The Rose Parade and the Millennial Choir

(Matthew 5:16) "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

The missionary work of God’s Church entails bringing in a different church – their choir, helps ministry, and ministerial staff – weekly to help minister to the poor and homeless of the inner city.  It reasonably follows that since these different churches and denominations will all be working on this common project of ministering to the homeless, that the project itself, God’s Church, should seek a common event in which all these many churches may jointly participate cooperatively and collectively.

The Rose Parade:  Over a billion people a year see the Rose Parade.  The Rose Parade presents Western culture from McDonald’s to the Goodyear blimp.   But this secular vision is an incomplete representation of society.   God, the people of God, the Body of Christ are within and should be represented to give a more precise and fair vision of that society.   Therefore, God’s Church is applying through the Tournament of Roses to enter a float beginning in the 2003 New Year’s celebration.   As well as an orchestra of 20 musicians, special guests riding on the float may include Magic Johnson, Diane Cannon, Hulk Hogan, plus a possible elected government leader from Washington, or if security precludes his attendance then possible his parents from Texas.  Possible themes for this float entry include “God Bless America”, and “In God We Trust”.  The float will have a lot of red, white, and blue, possibly an eagle, the Ark of the Covenant, or the cross at the back of the float.  God's Word is supportive of such a presentation of the Body of Christ:  

Most Rose Parade floats cost between $70,000 and $200,000. Much of that cost is spent in creating the vehicle that houses the float.  In the case of God’s Church, the church will already have that float vehicle in the form of the Mobile Church and the Mobile Canteen.  Quite easily, these two vehicles will be covered with a removable form fitting tarpaulin.   The flowers for the float will then be affixed to that tarpaulin without damaging either the Mobile Church or the Mobile Canteen.   Once the parade is over, the tarpaulin can be removed so that the Mobile Church may resume its weekly duties.   In this way, the float for God’s Church will probably only cost about $40,000, a real bargain for the 100 participating churches.  

The Millennial Choir:  Along with that float God’s Church will be presenting the Millennial Choir, a combined choir of up to 2000 singers representing a hundred of the finest churches and denominations here in Southern California.  God’s Church is attempting to schedule Aretha Franklin as a special guest soloist among many other fine soloists from the representative churches.  Negotiations have begun for the production and sale of a CD featuring the songs of the Millennial Choir to be available for worldwide distribution on the day of the Rose Parade.  The musical selections will be real hand clapping inspirational Gospel music that the parade and the viewing audience will really love.  

Moreover, the Mobile Church and the Mobile Canteen have by design an incredible self-contained sound system, delivering over 15,000 watts of broadcast power.   Two of these vehicles may be used for the parade; thereby giving this entry broadcast volume of up to 30,000 watts of speaker power.   So you may understand what that means, the sound system at Dodger Stadium can output up to 35,000 watts of speaker power.  So with two of these vehicles being used in the Rose Parade, this presentation of the Body of Christ will be like Dodger Stadium coming down Colorado Boulevard.   The army of God, the Body of Christ will be on the march 2000 strong praising God, and our faith in Jesus Christ.

The proceeds from that CD will be used for the Missionary work of God’s Church; paying for the expenses of the Millennial Choir, feeding the homeless, and purchasing air time for the weekly telecast of God’s Church.   The Millennial Choir will begin practicing weekly practices in October of 2002, hopefully at the Faithdome of Crenshaw Christian Center, a facility which seats 10,000.

There are two concerns in producing such a float entry.  First, how do you properly mic a 2000 strong marching choir so as to produce production quality sound, and second how do you organize a 2000 strong choir to march not as mob, but as an organized team of lines and columns?  

Micing a 2000 member Choir:  As to the issue of sound reproduction, every twentieth choir member will be carrying an American flag.   Beyond being colorful and blending with the theme of the float, the staff of each of these flags will otherwise be used to conceal a wireless microphone.  Each of these wireless microphones costs about $1000.  The Millennial Choir will need 100 such wireless microphones for its 2000 choir members, but these mics can be re-used over and over again year after year.  Each wireless microphone will send the sound of its surrounding singers back to its own radio receiver. The microphone comes with a receiver as a matched pair.  Then each microphone’s receiver will be plugged into a channel of a soundboard.  A 40 channel soundboard for this purpose will be about $1398, and in this case, the will need 3 of those sound boards (for 120 channels).  These 120 channels along with the microphoned orchestra and soloists make up the total sound of the choir. 

