Ecclesia Unita Missa Brevis

Writing This Piece

Ecclesia Unita Missa Brevis translates as United Church Short Mass. The United Church of Canada was founded in 1925, but the roots of each of the four founding denominations go back much further. Our roots as a Christian church go back more than 2000 years and many of our traditions farther still. In writing this work I wanted to pay homage to those deeper roots musically. Much of the writing pays tribute to the idea of chant rather than an actual specific chant, and hopefully the overall work has a mediaeval feel to it. I wanted to go back to our harmonic beginnings to emphasize the deeper roots of the United Church.

Three of the movements, the Kyrie, the Gloria and the Augus Dei use the traditional Latin words for a mass setting. The Credo and the Sanctus though are different. First, the Sanctus. Every week at our services at Metropolitan we sing one verse of “Holy, Holy, Holy”. (Voices United #315) The latin used for the Sanctus here is a translation of the first verse of hymn #315. The Credo or Creed is the confession of faith part of the mass. Traditionally the Apostles Creed has been used, however, in the United Church we have a creed which we state every week.

The Credo is a latin translation of this Creed. I could not have done this work without the assistance and support of Rick Wood who has not only worked tirelessly on the translations, but has also provided editing and inspiration throughout the process. Thank you Rick!

Kyrie

Gloria

Credo

Sanctus

Agnus Dei

Entire Mass