As we prepare for Reformation Sunday, here is a hymn for your contemplation:
You are all invited to join Mary Beth and Cathy tomorrow in the RGBP book discussion on Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. It's potluck tomorrow - bring a favorite dish, and maybe a recipe or two of a regional or local dish that makes where you live unique. Mary Beth and Cathy will post some questions to get the mental juices flowing while they share their thoughts over Kingsolver's book. Since Cathy will be at work during the day, Mary Beth will be around during the day to keep plenty of food at the table. Cathy will be swinging the second shift.
Now, what did you all sing in church today?
Was that the John Ferguson arrangement? We did that last year for Reformation Sunday - it was SO MUCH FUN TO PLAY!! Especially the 'devils filled' verse. Great arrangement.
ReplyDeleteThis Sunday we sang Be Thou My Vision (it's the theme song of the stewardship campaign), This Is My Father's World and O Lord, You Are My God and King (tune Jerusalem).
Next week for Reformation, we're pulling out all the stops and bagpipes too :)
I loved the timpani (?)...what power it brings!!
ReplyDeleteWe sang Bread for the World by Bernadette Farrell today - I love the images of Christ walking amoung us "begging for his every need" and an arrangement of the Litany of the Saints (we welcomed Elizabeth Grace into the ranks of the baptized...)
that is a great arrangement--thank you! today we sang,
ReplyDeleteA Mighty Fortress (to anticipate next Sunday)
Nothing But the Blood
I Need Thee Every Hour
and a new one to me,
Overwhelmed
Today at church our entrance hymn was Morning has Broken, and communion hymns were "Seek ye first" and Taize - O Lord Hear our Prayer.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the video!
The video authors, alas, did not list the arrangement.
ReplyDeleteBut it is wonderful.
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
ReplyDeleteO Christ, Your Heart Compassionate
Lord of All Hopefulness (to the tune of Be Thou My Vision)
Let Streams of Living Justice
Either I never noticed the cool words on the last one, or they have made them cooler in the new hymnal:
For healing of the nations, for peace that will not end,
for love that makes us lovers, God grant us grace to mend.
Weave our varied gifts together; knit our lives as they are spun;
on your loom of time enrolle us till our thread of life is run.
O great weaver of our fabric, bind church and world in one;
dye our texture with your radiance, light our colors with your sun.
I believe that this is indeed the John Ferguson arrangement: it comes from a recording of the St. Olaf College Concert Choir in Northfield, MN, where Ferguson is a faculty member. I think the CD is "Great Hymns of Faith" You can find it at stolafrecords.com
ReplyDeleteWe sang:
Lord of All Hopefulness
Oh, For A Thousand Tongues To Sing
By Gracious Powers
Lord Jesus, Think On Me
Jesus, Still Lead On
well... not that one. But I enjoyed hearing it for a change.
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We had:
ReplyDeleteO Christ, the Word Incarnate
Teach me, my God and King
Tell out my Soul! The greatness of the LORD...
The first two were new to me. Are they familiar to others?
(P.S. I blog over here)
Hmm... I know different words to that hymn. I guess there are probably a lot of things that have been written to that tune.
ReplyDeleteEpiscopalians don't observe Reformation Sunday. It's stewardship campaign season in a lot of our churches right now, and we celebrate All Saints/All Souls soon, but otherwise it's just plain old ordinary time.
Episcopalians don't observe Reformation Sunday... oh, I know--it was so jarring to me (jarred me so?) the year or so I attended that episcopal church, though I knew ahead of time, and seriously considered going to another church for that Sunday. Luther and devils are such a fun mix; the accompaniment to A Mighty Fortress last Sunday really, really rocked. I wonder what'll top that on Reformation Sunday?
ReplyDeleteWait...that's St. Olaf in the video?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I will have to brave the dial-up connection and wait for it to download. (I usually skip all YouTube stuff unless it looks really good.)
Yes, I am with Leah Sophia - Reformation Sunday is not observed in the Episcopal Church - I have heard of it, but don't keep up with when it is. What traditions observe it? I know that the Lutherans do.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so what I was trying to say in my earlier comment in my own passive-aggressive way (sorry folks, I should be less vague) when I said that Episcopalians don't observe Reformation Sunday is that I'm not all that comfortable with the idea of Reformation Sunday. I must admit that there is part of me that immediately thinks "oh, look, a celebration of schism!" I know it's a lot more complex than that and is a very important observance to many people, but I struggle with the idea. As a Episcopalian/Anglican who tends towards the Anglo-Catholic, the whole thing makes me a bit nervous. There are so many valuable things in each of our traditions, and some, well, less than valuable things (after all, our churches are all made up of finite and sinful human beings). I'd like to try to focus on what we can learn from each other.
ReplyDeleteCathy, in my experience the PCUSA, UCC, and the various Lutheran denoms all are huge on Reformation Sunday/Day, and (retreating to shorthand that says way too little) mostly consider it a major festival of the Spirit, somewhat akin to Pentecost, but I assume other church bodies within the theological traditions of the Reformation celebrate it, too.
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