Spiritual Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. sung by Richard Barstow, sermon by the Rev’d Linda Spiers.

Worship at Home:

Click here: Service Bulletin – Sermon Text

Service Music:

Voluntary    Prelude & Fugue in A Major, BWV 536    Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Silent Procession

Kyrie eleison S-84    Gregorian Chant, Orbis factor

Sequence Hymn 676    There is a balm in Gilead    Balm in Gilead

Few chapters in the Bible may have resonated with the souls of enslaved Africans in North America as Jeremiah 8 did. Israel was in exile. The exiled Jews are forced to live in a “far country” (Jeremiah 8:19). They wondered what they had done to deserve this. It is the most desperate and despondent time in Israel’s history. Then the chapter ends with these three rhetorical questions: “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” (Jeremiah 8:22, KJV) The refrain of this spiritual offers encouragement and dares to respond with hope in the face of hopelessness, showing courage in the face of despair. African American theologian Howard Thurman (1899-1981) discusses the refrain of this spiritual: “The slave caught the mood of this spiritual dilemma and with it did an amazing thing. He straightened the question mark in Jeremiah’s sentence into an exclamation point: ‘There is a balm in Gilead!’ [italics in original] Here is the note of creative triumph.” (Notes courtesy C. Michael Hawn)

Anthem    I will sing of thy great mercies    Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
From the oratorio St. Paul
St. John’s Youth Choir; Frances Eikel, soloist

So they, being filled with the Holy Ghost, departing thence delayed not, and preached the word of God with joyfulness. I will sing of Thy great mercies, O Lord, and of Thy faithfulness evermore, my Savior.

Sanctus     Gregorian Chant, Deus Genitor alme

Fraction Anthem     Agnus Dei     Gregorian Chant, Deus Genitor alme

Closing Hymn 151    From deepest woe I cry to thee    Aus tiefer Not

Voluntary    Prelude in C, BWV 545a    Johann Sebastian Bach

Christa Rakich, assisting organist