FW: For the heavy lifting...

Consider…

 

Feed: Pastoral Meanderings
Posted on: Saturday, October 20, 2012 5:00 AM
Author: noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Peters)
Subject: For the heavy lifting...

 

Hymn or ditty?  Personal taste?  Subjective appeal?  We are constantly told that this concern for the music of the faith (hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs) is a relative thing, a matter of personal appeal and musical taste, in which all of them are fairly equal options for our choosing.  Maybe not.  Chaplain of the International Center Pastor William Weedon has put it concisely and clearly.  The difference between the sturdy hymns of old and those blessed new added to the heritage AND those eminently forgettable little ditties we sing only for a moment is their ability to do the heavy lifting -- to carry us in time of greatest darkness and even death itself.  We sing the ditties when we are in the mood.  Big whoop!  When we face the moments of greatest struggle and sorrow, these discardable ditties will not due.  We need something stronger.  And that is why the great hymns of faith endure.  They carry forth the noble victory song of the faithful by speaking clearly and powerfully the Gospel of the cross.  They sing in no uncertain terms the hope that is within us, passed down to us by the faithful who came before, and passed on by us to our children and our children's children. Listen here to Pr. Weedon speak (from his Issues, Etc. liturgy series) so simply and profoundly about this difference.  When I hear things like this said so plainly yet eloquently, I am edified greatly.  I hope you will be as well.  Here Weedon's words parallel the great words of Dr. Norman Nagel who introduced Lutheran Worship with this timeless truth. Our Lord speaks and we listen. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise. Music is drawn into this thankfulness and praise, enlarging and elevating the adoration of our gracious giver God.  Saying back to him what he as said to us, we repeat what is most true and sure. Most true and sure is his name, which he put upon us with the water of our Baptism. We are his. This we acknowledge at the beginning of the Divine Service. Where his name is, there is he. Before him we acknowledge that we are sinners, and we plead for forgiveness. His forgiveness is given us, and we, freed and forgiven, acclaim him as our great and gracious God as we apply to ourselves the words he has used to make himself known to us.  The rhythm of our worship is from him to us, and then from us back to him. He gives his gifts, and together we receive and extol them. We build one another up as we speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Our Lord gives us his body to eat and his blood to drink. Finally his blessing moves us out into our calling, where his gifts have their fruition. How best to do this we may learn from his Word and from the way his Word has prompted his worship through the centuries. We are heirs of an astonishingly rich tradition. Each generation receives from those who went before and, in making that tradition of the Divine Service its own, adds what best may serve in its own day--the living heritage and something new.

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FW: Walther's Hymnal Excerpt #1: "Come Hither Saith the Son of God"

Wow…

 

Feed: HYMNOGLYPT
Posted on: Friday, October 19, 2012 7:54 AM
Author: Matt Carver (Matthaeus Glyptes)
Subject: Walther's Hymnal Excerpt #1: "Come Hither Saith the Son of God"

 

