@oldhymns I think we are going to do a mix of hymns- some traditional but a lot of lesser known. I think the idea was fundraising making it so that people would "purchase" by donation- ie, give what they want and what they can. We are in a fundraising moment because we are at high risk of losing our monastery right now after it was appraised by the actual owners (another congregation) for a high sum. If we dont find the means to pay that appraisal then we will need a new home soon. So, I think the idea was that this would hopefully help that process some what as a free will donation. Thanks for the input.

I second Marc's idea to use a zoom recorder (or equivalent). You get a lot of bang for your buck. It is certainly the simplest and most straightforward approach. You set them up (often on a tripod or equivalent stand), press record, and go. The new "32 bit float" versions don't even require you to manually set levels (although it's still good practice to dial in your gain.)

A few other thoughts:

1.) Make sure you get a few seconds of silence before and after each take. This is very useful for fade in and fade out, as well as for sampling the noisefloor, which certain editing suites can then help edit out to make your recording more clear.
2.) if you can, turn off all HVAC while you're recording. This significantly lowers the amount of background noise.
3.) position the unit high (about 7-10 feet off the ground) on a tripod. This will give a more balanced sound. Experiment with positions; do a few scratch takes and place the recorder here and there, higher and lower; you may find that one position sounds quite a bit better than the others. You'll want a little distance from the singers for blend, but too much could become swimmy/muddy. Conversely, too close, and you'll really pick out individual voices. For some recordings, this may be a good thing (soloist) but for others it could really ruin a take.
4.) SOME editing will be required for the best results. I'm happy to help in this department if desired (free of charge). It's amazing what a little EQ, compression, noise reduction, and perhaps just a *touch* of extra reverb can do to a recording. You can go from something totally flat to something that really comes to life. (While I'm no master recording engineer by any means, at this point I have edited over 1000 recordings posted to YouTube.com/@ServiamScores, so I have learned a few lessons along the way!)

Recording, now, is its own artform.
People will say, "I want to hear you like you always sound on Sunday." But people tolerate much more from live music, especially in a liturgical setting, whereas that out-of-tune note will really wear after the 3rd or 4th listen. We are used to perfection from recordings.
Ideally, you will have a recording engineer onsite with his excellent equipment, and somebody (maybe the same person) to do digital editing. With a very small group, you could even go into a studio with a mic on each person and edit and mix each voice separately, and even double-track various voices. That could create a very smooth product, but would also falsify the experience of what you do.
But we've already established that the ideal is out of budget. So the most important elements would be a decent digital recorder (fairly cheap) with adequate standage, followed by some form of digital editing. This is something you might even choose to take on yourself. If you do, have a well-documented editing platform (I use Logic), make sure you keep copies of the raw takes, and if possible run the final results past trained ears so that you know your taste is not all in your mouth.

I too have had people who have urged us to make a recording, and I've thus far resisted. I have key people who do not sing well under pressure, plus the general sound and consistency is not yet at that point. We do record live for edification, but our recorder placement for that is far from ideal.