Author: James Kealey

What is your ideal image of Heaven? A place of beauty, grandeur, or calm? A space free of suffering, pain, strife, and division? An opportunity to see those we love who have entered the Church Triumphant before us? Can we even imagine what a glimpse of Heaven looks like here on Earth? Not knowing can be incredibly challenging, but equally beautiful. 

Though we might all imagine the place and space differently, I am convinced we all embrace the opportunity to see those we have loved and lost. Whether seven days, weeks, months, years, or decades have passed, those who have gone before us occupy a very special place in our hearts and minds. 

This Sunday, we remember and honor all those who have left this mortal plane, reading aloud the necrology of those members of BMPC who have passed away since the last All Saints’ Sunday. A number of profound anthems will be offered by the Sanctuary Choir, helping to frame this special service. Music has the transformative power to take us to another place – another reality. How? I’m honestly not quite sure. Whether it’s a particular marriage of text and music, or a piece you’re hearing for the first time, or even perhaps the 100th time, there’s a timeless quality to being in this space, hearing voices soaring from above the pews. Perhaps the somewhat intangible nature of music adds to its transformative quality. Where are we transported to? Who do we see when we close our eyes?  

 In a war-torn and grief-filled world, hearing beautiful choral music and reading aloud the names of those who have dearly departed, maybe, amid a world in strife, we’re witnessing a glimpse and a snapshot of Heaven. 

Bless, O Lord, us thy servants, who minister in thy temple.
Grant that what we sing with our lips, we may believe in our hearts,
and what we believe in our hearts, we may show forth in our lives.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 ~ (The Chorister’s Prayer) 

The Chorister’s Prayer has existed since the thirteenth or fourteenth century, first appearing (in English) in ‘The Choirboy’s Pocket Book’ in the 1930s. There is something incredibly special about words that have been said, sung, and a part of prayer for over eight centuries. They, like the detailed and intricate High Gothic architecture of the same era, have seen the world transformed beyond belief. How is it that words written and translated 800 years ago can be so relevant today? How do we understand them in 2025? What has changed? More importantly, what has not? 

Though this is not a biblical text, it is inherently sacred, and all these years later, has deep meaning for each of us. Next month, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church will launch a new music program for children from PreK-12th grade. These young musicians will be known as ‘Choristers’. Simply put, a Chorister is a singer in a church setting. Before each rehearsal, the Choristers will read and say this prayer. They will join those who have said these words countless times before them, those who happen to be saying it at the same time, and those who will say it in the future.  

We become a community that goes beyond the confines of our building, of our city, of our denomination. May we read these words with a renewed sense of hope, as we lean on the past, to look forward to the future.