Choir Choreography:  How then does one march 2000 choir members down Colorado Boulevard, keeping rows and column straight?  One uses marching guides.   These marching guides are nothing more than PVC pipes with predefined spacing, tethers to the marchers, and close line connecting one row to the next.   Here is how this works. 

PVC pipe is very light.   The longest ¾” PVC pipe available is 20 foot white plastic section.  One takes a second 20-foot PVC and cuts it into 5-foot sections.   Then the short section is added to the 20-foot pipe through the use of a glued joint to create a single 25-foot section.  Two such 25 foot sections can then be joined or unjoined using ¾” slip joint union, thus creating on demand a 50 foot combined section of PVC pipe.  This 50-foot section of PVC pipe is the then the exact width of Colorado Boulevard for the center 4 lanes where the choir is to march.

Every 2.5 feet along these 25-foot sections, an eighth inch hole is drilled.   That means there will be 10 such 1/8 inch wholes in each 25 foot section, or 20 such wholes when both 25 foot sections are combined together by means of the ¾” slip joint on the day of the parade.  A #208 screw eye is then screwed into each of these 10 wholes along each 25-foot section of pipe.   A 12” tether is then connected from the screw eye.  At the end of the tether not connected to the screw eye is a belt loop.  A choir member then stands behind each perfectly spaced screw eye and tether and then connects the belt loop of the tether to his or her own belt inside their choir robe.   Each choir member will also hold the PVC pipe in their left hand, leaving their right hand to be swung as they march down Colorado Boulevard.   Twenty choir members will then be tethered perfectly spaced and holding onto these two 25 feet PVC pipes.  Although the PVC pipe is both lightweight and will bend, just holding the pipe will guide each choir member to march in a perfect row.

At the end of each 25-foot PVC section, which is closest to the sides of the street, will be a close line connecting one row to the other a yard apart.   The rope will guide the row captains into keeping the spacing perfectly uniform in between rows.  If a row captain on either end begins to see the close line loosening, they will know to slow down slightly to otherwise increase their spacing.  If the close line becomes tight, they know to speed up to otherwise reduce the distance in between rows.  In this way by using inexpensive PVC pipe, the choir will be kept in perfect alignment as it marches down Colorado Boulevard.

Therefore, the PVC piping and supplies necessary to create these marching guides is as follows:

The above detailing of supplies is not intended to be exact but merely give an idea of costs.   For the actual parade there will be five complete rows of marches preceding the two Mobile Churches and Mobile Canteens as they drive the center two lanes of Colorado Boulevard.  Along both sidewalk sides of the Mobile Churches and Mobile Canteens will be twenty-two rows on either side of 3 choir members each.   Behind the two Mobile Churches and the two Mobile Canteens will then be 89 full rows of 20 choir members each.  This configuration will give the choir a total marching membership of 2006 singers.  

Any way you slice it, the Millennial Choir will be a large entry in the Rose Parade.   The Tournament of Roses may understandably limit the size of the Millennial Choir so that the entry itself does not overpower disproportionately the other parade entries. If the Tournament Roses limits the size of the choir to 1500 members, then the marching configuration would be first 5 full rows of 20 members, followed by 22 rows of six members divided equally on both sides of the float entry, and then 64 rows following up behind the float.  If the Tournament of Roses limits the size of the Millennial Choir to 1000 members, then the marching configuration will be the same as the previous two, but with 39 full rows following the float entry.

Beyond the Rose Parade itself, once the Tournament of Roses discovers the public appeal of the Millennial Choir, the Tournament may well ask that the Millennial Choir to sing at half-time during the Rose Bowl football game itself.  Application for the 2003 Rose Parade will be made in January 2002, and invitations from the Tournament of Roses will be sent out in May 2002.   The Tournament of Roses received the preliminary presentation by God’s Church very positively, and the Tournament of Roses has enthusiastically encouraged God’s Church to go forward with this application as soon as possible.