Virginia church’s Memorial Day concert honors lives lost to COVID, Ukraine war alongside service members

A church Memorial Day concert honored victims of the coronavirus and the Russia-Ukraine war along with fallen U.S. service members on Saturday.

Vienna, Virginia’s Andrew Chapel United Methodist Church promoted its event as a free, public concert featuring a 20-piece professional orchestra to commemorate the holiday. 

“This Memorial Day Weekend event will give people the opportunity to honor, mourn and recognize those who have lost their lives in military service, to the COVID pandemic and the recent war in Ukraine. The concert will feature Barber’s Adagio, followed by honors appropriate for a military funeral, with John Rutter’s Requiem as the centerpiece of this event,” the event’s description read. “Concert attendees will also enjoy ‘The Mansions of the Lord’ as featured in the film ‘We Were Soldiers’ along with other choral works.”

The concert was also livestreamed from the church’s YouTube channel where further remarks were made in honor of Ukrainian and COVID-19 victims. 

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“During this special program today, we also remember those who have died from COVID and the effects it has had on all of us. And we pray for and recognize today the people of Ukraine who are fighting for their freedom all the lives that have been lost over this senseless war,” Rev. Matthew Sergent said, after acknowledging fallen troops.

Choir director Bob Legett also explained at the beginning of the concert that the decision to honor COVID-19 victims came after his coronavirus requiem the previous year had to be canceled. 

Member of the military placing flags at the graves of the fallen on Memorial Day, on May 25, 2023 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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“I was going to do the requiem last year dedicated to the COVID victims, but then I caught COVID so that didn’t work. So we moved it to this year and the only time open on the church calendar was Memorial Day and that was my chance. So this has been on my heart for a long, long time,” Leggett said.

The Andrew Chapel United Methodist Church did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Children playing in a field of flags on Memorial Day, in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 26, 2023. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

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Memorial Day has been observed in the United States for over 150 years after its original commemoration in 1868 as Declaration Day. The day became a floating holiday in 1971 when it was moved from May 30 to the last Monday in the month of May.