Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. sung by the Adult Choir, sermon by the Rev’d Susan Pinkerton.

Worship at Home:

Click here: Service Bulletin – Sermon Text

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Service Music:

Voluntary    By the waters of Babylon, BWV 563b    Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Kyrie eleison S-84    Gregorian Chant, Orbis factor

Sequence Hymn 671    Amazing grace! how sweet the sound    New Britain

With the message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sins committed and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God, Amazing Grace is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world. Its writer, John Newton, wrote the text out of personal experience: After being been forced into service in the English Royal Navy, Newton found work in the slave trade. A huge storm battered his trade ship in 1779, and in his despair Newton had a profound conversion experience, and wrote the now-famous hymn as soon as he reached shore. He later dedicated his life to Christian theology. 

Offertory Anthem     Greater love hath no man     John Ireland (1879-1962)
Words: Song of Solomon 8:7,6; John 15:13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Peter 2:9; Romans 12:1
Claudia Ayer, soprano; John Nowacki, baritone

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. Love is strong as death. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus; Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Sanctus     Gregorian Chant, Deus Genitor alme

Fraction Anthem     Agnus Dei     Gregorian Chant, Deus Genitor alme

Communion Anthem    God so loved the world    John Stainer (1840-1901)
Words: John 3:16-17

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son; that whoso believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

The short text of God so loved the world is so well-known because it explains the whole Easter story, encapsulating the essence of the Christian Gospel in under 30 words. John Stainer’s choral setting of the text is a standard of the choral repertoire, and part of a larger work, The Crucifixion, that was written as a meditation to aid in the understanding of the passion and death of Christ. The work is still performed annually at St. Marylebone in London, which commissioned it in 1887.

Closing Hymn in Procession 690    Guide me, O thou great Jehovah    Cwm Rhondda

Voluntary   Prelude in F minor, BWV 534     J. S. Bach

Assisting Organist: Christa Rakich