This is the first post in a small series I am doing of excerpts from the upcoming Walther's Hymnal (Concordia Publishing House, 2012). Here it is on CPH's website. This is an excerpt of a Composite translation prepared especially for this hymnal from the hymn "Kommt her zu mir," by G. Grünwald, which is found as #276, in the section entitled "Christian Life." In the upcoming Walther's Hymnal, all 16 stanzas are provided in full. The earliest publication of the German was a two-hymn broadside dated 1530, where it is entitled "A fine new Christian hymn." The attribution of the hymn to the Anabaptist Georg Grünwald is made by Wackernagel based on second-hand accounts. At times in its history, being in accord with the Lutheran teaching on sanctification, appearing at such an early date, and so widely sung by Lutherans, the hymn was even erroneously attributed to Dr. Luther himself (e.g., in Eler's Cantica, Hamburg, 1588). Other contenders for authorship were Hans Witzstadt von Wertheim and Jörg Berkenmeyer von Ulm.   Remarkable for its length as for the earnestness of its admonition to repentance, it is perhaps most notable for its familiar tune, "Kommt her zu mir," which was first paired with it. Those familiar with The Lutheran Hymnal and Lutheran Service Book will recognize the tune as that appointed for "O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe" [TLH 263, LSB 666]. Note: The following text, as with all in this Walther's Hymnal series, is an excerpt of a CPH publication and does not fall under the Creative Commons License. "COME HITHER," saith the Son of God, "All ye who loathe sin's heavy load And would no longer bear it; Come hither, young and old, to Me, For well I know your injury And gladly would repair it." 2. "My yoke is mild, My burden light, And all who bear its easy weight, Release from hell are given. I'll give them strength when theirs would fail, And by My strength they shall prevail And so inherit heaven. 3. "All I have done and suffered here From womb to cross, do ye revere, And emulate in measure. What you may think or say or do Is neither safe nor good nor true, But as it seeks My pleasure." 4. The world may wish the bliss to gain Without the cross, reproach, and pain, Of which they hear the warning: It cannot be! The cross is there, And they must choose its shame to bear, Or endless shame and mourning.  . . .  9. The worldly are afraid of death, And only when they gasp for breath Are mindful of devotion. One toiled for this and one for that, But each his own poor soul forgot, In all of earth's commotion. 10. At last, when he must surely die, He lifts to God an anxious cry, And makes a forced surrender:— I sadly fear, God's slighted grace, Which long with scorn he did efface, Will scarce a pardon tender.   11. Dear children, ye your God who own And piety in heart have shown, Let not your souls be troubled! Confide in Jesus' holy Word, The greatest Refuge ever heard, So shall your joys be doubled.   . . . 14. But seems your cross too much to bear? Then think of hell—its dark despair— To which the world is hasting: Its flame eternally supplies Each man with torment, groans, and sighs— Its fuèl never wasting. 15. But ye, beyond this world's annoy, In Christ shall find your endless joy— Which ye do well to ponder; No mortal tongue can realize What pleasures and eternal prize Shall swell you with their wonder. 16. For, what the God of changeless truth Confirms by Spirit and by oath, Must come, and ye shall see it. Whoso will trust His proffered grace Shall in His kingdom find a place Through Jesus Christ. So be it!

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FW: Tolkien’s new book on King Arthur

Book news…

 

Feed: Cranach: The Blog of Veith
Posted on: Friday, October 19, 2012 3:00 AM
Author: Gene Veith
Subject: Tolkien's new book on King Arthur

 

