Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. sung by the St. John’s Adult Choir, sermon by the Rev’d Margie Baker.

Worship at Home:

Click here: Service Bulletin

Service Music:

Voluntary    Allegro cantabile from Symphony V    Charles Marie Widor (1844-1937)

Silent Procession

Kyrie eleison S-84    Gregorian Chant, Orbis factor

Sequence Hymn 382    King of glory, King of peace    General Seminary

Offertory Anthem    Surely he hath borne our griefs    Karl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759)
Text: Isaiah 53:4

Surely, surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.

In what is probably the best-loved Old Testament prophecy of Christ’s suffering, the prophet reveals the infamous role of the people in the unfolding drama of the Crucifixion: We were not attracted to him… We hid our faces from him… We thought him under God’s righteous judgement… We have each gone astray. It is in this context that the prophet sets the record straight. Christ is not guilty in the least: “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” Then Isaiah asserts – and here we can imagine his utter astonishment – that by his scourging we are healed. Graun depicts the grief and sorrow in this text by the use of melisma (one word, many notes) on the words grief and sorrow, chromaticism (half-step movement), and dissonance. The poignant resolution at the end of the work reminds us that the scourging is not in vain. Indeed, by it we are healed.

Sanctus     Gregorian Chant, Deus Genitor alme

Fraction Anthem     Agnus Dei     Gregorian Chant, Deus Genitor alme

Communion Anthem    We shall walk through the valley    Spiritual, arr. Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989)

We shall walk through the valley in peace;
we shall walk through the valley in peace.

Refrain:
If Jesus himself shall be our leader,
we shall walk through the valley in peace.

There will be no sorrow there;
there will be no sorrow there. Refrain

Undine Eliza Anna Smith Moore, the “Dean of Black Women Composers,” was an American composer and professor of music in the twentieth century. Moore was originally trained as a classical pianist, but developed a compositional output of mostly vocal music—her preferred genre. Much of her work was inspired by black spirituals and folk music. Undine Smith Moore was a renowned teacher, and once stated that she experienced “teaching itself as an art.”

Communion Hymn 474    When I survey the wondrous cross    Rockingham

Hymn in Procession 473    Lift high the cross    Crucifer

Voluntary    Litanies     Jehan Alain (1911-1940)

Jehan Alain, a Parisian composer whose life was cut short when his plane was shot down during WWII, wrote this morning’s closing voluntary. Litanies is a breathless and relentless prayer. The desperation of prayer in time of deep need is illustrated by a repetitive litany and rhythms written while traveling on a train – all building to a frenzy. Alain writes, “When the Christian soul in its despair can no longer find any new words to implore the mercy of God, it repeats the same incantation over and over again in blind faith. The limits of reality are surpassed and faith alone continues upward.”

Organ scholar: Ted Babbitt