An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

The extracts from fieldwork notes below illustrate the process of worship music thatcan affect healing in COGIC.‗The first song was slow and sung prayerfully. The hymns were led by the Praise andWorship team. This team consist of three female singers, one male singer and theinstrumentalists (organist, drummer and guitarist). They are younger members and donot have a uniform unless they are singing with the choir. They do not sit in a separatesection like the choir. The choir which is different from the Praise and Worship teamconsists of primarily older female members (12 female and three male) and alsoincludes members of the team. They sit to the left of the congregation on the first levelof the rostrum. They dress uniformly in black and white. Some members of the teamwrite songs for the group and also select hymns for the choir.Not all the members of the singing group were present at the start of the service. Likeeveryone else they joined the group and the service later than the official starting time.There were 18 people present when the service started at 10.35 am. The minister andan elder emerged from the vestry following the preparation for service. As they enteredthe church, the organist played a musical rendition and the congregation was silent(some members prayed silently during this time).The atmosphere at the COGIC convention rally was not very different to the ordinarycongregational services observed. There, too, prayer for healing, accompanied by apetition that the Holy Spirit might enter the worshippers, was an intrinsic part of theservice and background music was very prominent.298