10:30am Choral Eucharist, Sunday, December 30th, 2018

ACNA Ancient Text, First Sunday after Christmas

Prelude: Ave Maria By: Franz Schubert, Gabbi Smith, Violin and Caleb Smith, Piano

Processional Hymn: 83 O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)

Gloria S204

First Reading: Isaiah 61:10-62:5

Second Reading: Galatians 3:23-4:7

Gospel Hymn: 79 O little town of Bethlehem (St. Louis)

Gospel: John 1:1-18

Offertory Anthem: “Bethlehem Morning”, By: Morris Chapman; Caroline Dill, Soloist

Choir: Lift up your heads, no need to mourn, His hand is stretched out still.

For unto us a child is born, His promise to fulfill.

Jerusalem, He cried for you, He did not come to you in vain.

His loving arms are open wide for you, and he will come again.

Bethlehem morning is more than just a memory,

for the Child that was born there has come to set us free.

Bethlehem sunrise, I can see Him in your eyes,

for the Child that was born there, His Spirit never dies.

His start will never grow dim, and it’s a brand new dawn,

a new Jerusalem, and we will reign with Him.

Doxology: Hymn 380, stanza 3

Holy: S125, Proulx

Communion Anthem: A Virgin Unspotted, By: William Billings

Choir: A virgin unspotted by Prophet foretold,

Should bring forth a Savior which now we behold,

To be our Redeemer from death, hell and sin,

Which Adam’s transgressions involved us in.

Then let us be merry, put sorrow away,

Our Savior, Christ Jesus, was born on this day.

God sent down an angel from Heaven so high,

To certain poor shepherds in fields as they lie,

And made them no longer in sorrow to stay,

Because that our Savior was born on this day.

Then let us be merry...

Then presently after the shepherds did spy

A number of angels that stood in the sky;

They joyfully talked and sweetly did sing,

“To God be all glory, our Heavenly King.”

Then let us be merry...

To teach us humility all this was done,

To learn us from hence haughty pride for to shun.

The manger His cradle who came from above,

The great God of mercy, of peace and of love.

The let us be merry...

Communion Meditation: “Pastorale”, By: Joseph Clokey

Recessional Hymn: 107 Good Christian friends, rejoice (In dulci jubilo)

Postlude: “In Dulci Jubilo” , By: Alec Wyton

Music Notes

By: Ashley Sosis

I am so thankful this morning for Dr. Tim Koch, Ms. Jessica Eaton and the St. Augustine Choir of Trinity Church leading worship this morning. Caroline Dill, our soloist at communion, is a very talented member of the St. Cecilia (youth) Choir and also Mrs. Janet Inman Haigh’s voice studio. Merry Christmas, friends (and don’t forget to practice your Epiphany Evensong music while I’m away)!

Next week, our church will have the unique opportunity to host a recital that I will share as a concert organist with my nineteen students. Our Epiphany Organ Recital and Evensong is our last opportunity to sing Christmas Carols and worship within the season of Christmas. The St. Augustine (adult) Choir and the St. Cecilia (children’s) Choirs will sing a John Rutter setting of “The Holly and the Ivy” and a beautiful Phos Hilaron setting by Gary Davison, from his “St. Kilda Service”. The children will sing a peaceful Magnificat and a rousing “Carol of the Bells”. It is a lighthearted service not to be missed!

Today’s offertory anthem is a fun piece of Shape-Note music. I must admit that I am a very enthusiastic “shape-note singer” and have had the pleasure of traveling down to Charleston to go to Shape-note sings. These meetings are best described as two hours of informal, yet intense, sight-reading from The Sacred Harp Hymnal. If I was to make broad, yet fair generalizations about shapenote singers throughout the US (check out www.fasola.org if you would like to go to a sing near you!), I would say that we are fans of hymn tunes by William Billings and hymn texts of Isaac Watts, minor keys, open 4ths and 5ths and vocal straight-tone. Also, we’re historical reenactors. Our meetings attempt to preserve the musical interpretive style of singing schools of colonial America. What is especially exciting for me as a music teacher is that in the South and other regions of the US, shape note singing practices have been so successfully preserved that these sings may be considered part of an unbroken, living tradition! So if you go to a sing, tread lightly, listen carefully, and lose yourself in some seriously passionate Christian music!