Our Stories: Elvin McDonald

Written by Elvin McDonald, Published on July 16, 2018

I grew up in a rural Baptist Church in the Oklahoma Panhandle. My father chaired the deacons and taught the men’s Bible class; my mother taught the women, and Grandmother Mc taught the junior boys, two of whom would become ministers. Their spirits greet me every Sunday at St. Paul’s.

While studying opera at Mannes College of Music in New York, I was hired to sing in the 96-voice choir at St. Bartholomew’s, with soloists from the Metropolitan Opera. We did a major choral work for evensong at least once a month, and it was my baptism, if you will, into the liturgy of the Episcopal Church. I was worried that holes in the soles of my shoes would be seen when I knelt —until I noticed that Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge had holes in his, too.

In time, I would take my three children to Sunday School at Brick Presbyterian Church in New York and sing in the choir next to the star of an Off-Broadway production of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Singing next to him, I sounded terrific. I got the male lead in the church’s production of Goldilocks, and the female lead was, of all people, an Iowan named Lois Zickefoose. “No relation,” my John Z says.

The first time John and I went out together was the first Sunday of 2002 and our destination was St. Paul’s, where his cousin Bruce Carr was already singing in the choir. You could say it was love at first sight all around. I feel completely safe in the liturgy. When I was hospitalized for tests, Deacon John Doherty called on me and completed his visit by reading a few, well-chosen words from the Book of Common Prayer, which were precisely what I needed.