February 19, 2017 + The Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany

Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. sung by the Adult Choir, sermon by the Rev’d Walter McKenney.

Worship at Home:

Click here for the Service Bulletin; scroll to read full sermon text.

Full Service Audio:

Sermon-only Audio:

Service Music:

Voluntary    Chorale and Aria on Abbott’s Leigh     Carl D.N. Klein, 1991

Processional Hymn 525   The Church’s one foundation    Aurelia

Gloria S280     Robert Powell (b.1932)

Sequence Hymn    As we gather at your table    Raquel

Offertory     Teach me, O Lord    William Byrd (c. 1540-1623)
Words: Psalm 119: 33-38
Elizabeth Proteau, soloist

Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes: and I shall keep it unto the end.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law: yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart.
Make me to go in the path of thy commandments: for therein is my desire.
Incline my heart unto thy testimonies: and not to covetousness.
O turn away mine eyes, lest they behold vanity: and quicken thou me in thy way.
O stablish thy word in thy servant: that I may fear thee.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, and is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

This Psalm setting was apparently not designed as an anthem, but as a truly liturgical piece, a festal Psalm to be sung after the Preces; it was popular enough to have found its way (usually as an anthem) into several sources. The piece might almost have been written to exemplify the Royal Injunction that required “a modest distinct song, so used in all parts of the common prayers in the church, that the same may be as plainly understood, as if it were read without singing.” There is a new intimacy, partly due to the verse idiom, in which a soloist alternates with the full choir. A modern listener used to hearing Evensong cannot help noticing the similarity of the full sections, with their regular cadential formulae, to Anglican chant. (Notes courtesy Robert Quinney)

Sanctus  S130    Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Fraction anthem S164    Jesus, lamb of God     Franz Schubert

Communion Anthem    Deep river    Gerre Hancock (1934-2012)

Deep river, my home is over Jordan, Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
Oh, don’t you want to go to that gospel feast, that promised land where all is peace?

Hymn in Procession 379    God is Love, let heaven adore him    Abbott’s Leigh

Voluntary    Prelude in C Major, BWV 547     Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

The Prelude in C Major is an example of Bach’s use of concentrated material within a work. The entire musical fabric of the movement is presented in the first eight measures. The rest of the prelude explores various combinations of this material in a number of keys, often in quick succession. A sustained pedal note and several detached chords announce the return of the home key and final statement of the opening theme. Stay tuned for its companion Fugue, next week!

Full Sermon Text:

Check back soon.