J. R. R. Tolkien has a new book coming out next year, a 200-page narrative poem about King Arthur.  From the British newspaper The Guardian: It's the story of a dark world, of knights and princesses, swords and sorcery, quests and betrayals, and it's from the pen of JRR Tolkien. But this is not Middle-earth, it's ancient Britain, and this previously unpublished work from the Lord of the Rings author stars not Aragorn, Gandalf and Frodo, but King Arthur. HarperCollins has announced the acquisition of Tolkien's never-before-published poem The Fall of Arthur, which will be released for the first time next May. Running to more than 200 pages, Tolkien's story was inspired by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Thomas Malory's tales of King Arthur, and is told in narrative verse. Set in the last days of Arthur's reign, the poem sees Tolkien tackling the old king's battle to save his country from Mordred the usurper, opening as Arthur and Gawain go to war. "It is well known that a prominent strain in my father's poetry was his abiding love for the old 'Northern' alliterative verse," said Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien, who has edited the book and provided commentary. "In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight he displayed his skill in his rendering of the alliterative verse of the 14th century into the same metre in modern English. To these is now added his unfinished and unpublished poem The Fall of Arthur." Tolkien began writing The Fall of Arthur a few years before he wrote The Hobbit. Its publication is the latest in a series of "new" releases from the author, including The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún in 2009 and the unfinished Middle-Earth story The Children of Húrin in 2007. For the book's editor at HarperCollins, Chris Smith, the news that Tolkien had finished work on The Fall of Arthur was an unexpected surprise. "Though its title had been known from Humphrey Carpenter's Biography and JRR Tolkien's own letters, we never supposed that it would see the light of day," he said. He described the previously unpublished work as "extraordinary", saying that it "breathes new life into one of our greatest heroes, liberating him from the clutches of Malory's romantic treatment, and revealing Arthur as a complex, all-too human individual who must rise above the greatest of betrayals to liberate his beloved kingdom". He added that, "though Tolkien's use of alliterative verse will mean the poem is of more specialised interest than his other work, we would like to think that the subject of King Arthur is one that will resonate with readers of his more celebrated works." "In The Fall of Arthur we find themes of lost identity, betrayal, and sacrifice for greater glory, which have their echoes in other works, such as The Lord of the Rings, but anyone looking for closer connections will find no wizards or magic swords. In this respect The Fall of Arthur is closer to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight or The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún." . . . John Garth, author of Tolkien and the Great War, said that from the fragments he had seen, the omens looked good. "In The Fall of Arthur, Tolkien depicts Arthur going off to fight the Saxons in Mirkwood – not the Mirkwood of Middle-earth, but the great German forests. Whether it's as good as the best by Tolkien will have to wait on the full publication, but snippets published so far are encouraging, showing him in darkly evocative mode writing about one of the great English villains, Mordred: 'His bed was barren; there black phantoms/ of desire unsated and savage fury/ in his brain brooded till bleak morning.' "Any addition to the Arthurian tradition by a major author is welcome; this one is also exciting because of what it adds to our picture of a great modern imagination." via 'New' JRR Tolkien epic due out next year | Books | guardian.co.uk. I'm excited about this.  I'm even excited about the narrative verse, which uses the alliterative patterns of very early English poetry, as in Beowulf.  Here are the opening lines of The Fall of Arthur, as quoted in the Guardian: "Arthur eastward in arms purposed his war to wage on the wild marches, over seas sailing to Saxon lands, from the Roman realm ruin defending. Thus the tides of time to turn backward and the heathen to humble, his hope urged him, that with harrying ships they should hunt no more on the shining shores and shallow waters of South Britain, booty seeking." Can you handle a story told in this kind of poetry? Whatever happened to narrative verse?  Other cultures and other times have loved stories told in poetry (think Chaucer, Milton, Longfellow).  Have we just become too prosaic?  Do you think Tolkien can bring back the form? HT:  Jackie

