11am Eucharist, Sunday, July 8th, 2018

ACNA Ancient Text, 7th Sunday after Pentecost

Themes from the Readings: God keeps his promises; before Christ came, God’s people were captive to the Law; the Lord does not forsake the righteous; Christ is the fulfillment of the law and Christ implores us to obey the commandments and teach them.

Sermon on: Galatians

Guest Preacher: Danny MacDonald

Prelude: Wir glauben all an einen Gott, BWV 1098, We All Believe in one true God who created Earth and Heaven, Setting By: J. S. Bach

Processional Hymn: 518, Christ is made the sure foundation (Westminster Abbey)

Gloria: S280, Powell

First Reading: Galatians 3:15-25

Psalm: Psalm 37:23-29

Gospel Hymn: 686, Come, thou fount of every blessing (Nettleton)

Gospel: Matthew 5:17-20

Offertory Anthem: “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy”, Arranged by: Stella Acton-Greene

Doxology: Hymn 380, Stanza 3

Holy: S125, Proulx

Communion Meditation: Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV737, Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, Setting By: J. S. Bach

Recessional Hymn: 524, I love thy kingdom, Lord (St. Thomas)

Postlude: Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 1100 “You Alone, Lord Jesus Christ, My Hope on Earth Depends I know you are my comforter, there is no comfort for me elsewhere.” Setting By: J. S. Bach

Music Notes

By: Ashley Sosis

I am often asked why “he” isn’t capitalized in the psalms we use in our services. The short answer to this question is that we stick to the capitalization used in each different source from which we draw scripture and hymnody. For example, our psalms for this service come from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, the black book found in your pew.

This short answer presents an issue of continuity in church bulletins which are often, if not always, an amalgamation of many different sources, each with their own set of rules and editor stylistic preferences, spanning many centuries of church tradition. Currently, we are in a swing away from referring to God with capitalization in the pronouns, “he, his, you, your, thou, thee, and thine,” after the 18th and 19th century popular practice of Capitalizing Everything That Even Remotely Deals With the Properties and Titles of God. However, this is not a sign of “Godlessness” of these times, only a return to stylistic practices that dictated capitalization in the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) and the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) going back to the very first prayerbook in 1549.

Also in the book of 1979 BCP psalms at times an all caps “LORD” and others “Lord”. This is a hint from the translators of the psalm indicating which Hebrew term was used. If LORD is printed in all caps, the word translated was yhwh (Yahweh) and if it is simply Lord, the word was Adonai.

If you are interested in publishing, blogging or preparing bulletins like these, a great resource for standard grammatical practices in Christian works is the Christian Writer’s Manual of Style, by Robert Hudson. The 4th edition is the newest version, published in 2014.

I was initially a big fan of reverential capitalization, but reading more about these standards has freed me to read and sing the Psalms without distraction. Praise be to God for these beautiful prayers and songs!