W&M Sunday evening

This is the first in a irregularly-paced set of posts from the Worship and Music conference at Montreat, sponsored by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians. It began tonight and will run through Friday evening.

One word: Lutherans.

Several of the leaders at the conference are Lutheran, including one of the preacher/presider people and the organist. Much of the music and liturgy from tonight's opening service was taken from Lutheran resources.

Of course the PC(USA) and the ELCA have an on-going ecumenical relationship. Maybe this was decided to be the year that we manifest that tangibly at this conference. The Lutherans also have the coolest, newest hymnal. Might we be getting a taste of what a new Presbyterian hymnal could look like?

I liked singing "Halle, halle, halleluja" at the gospel reading. I wished we had used other of the verses ("I am the bread of life...") in other parts of the liturgy.

I liked Bobby Hobby's (sorry, I just had to do that, Bob; you started it yourself in Richmond, VA!) hymn introductions and playing. Sadly, no matter how hard one blows, an un-amplified flute is never, ever going to work in Anderson Auditorium. Call me, you can borrow BMPCNC's flute mic.

Singing with 1000 other folks is great. We all need to remember, however, that we can't hold the last note of the phrase its full value and keep things moving along; make them a little shorter so we can keep up the tempo.

I loved hearing three Bible readings plus a psalm. It's the way it ought to be. Of course that can lead to 90-minute services if you're not careful. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It's late, so I'm not going to build in a bunch of links tonight. Check back, and I'll try to include them later on.