I first sung The Messiah when I was a teen. Since then, I’ve sung, directed, and studied this glorious music more than a dozen times. Of all the music written by a person, some of this is the most wonderful.

Last night I stumbled across a Christian radio station and heard the familiar sounds of the organ introduction to the “Hallelujah Chorus.” I love that song! I was excited to hear it again . . . until I heard the voices. It took me a few moments to realize because the melodies were the same. You see, the “Hallelujah Chorus” is actually a four-part counterpoint, four ranges of voices singing similar phrases, but at different times. They all begin together and then the sopranos head off with a glorious phrase while the tenors, altos, and basses join in at different times and at different pitches.

Only the sopranos . . . and the altos . . . were missing. It was an arrangement for an all male chorus.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I like all-men singing groups: quartets, choruses and the like. But there was something tremendously missing in the singing of the “Hallelujah Chorus” without the women’s voices. The glorious soaring into the rafters, the gentle middle voices. It wasn’t the same to have men sing the parts (in their own range, of course). There was a tremendous dramatic and melodic element missing, even though the notes sung were the same.

It made me think about the current trend to silence women in the Church. Just as the women’s voices were “silenced” in the singing of this version of the “Hallelujah Chorus,” women’s voices (participation and leadership) are being silenced in many areas of Church life today. One almost gets the impression that women really aren’t welcomed at all except at ornamental wallflowers (and the doers of the less than glamourous church tasks).

It’s the “Hallelujah Chorus” with only male voices. I wonder if those churches realize what they’re missing?