Vesting The Lord's House (Advent 2007)

Our church was a bee hive of activity today as we vested the narthex and sanctuary for the season of our Lord's nativity. Small Moravian stars were hung throughout the nave earlier this week, but today the largest star was hung at the crossing. It's quite dramatic, and it was pretty dramatic watching it being swung into place! Several dedicated women placed the Advent candle stand and wreath, the crismon tree, and various wreaths, flowers and other items in the narthex and sanctuary. Finally, with two performances coming up in the next week, Lucy D. was busy organizing handbells (she even polished a few smudged bells). It was an exciting day to see the transformation, but also to see and be part of the expression of devotion these many persons made today. We all will be blessed, and our Lord honored, by their efforts.

I know more than one of the folks I snapped today was bemused I was taking their picture. One asked, "What do you plan to do with that photograph?" I'm not sure she believed me when I told her I was going to post that one and several others on the web (for all, gasp, to see)! Yet, here they are!

Worship music November 18

The week in worship we will be welcoming Harry and Debbie Horne, PC(USA) missionaries in Peru. First appointed as missionaries in Grand Cayman Island and Guatemala, the Hornes have been in Peru since 2004, teaching at the Lima college of the Universidad Biblica Latinoamericana (UBL). Here is a bit of bio on them.

Congregational song at FirstLight this week will feature a couple of oldies-but-goodies: “Be still for the presence of the Lord,” and Michael W. Smith’s “How majestic is your name" (is that song really 26 years old!?!?). Also in the opening set we will sing two currently popular songs, “We fall down” (ask Caroline P. what the rest of the title is!!) and “That’s why we praise him.” Other music will include the Caribbean “Halle, halle,” Harry Smith’s classic “Give Thanks,” and Richard Gillard’s “The Servant Song.” The Prophets will be introducing us to a fantastic new song, “With all of my heart.” The song itself has been around a while, but it’s new to us; with a cool beat, we are certain you will enjoy it, and want to turn it quickly into a congregational song!

Hymns at 11 AM will include “Rejoice ye pure in heart” (Marion), “As those of old their firstfruits brought” (Forest Green) and “We give thee but thine own” (Schumann). The choir will lead us with the Cameroon worship song, “Praise the Lord;” (try and listen without tapping or shaking something, or without singing along!) the standard Greatorex “Gloria Patri,” and the familiar two-fold Dresden “Amen.” The anthem will be Jack Noble White’s “First Song of Isaiah,” written about here. Caroline P. and others of the Prophets of Praise and a couple of bell ringers will accompany the choir. Instrumental music for worship will include the Adult Handbell ensemble ringing Tim Waugh’s “Come Thankful People,” a medley of Thanksgiving tunes, and at the organ a bit of French baroque music at the offering and Sigfried Karg-Elert’s timeless setting of “Now Thank We All Our God.” Here’s a clip on the organ at Trinity Church, Boston, a nice, large instrument in a wonderful acoustical setting; wish the poster had given us the performers name!

Preparing for Advent

Those who know better may appreciate the pun. If Advent is a season of preparation (it is), it may seem kind of redundant to prepare for it. Yet, it seems a good idea this year.

Worship planners at BMPCNC are organizing the worship for Advent-Christmas-Epiphany around a theme. In conjunction with the lectionary readings for the Sundays of the season, we are using a theme, generated from a general sense of the readings, to help guide our worship plans.

Our theme for this season will be: Fear Not: Words of Peace in Troubling Times. Reading through the various lections for the Advent season espeically, one is struck by how fraught with trouble were the times before and during the era of Jesus' birth. Isaiah wrote to a people trapped in exile. Mary, an unwed mother, was due to birth the Messiah. Roman hegemony stood on the neck of the people of Palestine. Those were indeed troubling times. And yet it was the moment which God appointed as the right time for the birth of the Savior. Isaiah proclaims a marvelous word of hopefulness to the people in exile. The angels appear to Mary and to Joseph to reassure them that God is in control.

