Processional Hymn 83    O come, all ye faithful    Adeste fideles, arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)

Gloria S280     Robert Powell (b.1932)

Sequence Hymn 115    What child is this    Greensleeves

Offertory Anthem    Sweet was the song the virgin sang    Eleanor Daley (b. 1955)

Sweet was the song the Virgin sang,
When she to Bethlehem Juda came
And was delivered of a son,
That blessed Jesus hath to name:
“Lulla, lulla, lulla-bye,
Sweet babe,” sang she,
And rocked him sweetly on her knee.

“Sweet babe,” sang she, “my son
And eke a Saviour born,
Who hath vouchsafed from on high
To visit us that were forlorn:
“Lalula, lalula, lalula-bye,
Sweet babe,” sang she,
And rocked him sweetly on her knee.

Sanctus  S130    Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Fraction anthem S164    Jesus, lamb of God     Franz Schubert

Communion Anthem    Nativity carol    words and music by John Rutter (b. 1945)

Born in a stable so bare,
Born so long ago;
Born ‘neath light of star
He who loved us so.

Wise men from distant far land,
Shepherds from starry hills
Worship this babe so rare,
Hearts with his warmth he fills.

Cradled by mother so fair,
Tender her lullaby;
Over her son so dear
Angel hosts fill the sky.

Far away silent he lay,
Born today, your homage pay,
For Christ is born for aye,
Born on Christmas Day.

Communion Hymn 101    Away in a manger    Cradle Song

Post-communion Hymn 111    Silent night    Stille nacht

Closing Hymn 87    Hark the herald angels sing     Mendelssohn, arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)

Voluntary    Organ Sonata No. 1 in F Minor    Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
IV. Allegro Assai Vivace

Ted Babbitt, assisting organist
Yingying Xia, organ scholar

+   +   +   +   +

Choral Prelude at 10:30 p.m. with the St. John’s Adult Choir and string quartet

String Quartet    Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048     Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
I. Allegro

Choir    A simple Gloria    Libby Larsen (b. 1950)
Text: M. K. Dean (b. 1950)

And it was in a simple Gloria that quiet morn,
And it was in a simple Gloria the child was born.
The angels sang a simple Gloria that echoed gently through the stars.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Salvator mundi natus est.
Ergo nos cum gaudio, cum gaudo,
Natus est Emmanuel.
Gloria

The Savior of the world was born,
Therefore we with joy, with joy,
Emmanuel was born.

Choir    The waiting sky    Oliver Tarney (b. 1984)
Text: Lucinda Quinault (b. 1969)

The trees are bare,
green fields where puddles hold the waiting sky.
The cows move slowly,
their breathing clouds the air as they walk by.
What if the clouds smother the shining star?
We’ll know it’s there.
Warm light will fill the puddles,
and the cows will stop and stare.

Choir    There is no rose    Philip Stopford (b. 1977)
Text: Anonymous, 14th century

There is no rose of such virtue
As is the rose that bare Jesu;
Alleluia.

For in this rose contained was
Heaven and earth in little space;
Res miranda.  (Thing of wonder)

By that rose we may well see
There be one God in persons three,
Pares forma.  (Equal in form)

The angels sungen the shepherds to:
Gloria in excelsis deo:  (Glory to God in the highest)
Gaudeamus.   (Let us rejoice)

Leave we all this worldly mirth,
And follow we this joyful birth;
Transeamus.  (Let us follow)

String Quartet    Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048     Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
3. Allegro

Holy Eucharist Rite II at 11:00 p.m. sung by the Adult choir with string quartet and organ; sermon by the Rev’d Margie Baker.

Processional Hymn 83    O come, all ye faithful    Adeste fideles, arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)

Gloria S280     Robert Powell (b.1932)

Sequence Hymn 115    What child is this    Greensleeves

Offertory Anthem    Child of the stable’s secret birth    Samuel Rathbone, 2011
Text: Timothy Dudley Smith

Child of the stable’s secret birth,
The Lord by right of the lords of earth,
Let angels sing of a King new born,
The world is weaving a crown of thorn;
A crown of thorn for that infant head
Cradled soft in the manger bed.

Eyes that shine in the lantern’s ray;
A face so small in its nest of hay,
Face of a child who is born to scan
The world he made through the eyes of man:
And from that face in the final day
Earth and heaven shall flee away.

Voice that rang through the courts on high,
Contracted now to a wordless cry,
A voice to master the wind and wave,
The human heart and the hungry grave:
The voice of God through the cedar trees
Rolling forth as the sound of seas.

Infant hands in a mother’s hand,
For none but Mary may understand
Whose are the hands and the fingers curled
But his who fashioned and made the world;
And through these hands in the hour of death
Nails shall strike to the wood beneath.

Child of the stable’s secret birth,
The Father’s gift to a wayward earth,
To drain the cup in a few short years
Of all our sorrows, our sins, and tears,
Ours the prize for the road he trod:
Risen with Christ; at peace with God.

Sanctus  S130    Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Fraction anthem S164    Jesus, lamb of God     Franz Schubert

Communion Anthem    In the bleak midwinter    Harold Darke (1888-1976)
Text: Christina Rossetti (1888-1976)
The text may be found at Hymn 112.

Communion Hymn 101    Away in a manger    Cradle Song

Postcommunion Hymn 111    Silent night    Stille nacht, st. 3 arr. Wolfgang Lindner

Closing Hymn 87    Hark the herald angels sing    Mendelssohn, arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)

Voluntary    Organ Sonata No. 1 in F Minor    Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
IV. Allegro Assai Vivace

Ted Babbitt, assisting organist
Yingying Xia, organ scholar
Virginia Kramer, 1st violin
Mary Ellen Briga, 2nd violin
Lu Sun, viola
David Kramer, cello