Music to calm heart, mind, soul

The musical journey of Vince Wingo has taken him from Clippard Elementary School, where he learned to read sheet music in a "full European-style music program," to Saint John the Theologian Orthodox Church, where he serves as the congregation's chanter.

In between, he did a stint as a professional rock musician, playing drums and bass guitar.

He's been participating in the church's services since 2010, when, Wingo said, "Presbytera Laura waved me up and said, 'Come help us.' That's how I became a chanter."

Presbytera Laura is the wife of Father Daniel Morton, the church's priest. Father Morton said "chanting has as its purpose to help us be quiet inside."

Morton said chanting has been a practice since the earliest days of the church.

Nikolas Wingo looks over materials before a vespers service at St. John the Theologian Orthodox Church Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, in Cape Girardeau. (Glenn Landberg)

"It's the distraction, stress and anxiety that each one of us brings that prevents us from fully engaging in worship, which is prayer and union with God. Chanting is designed to aid in calming the heart," Morton said, adding a passage from the book of Psalms, "'Be still and know that I am God.'"

Wingo, explaining the liturgy is based on Byzantine chant, said, "It took me a couple of years before I could hear some of the notes, because Byzantine music, compared to the western scale, which is divided into 12 tones, is divided into as many as 72 microtones. Instead of just sharps and flats, there are several steps in between."

There also are several books associated with different services, according to the hour of the day and the liturgical calendar; one service can be completely different from another.

St. John the Theologian, an Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, is a mission church, and Morton, who lives in St. Louis, preaches in Cape Girardeau two weekends each month. Saturday evening's service is vespers, a prayer service. On Sunday morning, a prayer service called orthros is followed by a service of the divine liturgy. The congregation numbers about 25, Morton said.

Before the mission was established here, Orthodox Christians in the area would drive to St. Louis -- where there are a dozen or so Orthodox churches -- during high holy days or for other services.

Nikolas Wingo looks over materials before a vespers service at St. John the Theologian Orthodox Church Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, in Cape Girardeau. (Glenn Landberg)

Now, Wingo -- who is contemplating changing his name from Vince to his baptismal name of Nikolas -- from time to time will travel to Illinois, where the fledgling Antiochian Mission of Carbondale is being established with the help of an itinerant priest.

Wingo likes the opportunity to work with the priest because "he studied chant on Mount Athos ... he grew up chanting ... I learn from him every time." Mount Athos, in Greece, also is known as the Holy Mountain and is home to some 20 monasteries.

"All parts of the service are chanted or sung," Morton said. "We use the power of the music to the full extent. Chanting in the different melodies [is] used to calm the heart, the mind and the soul."