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FW: Great Stuff Found on the Web — Why non-Liturgical Worship Cannot be Lutheran

Consider…

 

Feed: Steadfast Lutherans
Posted on: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 11:07 PM
Author: Norm Fisher
Subject: Great Stuff Found on the Web — Why non-Liturgical Worship Cannot be Lutheran

 

Found over on Pastor Riley's blog, The First Premise, an article written by Dr. Jack Kilcrease:   I would put forth the following reasons why contemporary worship is inconsistent with Scripture and Confessions: 1. It promotes a false view of evangelism: Let's start by asking the question, why does anyone adopt contemporary worship? I would bet you 9 times out of 10 it's not because the 80 year German grandmas in your congregation can't bear to go to church one more Sunday without hearing an Boston or Eagles concert instead of the liturgy. It's always for the sake of evangelism (at least in the LCMS). The argument goes that the young folks (and I remember this argument, because I was one of them not very long ago) can't relate to the liturgy and in order to keep them we've got to relate to them through rock music. Usually this is accompanied with some sort of threat by the part of someone in the congregation that if we don't adopt this, then people will end up in Hell. The first problem is that it actually never works. Often times congregations will literally lose people when they do this or their decline will persist. My parents' old church in Des Moines was an example. They made the 11:00 service the rock concert service in order to draw in the young families from the school or to keep them. When they started they had 120 kids going to the school. After 5 years of contemporary worship, they had 80. In a sense, just on the basis of marketing, Lutheran shouldn't try to adopt these practices because they don't work for us. The Baptists will always do them better than us and if we send the message that we're no different than the Baptists, then why choose us over them? Secondly, you basically end up alienating people who are already loyal Lutherans – like my parents. Although faith is not a choice, where I go to church is a decision "below me" as Luther would put it. The second point is that all this ultimately assumes an anthropology that we don't possess. Namely, that people are rational and autonomous beings who can "make their decision for Jesus." This was the whole premise of Revivalism, which comes out of Pietism. Since the Spirit doesn't effectively work faith through the mere proclamation of Word and sacrament, then you've got to somehow supplement it with a dog-and-pony show. Ultimately, it's about marketing. How can we influence people to make this decision? That's one of the reasons why all the televangelists end up getting in trouble. If the premise is that you have to manipulate people to get them to do the right thing (believe in Jesus), then you'll be tempted to manipulate them to do other things as well once you have that power over them. Ultimately then, the move to contemporary worship is based on a desire for evangelism that contradicts the Confessional Lutheran concept of grace and free will. God predestines the elect and causes them to have faith through the Word and the sacraments. There is a set number of the elect. If we adopt contemporary worship, there will be the same number of people in heaven as there would be if we didn't. Hence, we should simply proclaim the Word and not worry about manipulating people into "making their decision for Jesus" 2. It promotes a false anthropology: Let's expand on the point I made earlier about the false concept of human powers after the Fall. Contemporary worship also promotes an idea that is common in the Mainline right now as well. The idea that practice makes perfect. In other words, by doing exciting, emotional worship, it will form us into a Christian community and make us better Christians. This is one of the reasons why Pastors in these congregations are thought of as "leaders" and not as "Ministers of the Word," that is, pastoral healers. "Leaders" direct us somewhere and therefore get us to do something. "Minister of the Word" gives us the goods of Christ's benefits which we receive passively. In this contemporary scheme, the Pastor brings in the new worship program. It forms peoples emotions to be "on fire for God." Then he gives a kind of moralizing message so that they'll "effect real change in their community" or something. In other words, specific practices create faith and promote morals. By doing them, we become something. Part of this is a bad doctrine of creation. The idea here is that we create ourselves by our actions. This makes us God and is in fact what the serpent promised in the garden of Eden – "eat this and become God." Also, bear in mind, this is precisely the idea that Luther rejected in Aristotle and the via moderna when he started the Reformation. We are God's objects through proclamation. He speaks us into existence as justified sinners via Word and Sacrament. We do not create ourselves by our actions. 3. It moves in the wrong direction!: Contemporary worship is praise worship. Praise worship moves the wrong direction. It moves from us to God. We read the silly and repetitive verses off the projector. We ascend by our praises to God. We move to God, God does not move to us. The structure of liturgical worship is to opposite. It moves from God to us and back again. In Genesis 1, God speaks forth creation and therefore creation glorifies God in return. God's initiative prompts the return of praise. In liturgical worship, the Pastor speaks the words of grace and therefore frees the congregation to praise God. This back and forth is part of the structure of creation and new creation, as Revelation 4-5 suggest. 4. Non-liturgical worship is a break with the biblical and ecumenical heritage of the Lutheran Church: The Old Testament Church had liturgical worship. All churches had liturgical worship until the 17th century the "Holy Fairs" began to emerge in Northern Ireland and Scotland. These evolved into the American camp meetings and the modern church-growth style worship settings of modern Evangelicals. The Formula of Concord states that we should not abandon any of the traditions of the Church unless they contradict the Scriptures. This is partially because they help maintain continuity with the Church-catholic (which is important if we don't want to be a sect), but also because they teach the faith even when we have faithless teachers. A good example of this is during the Arian controversy. In spite of the fact that Arius and some other Bishops were teaching the faith incorrectly, a great many of the laity were still saved by the fact that the liturgy contained true expositions of the faith. Liturgy saves us from unskilled or heretical pastors and teachers. It promotes and preserves the faith. Free-form worship can't do this because it is subject to the whim of any given church-leader that comes along. Instead of teaching the faith, it seeks to promote a sub-cognitive faith based on meaningless formulas that are repeated over and over again. It seeks to promote emotions that will manipulate people into doing things, not create real faith, which always integrates the total person, intellect and emotions. This is one of the reasons why when they do surveys in churches that have non-liturgical worship and church-growth techniques they without fail can't even correctly explain the Apostles Creed.

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FW: Two watches... no right time...

Consider…

 

Feed: Pastoral Meanderings
Posted on: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 5:00 AM
Author: noreply@blogger.com (Pastor Peters)
Subject: Two watches... no right time...

