I love this time of year. Fall approaches, sweater weather nears, kids go back to school (!), and our ministries renew their energy. The continuing global pandemic may have us down, but we are a resilient people with many blessings in our community. It is time to celebrate and give thanks.
Read MoreWe are excited to announce a new partnership between Saint George’s and 9th Street Chamber Music, a new venture by musicians we know well. Having played for us individually and together over the past years, we welcome the four musicians of the 9th Street String Quartet, Matthew Richardson, Jennifer Wade, Elizabeth O’Hara Stahr, and Andrew Rammon as our Artists in Residence and look forward to their participation in our worship services.
Read MoreWe rejoice in the good news that beginning on Sunday we can return to congregational singing (masked) in all of our worship services – 8 am, 9:15 am, and 10:30 am. What a wonderful thing! Important research completed this past year by the University of Colorado and University of Maryland found that we can sing together in a manner that is very safe by following a few simple mitigations such as wearing a mask. I have missed hearing you sing and look forward to Sunday when once again our voices will raised together in song. So, do sing out and rejoice! There will be good hymns. Afterall, we have to make up for lost time.
Read MoreI’ve always loved this hymn. As a young child, I liked it because it talked about nature and the refrain was one I could sing easily. As I got older, I was much more interested in the tune. I didn’t appreciate it for the well-crafted hymn tune that it is with its balanced phrases and flowing lines. I simply thought it was a rockin’ tune and my mother really rocked it at the organ.
Read MoreBeginning this Sunday you will notice our online worship looks somewhat different than it has the past year. Over the next few weeks we will be transitioning to a true live-stream of our service. Instead of collecting individual service parts in preceding weeks and creating a “worship video” in my basement, our complete worship service will take place in our nave at the same time and we will have limited live music rendered in accordance with the most recent guidance for doing so safely.
Read MoreThe great variety of hymn texts and tunes we have available to us today bring a great variety of insight and expression to our worship. From the time before the birth of Christ up until the contemporary moment, women and men have written hymn texts expressing their insights and stories of their contemporary faith.
Read MoreThe great variety of hymn texts and tunes we have available to us today bring a great variety of insight and expression to our worship. From the time before the birth of Christ up until the contemporary moment, women and men have written hymn texts expressing their insights and stories of their contemporary faith.
Read MoreIn each generation throughout history God has raised up poets and musicians who have given us hymns reflective of our time and place. From the many wonderful treasures in our hymnal to our very own Saint George’s Hymn that was created just a few years ago by contemporary poet, Susan Palo Cherwien. Hymnody throughout the ages helps us sing our whole faith.
Read MoreAs human beings, we are singing, musical beings. At the most basic level our hearts beat and our lungs breath in simple rhythm, and at the most advanced our brains facilitate a musical interaction between our body, one another, and the universe at levels we are only starting to comprehend. Even though we all do not love music equally or respond to it in an equal manner, music provides us with something of great value that lives deep within us.
Read MoreThe common compositional form of Theme and Variations develops a melody, through the use of several smaller compositions which develop the them in different ways, yet they still fit together as a whole. Such is our life together. The full spectrum of our collective life at Saint George’s is very much a Theme and Variations and our theme is most definitely Love. Let me “play” some snippets of a few of these variations for you.
Read MoreThese are exciting times at Saint Georges! For even when we can’t be together physically, we continue our work in our community without missing a beat. And in typical Saint George’s fashion, this summer is anything but slow.
Read MoreWe are delighted to welcome the addition of three choir desks to our Song School (music room), courtesy of Jonathan Yuhas and his Eagle Scout project.
Read MoreAt Saint George’s we are blessed by beautiful stained glass windows that adorn our nave. They tell the story of our Christian faith and the life of Jesus.
Read MoreWe begin our 10:30am worship with the singing of the Great Litany (S-67) in procession. It is customary to use the Great Litany on the first Sunday of Lent.
Read MoreAs a child, I loved going to church in evening. Somehow it was different than going in the morning. Maybe it was because I got to stay up a bit later, or maybe it was the interplay of the evening light and shadow in the nave. Maybe it was the music that was different. Whatever it was, some of my most vivid memories of worship as a child are of evening liturgies.
Read MoreOne of the things I teach future priests in my liturgical music class at VTS is the rule of 25-50-25. It is a simple guide for the selection of music that states over the course of a year your music choices should reflect 25% “golden oldies,” 50% established repertoire of the parish, and 25% new music.
Read MoreI love Advent and I love Advent hymnody even more. Often our Advent hymns get overlooked as we rush to hear or sing our beloved Christmas carols and we miss out on the depth and wonder – the mystery - these Advent gems offer us. This Sunday we get to sing two of what I think are probably everyone’s favorite Advent hymns.
Read MoreAmerica’s beloved children’s choir expert, Helen Kemp (1918-2005) had a wonderful chant which she uses regularly with her children’s choirs and in her workshops with adults:
“Body, mind, spirit, voice, it takes the whole person to sing and rejoice!”
Read MoreMusic consoles. Music heals. Music alters, and it transforms.
Read More“Dear, Ben. The time has come.”
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