10:30am Choral Eucharist, Sunday, December 23rd, 2018
ACNA Ancient Text, Fourth Sunday of Advent
Prelude: Savior of the nations, come! (Nun Komm, Der Heiden Heiland), By: J. S. Bach
Processional Hymn: 66 Come, thou long expected Jesus (Stuttgart)
Trisagion S102, Archangelsky
First Reading: Micah 5:2-5a
Second Reading: Hebrews 10:1-10
Gospel Hymn: 640 Watchmen, Tell us Of the Night (Aberystwyth)
Gospel: Luke 1:39-56
Offertory Anthem: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, By: John Rutter
Choir: O come, o come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.
O Come, thou Rod of Jesse,
free thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell thy people save,
and give them victory o’er the grave.
Rejoice...
O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here.
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice...
O come, O come, thou Lord of might,
Who to thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice...
O come, thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice...
Doxology: Hymn 380, stanza 3
Holy: S125, Proulx
Communion Anthem: ‘“Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us’, Tune: Wachet Auf
Choir: “Sleepers, wake! A voice astounds us,
the shout of rampart-guards surrounds us:
“Awake, Jerusalem, arise!”
Midnight’s peace their cry has broken,
their urgent summons clearly spoken:
“The time has come, O maidens wise!
Rise up, and give us light; the Bridegroom is in sight,
Alleluia! Your lamps prepare and hasten there,
that you the wedding feast may share.”
Zion hears the watchmen singing;
her heart with joyful hope is springing,
she wakes and hurries through the night.
Forth he comes, her Bridegroom glorious
in strength of grace, in truth victorious:
her start is risen ,her light grows bright.
Now come, most worthy Lord,
God’s Son, incarnate Word, Alleluia!
We follow all and heed your call
to come into the banquet hall.
Communion Meditation: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”, Setting By: Garth Edmondson
Recessional Hymn: 57 Lo! He comes, with clouds descending (Helmsley)
Postlude: “Processional on Helmsley”, By: Jacob Clokey
Music Notes
By: Ashley Sosis
I will gladly give a quarter to whoever can pronounce the name of the tune of our closing hymn, Aberystwyth, (“Ab-er-ist-with”) named after a coastal town in Wales with roughly 15,000 people (a little less than half of Myrtle Beach’s population, not counting tourism).
The tune Aberystwyth was written by Joseph Parry (1841-1903) , born to a poor but musical family. Although musically talented from an early age, he was sent to work in a steel mill at the age of nine. His family immigrated to a Welsh settlement in Danville, Pennsylvania in 1854, where he continued to work in steel mills, often singing during his factory breaks and forming sight-singing groups among his fellow young steel workers (according to his Danville Obituary). Members of his community in Danville helped finance his musical studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and he went on to become a successful professor, organist and composer on both sides of the Atlantic.
Parry composed oratorios, cantatas, an opera, orchestral and chamber music, as well as some four hundred hymn tunes, of which Aberystwyth, paired with the text, “Jesus, lover of my soul”, is best known.
Parry returned to Danville, PA to start a private music school, which unfortunately does not exist today. However, the 1883 Hook & Hastings pipe organ that Parry played while serving as organist at Mahoning Presbyterian Church (also in Danville), is still used in worship.