Water bottles in the choir
stonespring
Shipmate
If the choir is up near the altar or otherwise visible in front of the congregation during the service, is it inappropriate for them to drink from water bottles during the service, absent a coughing fit or other immediate need for water? I am in a church choir now and I worry that if I have my water bottle with me and drink from it during the service, that it would be irreverent and would also distract the congregation. But maybe it is ok while seated during the homily/sermon, even if it is not ok during prayers or while standing? What do you think?
Comments
At our place, we actually have reusable water bottles for the choir, which provides some uniformity. They’re not as big as some water bottles, and they’re navy blue, so not brightly colored or multicolored.
Affectation be damned.
If the throat is scratchy or the mouth dry a sip of water is a must; not good to screw up a note whether a soloist or not. The climate has bugger-all to do with it. I’ve needed a drink at 40C ( try Xmas in Oz when fully robed) and also when it’s as cold as the proverbial frog’s tit, especially if on the tail end of an URTI.
Certainly the need to hydrate gets greater with age as the mouth dries out more readily. And there is always somwhere to conceal a 500 ml bottle.
My secular choirs do not allow water on the platform in a concert, which is a great struggle for me.
I recently attended an informal summer concert where the choir were given rehydration breaks whilst their conductor talked about the next set of pieces.
What I do hate is the clanking of metal bottles when they get knocked.
Which is one reason the water bottles that have been provided for our choir are plastic.
A sensible and charitable approach.
I've once or twice been to a service where the priest had a glass of water discreetly placed on the altar, as well as one in the pulpit or near the lectern. Given the amount of speaking a priest might have to do during a 'normal' Eucharist, this can hardly be seen as unreasonable.
As it also fitted neatly in the book slot, it was easy enough to sneak a swig unnoticed.
If you need to sip water to maintain your voice, do it discreetly, and I don't see a problem. I don't think you need to go to the extent of wearing a Camelbak under a cassock, though.
Current pastor always has a water bottle nearby.
So much better.
If pastors need water,
Not surprised choir members also need water.
Did the recent multiple heatwaves in Western Europe pass you by? Preventing heatstroke is not an affectation.
Why is coffee a problem? It's normal for students to have a hot drink with them during a university lecture, and a church service would seem to me to be a similar environment. Obviously be careful of soft furnishings etc but I don't see why a coffee is offensive.
Care is required, however. I once did a day's teaching with a heavy cold and kept drinking water to help supress the cough and by evening was feeling particularly unwell and had another glass and felt worse before finally realising I'd drunk ~7 litres and was suffering from water intoxication, necessitating a visit to the GP who struggled to keep a straight face as I babbled semi-coherently and he told me to stick to under 2 litres the following day.
Conversely, if the drink is in a cup on mug, that will be kicked over coating the floor in water.
We live in an imperfect world.
I can't imagine any circumstance in which the congregation shouldn't have water bottles, unless they were proposing either to throw them during the sermon or empty them over the person next to them singing flat. We've all thought it.
Before that, and after Covid, our choir director suggested we each bring a water bottle of our own that we could keep at the church. At the time, I had a few water bottles, but they all had wide mouths. Fine for a hike, when you don’t care if some spills down your chin, not great for church.
So I looked for a narrow-mouthed water bottle that could be my choir water bottle. To my mischievous delight, I found that Nalgene makes a reusable, 10 oz. flask. Yes, it could slip in my pocket.
I admit I thoroughly enjoyed how every time I used it, I saw at least one eyebrow raised, which was almost always followed by stifled laughter on the part of the eyebrow raiser.
Ah - I get you. And I certainly wouldn't ever do without a water bottle while in the choir if I felt I needed one. Small choristers and large quantities of water can be a challenge, but then Christian life is a challenge we all attempt to rise to.
The minister at a local church once found after taking a deep swig from his water bottle at the pulpit, that it had been spiked with vodka. By his sister.
I'm not a fan of bringing coffee in to lectures either, although I recognize that it's quite common in the age of Starbucks. It feels disrespectful at a gut level, and I'm not sure I've really examined why. I think it's a sign of divided focus: if I'm attending someone's lecture, I owe them the respect of paying attention to what they're saying. If I'm eating my breakfast, then I'm not giving them my full attention.
I'd bring a drink to a movie theater but not to watch a live performance: I think it feels like the same dynamic.
But why is coffee different to water? I don't think the drink being hot and caffeinated makes a material difference to the level of focus happening. Nobody has mentioned breakfast - a drink isn't a meal. Being at a live performance doesn't make someone less dehydrated than at the cinema.
Much like with the technology and church thread in Purgatory, please remember that many people will have medical issues which mean they do need to be able to eat and/or drink - although of course people need to be mindful of others. As someone with ADHD I am *more* able to concentrate if I am doing something else at the same time as listening to a sermon or lecture, and drinking a coffee is a lot more discreet than bringing in a wobble cushion or using a fidget toy.
They probably did - Zappa lives in Aotearoa/ New Zealand
Double win. A reason for a two minute break from the sermon.
I know of some priests who would say we should abstain from water or any other liquid, providing we have the physical capacity to do so.
Others don't take that view. Our parish priest doesn't proscribe water and our choir have water bottles which they will use during services as necessary.
The sky has not fallen in.
As someone with ADHD, stimulants such as caffeine already work differently for me and do not give me the jitters - that's the point. For me I find that caffeine improves focus, some others find it calming or even soporific.
Incense is a non-essential sensory element. Candles are a non-essential sensory element. Music is a non-essential sensory element.
I think framing your own sensory preferences as a need is not really fair on others - somebody else's bodily needs are none of your business. I think it's reasonable to expect a distraction-free environment for personal prayer and worship, but corporate prayer and worship requires some tolerance for other people's needs. As an AuDHD person with misophonia, I am well-aware of my own sensory issues and know that ultimately they are my responsibility to care for, including not making it someone else's problem if my sensory issues clash with them existing and doing normal existence things around me. I don't think that someone's coffee smelling distracting to one person is a good enough reason to police what they can drink in a church service when sometimes I can't deal with someone breathing in a distracting way (where I would just remove myself).
I think there is a balance to be struck here. Expecting my entire list of personal preferences to be accommodated is clearly unreasonable, but there is a deep sense of bereavement when they used to be and no longer are, even if there is a good reason behind the change. If there is no good reason, I would act to defend the previous situation, at least to the extent of explaining why the change feels detrimental, and what effect it has on me. Since caffeine is a stimulant and the effect of ADHD on the metabolism of stimulants is well-attested to, your point has validity in that context, though this is one of the few respects in which I am not typical of people with ADHD. However, I would question whether that need necessarily had to be met at that point. As for the point about breathing being triggering, again, it's a matter of discernment. There are some people, occasions, etc., where one is so universally triggered that it is entirely one's own issue, and removing oneself can be the only answer. There are other occasions and contexts where the meeting of needs can be a gift, and one can receive that gift if one states one's needs. I'm still very much getting used to doing that, and can still go too far in either direction, but I think I will always believe that it is a discussion which both can, and should happen.
I benefit from the faster of the two main anatomic plumbing designs.
Coffee brought into the worship space by an individual, by contrast, is completely extraneous to the liturgical action, and could, for some nearby, be a distraction from the liturgy.
Personally, I would never bring anything into a worship service other than water in a closable container. I would feel both that I’m being disrespectful to and inconsiderate of others around me, and that I was being too casual in my approach to worship.
But that’s me, and I readily acknowledge it’s an attitude rooted heavily in the cultural expectations and norms of my upbringing. I try—sometimes more successfully, sometimes less—not to impose my expectations on others.