 

A person with one watch knows what time it is; one with two watches is never quite sure. So says an old saying that addresses the same issue of Scripture when Jesus says no man can serve two masters.  This is the problem with the kind of diversity in which we present two (or more) different faces.  We are never sure which face is the real one.  It reminds me of my Grandma telling me that if you tell the truth you don't have to remember how you spun the lie when you have to say it again. Quite apart from anything else, Lutherans faces the problem of several watches and therefore no sure time.  For our early history and for much of the time following, who we are was shaped by our Confessions.  Our practice flowed from those Confessions.  We wore one watch.  Oh, to be sure, there were folks who deviated from our Confessions and those whose practices conflicted with those Confessions.  There will always be.  But the difference was that those who deviated in confession and practice were both seen and identified as exceptions, challenges, and even errors.  They were not the showing the correct time of Lutheranism (to extend the metaphor).  Now, the whole culture of diversity has said that Lutheranism wears many watches and we are have our own time.  It may be close but the preciseness of the time is less important than the fact that we all have our own watches.  In other words, Lutheranism has many faces, many definitions, and none of them is necessarily wrong or not authentic.  Lutheranism can exist in the form of a seeker service with contemporary music pumped out by a praise band and Lutheranism can exist in the form of the sung Divine Service and pipe organ and chanting and incense.  In this sense, Lutheranism is more of an idea than an entity. The problem with this is that when we wear many watches we don't really know what time it is.  When Lutheranism wears many faces, no one knows what Lutheranism looks like.  When we embrace many confessions and practices we have no set confession or practice.  We don't know who we are among ourselves as a Lutheran family and so we don't know how to present Lutheranism to the world.  Nearly all of us know how untenable this is so we fight internally over contemporary vs traditional, maintenance vs mission, progressive vs repristination, modern vs ancient, etc...  What the world sees is a Lutheranism wherein even the Lutherans are not sure who they are.  Who wants to join such a church? I am tired of the worship wars and the debates between inward focus or outreach.  We fight the same straw men over and over again and no one wins.  It seems to me we are arguing about something we say is already settled by our Confessions.  It seems to me that the only authentic face of Lutheranism is the one that still confesses what we have always confessed and the one that looks like those Confessions on Sunday morning.  If we want to be something other than this kind of Lutheranism, then we need to either ditch our Confessions or join a church body whose faith and practice corresponds to what we think and want to do.  Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want anyone to leave Lutheranism.  I would much rather that all Lutherans simply decided to be who we say we are in our Confessions and to make our liturgical, mission, and parish practice conform to those Confessions. If you wear two watches, you never know which one tells the right time.  If Lutherans confess many confessions and wear many faces before the world and tolerate many practices on Sunday morning, we are like the man with many watches but who cannot answer what time it is.  The world pays attention to those who know what time it is -- they may reject them but the world has little respect for those who have no confidence in their convictions.  Think how we show our disdain for politicians who have no firm positions.  Again, my plea is not for anyone to leave but for us all to look at what we have said we believe and how this Confession is lived out in practice and to be what we are.  Period.

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FW: The Liturgy: A Two-way Street Based on Christ

Cwirla…

 

Feed: Stand Firm
Posted on: Tuesday, October 09, 2012 9:21 AM
Author: Scott Diekmann
Subject: The Liturgy: A Two-way Street Based on Christ

 

Quoting from Pastor Bill Cwirla's article "The Law and the Gospel in the Liturgy": The Liturgy runs in both a "sacramental" and a "sacrificial" direction. God justifies man sacramentally, and justified man serves God sacrificially. God speaks his Word and as his Word has its mortifying and vivifying way with us, we speak to God and to one another. God opens our lips, and our mouths declare his praise (Ps 51:15). Jesus Christ always remains the center and focus in the liturgy, whether we are speaking sacramentally or sacrificially. Through Jesus Christ, the Father bestows forgiveness, life, and salvation by the Holy Spirit who works through the Word. And through the same Jesus Christ, the church renders her thanks and praise sacrificially to the Father in the Holy Spirit. In both directions, Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5). Where sacrament and sacrifice are confused, there will be a corresponding confusion of the Law and the Gospel. Worship that is focused on our prayer, praise, good works, love, caring, outreach, mission, stewardship, and sanctification instead of on Christ's saving death and resurrection, is focused on the Law and not the Gospel. Sacrifice without sacrament is Law without Gospel. To worship God according to the Law is idolatry, even if the God whom we are worshiping is the one, true God. This distinction of sacrament and sacrifice provides a Christocentric litmus test for worship. If what is said, sung, or preached in the liturgy could be said, sung, or preached had Jesus Christ never died on the cross and rose from the dead for the salvation of the world, then that worship is not uniquely Christian. The sacrificial death of Jesus for the life of the world is the essential, core of the Liturgy. "For as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Cor 11:26).

