Have you ever heard singing so beautiful that it was like the singing of angels? I recall once being granted an experience of hearing the music of Heaven. It was something that I could never put into words. There are times on earth when we connect with Heaven more directly and intensely. Worship in song can be such a time. When the first church sang in the Spirit, whether in their own languages or in other tongues, it was no doubt the same as when we do this today. A heavenly song rises to Heaven under the direction of its Divine conductor filling the place with His presence and His power. Over the first 300 years of church development the emerging liturgies were shaped by this most pure form of musical worship, and the extant ancient liturgies we have reflect
this. At Jerusalem the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate, which traces its uninterrupted history back to the first church and is today the guardian of Christian sacred sites in Jerusalem, is an excellent example. The liturgies of this church, though developed several centuries later, reflect the heavenly and glorious nature of the worship that began in the first century. Whatever sublime forms and expressions of worship we may have developed, let us never forget the simplicity and purity of singing in the Spirit, as they did at the beginning. Christian believers and communities today are rediscovering this Heavenly worship. If you have not yet made this discovery, I invite you now to start singing out your praises to God! It's time to join the Heavenly choir.