Worship Music 27 April

FirstLight worship this week will begin with Michael Ledner’s “You are my hiding place;” Donna Adkins’ “Glorify thy name;” “Better is one day;” and “My life is in you.” We will conclude worship with “Father, I adore you” that song climaxing in a three part round. The Prophets will be singing a new (to us) song, “Days of Elijah” by British composer Robin Mark. Folks are often struck by the apocalyptic language of this song. Mark has this to say about the lyric. We like notion of Jesus coming again and again, especially as an abiding Counselor, as depicted in the day’s gospel reading. For that reason we tend not to get too hung up on the chronology of the song, and simply enjoy the images, especially and , as Mark notes, the over-riding theme of hope. For the prayers we will be using a familiar responsorial setting of the Lord'’ Prayer. Jim Strathdee arranged the words; the tune is of unknown origin though Al Oppenheimer wrote the arrangement of the melody we customarily use.

Worship at 11 AM will include congregational hymns “For the beauty of the earth” (DIX); “Breathe on me, breath of God” (TRENTHAM); and “Father, I adore you” (MARANATHA). Pinging off of the gospel lection, the choir will sing the choral classic, Thomas Tallis’ “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Being in that region of the world with the anthem, organ music will be in the long tradition of English organ voluntaries, concluding with John Stanley’s famously stately “Trumpet Voluntary in D.”