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FW: Eric Wyse: A Theology of Music in Worship

Food for thought…

 

Feed: internetmonk.com
Posted on: Monday, October 08, 2012 10:01 PM
Author: Chaplain Mike
Subject: Eric Wyse: A Theology of Music in Worship

 

Note from CM: In days to come, I will be introducing and interviewing Eric Wyse, the author of this post. Eric is my brother-in-law, an extremely gifted musician, and currently Director of Music at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Nashville, TN. More about his journey on the Canterbury Trail later; for today he has contributed a thoughtful foundational document that guides him and his congregation as they sing and play music to the Lord in worship. He has also kindly included some statements about worship from the Book of Common Prayer and a list of books for more study on the subject. Eric blogs at HYMNWYSE, and you can find links to his other sites there as well. Like the statement from the USCCB we looked at last week, I commend this to you as an example of the good theological and musicological thinking that the church is capable of doing and should be doing with regard to music. * * * A THEOLOGY OF MUSIC IN WORSHIP The vision for music in worship at St. Bartholomew's is one of worship of the Triune God with all our beings, with all of our emotions, and with all of our intellect–hence we worship joyfully and exuberantly, as well as meditatively and reverently. In accordance with the canons of the church, the rector serves as the worship leader for the parish; the music director assists the rector in matters of music. Our focus begins with who God is: in songs of adoration and praise we worship Him and proclaim His goodness, greatness, love, mercy, holiness and all of His attributes, asking nothing in return but to enjoy His presence. We then move to expressions of thanksgivingfor what He has done for us–in all that he has given to us. Songs of penitence remind us of our sins, our need for forgiveness, and resolve to live rightly. With songs of oblation, we offer both our resources and our lives to God for His service. With songs of prayer, we ask for what we desire and need, when we bring to God our and intercessions and petitions, on behalf of others, and for ourselves. As we worship, our primary purpose, starting point, ending point and overall "umbrella" is an acknowledgement of who God is, and our response His call. This is a very God focused, rather than me-focused expression. At St. Bartholomew's, our musical offering is a reflection of who we are as believers living in a post-modern world, connected to the ancient historic faith. We draw from various styles and periods of music, including classic hymns, chant, and anthems, as well as fresh new expressions of music from around the world – praise songs, Taizé music from France, music of renewal from the Roman church, and Celtic music. We sing music that is hundreds of years old, because in addition to the truth it contains, it reminds us we are a part of the historic church, and we sing today the same music the saints of old sang, and in that way are joined as one church universal. We sing modern music, because he has put a new song in our hearts. We draw from the wealth of resources from our varied traditions. We sing in other modern languages (Spanish) to remind us that we are part of a global church, and we sing in Latin, which was the language of the church for most of church history. When we sing in Spanish, we connect to the believers in our church body who worship with us, singing in their first language. When we sing in Latin we connect with the historic language of the church–a language that is still sung every Sunday around the world. When we sing the service music we join our voices "with angels and archangels and all the host of heaven" (i.e. the cloud of witnesses). The architecture of our buildings, while modern, is rooted in history. Our sacred space includes stained glass depicting the story of redemption and the history of the church, and is constructed of materials from creation (wood, stone, brick. fabric), The church building faces east, and is shaped to represent Noah's Ark as a reminder of the covenant. Just as our building are designed to be different in style than other buildings in our daily life, our musical expression will intentionally sound different than the music we hear during the week. Our expression, as believers directly connected to our creator, should be unique–not foreign from our culture, but set apart, as our sacred space is, for worship. Our goal as a church is to have one integrated service plan that is repeated as needed (currently two ninety-minute Sunday morning times) that incorporates historic, modern, and global music. Rather than offering a "smorgasbord" of sound (take your pick of what you like–a traditional service of hymns and anthems, or a contemporary service of modern praise and worship), or a blended "soup" (everything is a blend of somewhat classical, somewhat pop, somewhat Broadway middle-of-the-road offend-no-one music), in the context of convergence, we offer musical "stew"–an expression of various styles, all working within a context of taste appropriate for Sunday worship, each with its distinctive flavor, yet a part of the whole in one cohesive "dish". In very practical terms, rather than having a distinct division of classic hymns and anthems(organ, choir) and praise band (rhythm section of piano, bass, drums, guitar) we find ways to create a modern "chamber music" approach of find the right combination of instruments to