise.
And when the music begins and the community joins in, every voice becomes part of the offering. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”