We also live in fearful times. The war on terrorism drags on. Poverty, issues of the environment and financial instability are very much on people's minds. These are troubling times for us. From a global level all the way down to a very personal level, each of us no doubt can identify troubling aspects of our lives. And during the Advent season, we hear again a word of grace, "Fear not." What a wonderful word of hope to which to cling!

In practical terms our utilization of this theme will help your worship leaders more than anything. It will provide a framework within which we can develop preaching plans, rehearse musical offerings and orient our visual and dramtic arts for the season. We believe this theme truly captures a sense of our current life situation, while at the same time offers a profound word of hope for each of us. Our desire is that our use of this theme will provide a unique cohesiveness to our worship, which will in turn deepen your faith as we journey through the Nativity Cycle of worship this winter.

A New Presbyterian Hymnal

In 2006 the 217th General Assembly of the PC(USA) approved a recommendation for the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation to produce, in conjunction with the Office of Theology and Worship, a new hymnal to be available by 2014.

In October the PPC announced that David Eicher will be the Editor of the new hymnal. A Presbyterian elder, Eicher brings to the project estimable credentials. It appears he will be a fine leader for the project. One wishes the PPC site was more current so we could provide a link to the complete press release.

However not everyone in the denomination sees the need for a new hymnal. Here is a report on some of the conversation surrounding the prospect.

Black Mountain PC(USA) has been using the Presbyterian Hymnal (1990) for quite some time, though many still refer to it as "the new hymnal." We also have in the pews the supplement, "Sing the Faith," which is in actuality the United Methodist "The Faith We Sing" with a blue "Presbyterian" cover. The congregation here has used these books faithfully. "Sing the Faith" is a key resource for music at FirstLight especially.

Has the time come (in 2014) for a new hymnal? Most folks in the know recommend that denominational hymnals change every 20-25 years based on changing tastes in musical preference and in order to capture new developments in hymnology. Plenty of folks have issues with language- and music-related aspects of both our current hymnal and "Sing the Faith." We can hope that the new editorial board will listen carefully to the faithful users of the hymnal as they move forward in development of this vital part of our corporate worship.

Worship Music for 11 November 2007

This week we welcome the Aerie Singers, the older children’s choir from our Logos program. These children are in grades 3-4-5. They will sing “Cantad al Senor,” a Brazilian worship song and “God of The Sparrow, God of the Whale” by Carl Schalk. The visual arts component of Gateways (youth Sunday School), Visual Impact, studied this hymn and its theology last term. As they sought to express their understandings of the text, they created mini-banners about 18 inches square. We will have these placed in the worship spaces this week, as the children sing the song. The appellation Aerie Singers is brand new. This week no one around church knew what this group of musicians had ever been called before. Our resident fount of wisdom Carla S. was not present for the conversations, so she may know better. But this is a new name for this group of kids. Whatcha think?

Congregation song at FirstLight this week will include Kurt Nystrom’s “As the deer,” “I will call upon the Lord,” “My life is in you,” and David Ruiz’ “You are worthy of my praise.” In the absence of our usual (and much-beloved) singers (Caroline P. and Connie S.) we welcome Donna Marie Todd to lead congregational song. Other songs for worship will include the jaunty “Halle, halle,” and Dennis Jernigan’s “You are my all in all.” Here’s a link to a nice music video of that song.

Hymns at 11 AM will include “Our God, our help in ages past” (St. Anne); “Live into hope” (Truro); and “Take up your cross, the Savior said” (Bourbon). How’s that for a tune name?!? Here’s a little information on the tune (scroll down a bit to find the relevant material). The Aerie Singers will sing the Introit and at the Time with Children; other worship music will include “Halle, halle,” and George Tomer’s “God be with you till we meet again.” The choir will be singing Mark Patterson’s setting of text from Habakkuk, “The Lord is my strength.” This is a lovely anthem with shimmeringly close harmonies that have the basses on their toes (and the other sections also for that matter)! Organ music will include John Benke’s setting of “Magdalen” (an alternative tune for the text “My hope is built on nothing less), JSB’s “In dich hab ich gehoffet Herr” (from the Orgelbuchlein) and Healy Willan’s short setting of St. Anne. Here is a wee bit of information about John Stainer’s tune “Magdalen” also known as “Rest.”