best support a given piece of music. In practical terms, this will usually be a combination of grand piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, bass, and one additional instrument (usually orchestral). The configuration varies from week to week depending upon the availability of musicians and the music chosen. Our music will be primarily congregational, as we hear from God and are best transformed into his likeness, within the context of community. Because we view the human voice as the primary instrument through which we offer praise, we sing some music unaccompanied (a cappella) each week. As we lift our voices alone, we are certain to hear the voices around us, (not just the instruments offering accompaniment), and are reminded that we live and worship in a community of joined voices and lives. On occasion, a soloist, or choir will offer music as an offering. During this time, we will engage in active listening as God speaks to us. At times, we will be silent and hear the Spirit speaking to the church. The music in our worship will be Christo-centric — in every service we will use music to help retell the story of God's saving acts throughout history — from creation, the exodus, and other events in Hebrew history, to the incarnation, death, resurrection and reign of Christ and the coming of His Kingdom. Our selection of music is sure to include a balance of songs about, to and in praise of the Father, Son, and Spirit, as well as combined Trinitarian language. At least one Trinitarian doxological expressions is usually chosen. We are careful to include songs that speak to both God's transcendence and imminence. In his transcendence, He exists apart from us, and is not encumbered by our physical, or human limitations; he exists in majesty, beauty and power above and beyond all that we understand. In his immanence, he has purposely chosen to intersect our universe, and through the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He participates within this material world, and knows our every joy, sorrow, pain and weaknesses. The music we sing is evaluated to achieve a balance of texts that remind us of God's revelation toward us, and our response to God's call upon our lives, as evidenced both in personal transformation into the image and likeness of Christ, and a call to work for justice and peace in our society. We also strive to maintain a balance of expressive, instructive, aesthetic, and memorial dimensions in the texts chosen. Living in community, the gifts of musical composition within our parish will be encouraged, and used so that our expression through music is uniquely ours as we offer new music (hymns, modern songs, service music, chants, Psalm settings, anthems, etc.). The musicality of our composers will help determine the palette from which we illustrate our expression of praise to God. Thus many of the praise songs, anthems, and new settings of hymns, as well as the majority of our service music, have been composed by members of our parish. –Eric Wyse, Director of Music (© 2001, revised 2008, 2011) * * * From The Book of Common Prayer (1979) Prayer and Worship Q What is prayer? A Prayer is responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words. Q What is Christian Prayer? A Christian prayer is response of God the Father, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Q What prayer did Christ teach us? A Our Lord gave us the example of prayer knows as the Lord's Prayer.) Q What are the principle kinds of prayer? A The principle kinds of prayer are adoration, praise, thanksgiving, penitence, oblation, intercession, and petition. Q What is adoration? A Adoration is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God, asking nothing but to enjoy God's presence. Q Why do we praise God? A We praise God, not to obtain anything, but because God's Being draws praise from us. Q For what do we offer thanksgiving? A Thanksgiving is offered to God for all the blessings of this life, for our redemption, and for whatever draws us closer to God. Q What is penitence? A In penitence, we confess our sins and make restitution where possible, with the intention to amend our lives. Q What is prayer of oblation? A Oblation is an offering of ourselves, our lives and labors, in union with Christ, for the purposes of God. Q What are intercession and petition? A Intercession brings before God the needs of others; in petition, we present our own needs, that God's will may be done. Q What is corporate worship? A In corporate worship, we unite ourselves with others to acknowledge the holiness of God, to hear God's Word, to offer prayer, and to celebrate the sacraments.   __________________ Suggested Reading Cherry, Constance M. The worship architect: a blueprint for designing culturally relevant and biblically faithful services. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2010. Gustafson, Gerrit. The adventure of worship: discovering your highest calling. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Chosen Books, 2006. Rienstra, Debra, and Ron Rienstra. Worship words: discipling language for faithful ministry. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2009. Scheer, Greg. The art of worship: a musician's guide to leading modern worship. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2006. Webber, Robert. The Biblical foundations of Christian worship. Nashville, Tenn.: Star Song Pub. Group, 1993. Wren, Brian A. Praying twice: the music and words of congregational song. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000.

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