Easter service brings California church choir together for first time in 2 years: ‘It means the world to us’
Alvin M. Keeling
1 min read
This is a show that has been in the works for two years.
Choir members from Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena, Calif., are preparing to perform together in person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Experts have identified singing in a large group as a superspreader event after a choir practice in Washington state left 53 singers sick with COVID-19, two of whom died. CDC guidelines for singing have since relaxed, much to the delight of the Lake Avenue Congregational Church choir.
The group will perform during Good Friday and Easter services, without a mask on Friday and Sunday.
“It means a lot,” Phyllis Fulbright, 94, told Inside Edition.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over and infection rates are rising in parts of the United States, Fulbright said she wasn’t nervous about performing in person.
“It means the world to us,” Glenda Cook, who has been with the choir for 35 years, told Inside Edition.
The choir had 120 members before the pandemic. Now the group is made up of 70 singers who have spent two years practicing virtually.
“It’s amazing,” choir director Duane Funderburk said of finally being able to reunite. “The excitement of being in the room and being able to be with our people, and I think our congregation had really missed that.”
