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

Worship at Home:

Click here: Service Bulletin

Service Music:

Voluntary    Prelude in F    Eric Thiman (1900-1975)
Prelude on Deep River    Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941)

Adolphus Hailstork is an American composer and educator. He grew up in Albany, New York, where he studied violin, piano, organ, and voice. As a child, he joined the choir of the Episcopalian cathedral. From this experience he developed an interest in vocal melodic writing that asserts itself in his choral works and art songs. Hailstork is of African-American ancestry and his works blend musical ideas from both the African-American and European traditions. His principal teachers were H. Owen Reed (Michigan State University), Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond (Manhattan School of Music), Mark Fax (Howard University) and Nadia Boulanger (American Institute at Fontainebleau).

Processional Hymn 435    At the name of Jesus    King’s Weston

Gloria in excelsis S278    William Mathias (1934-1992)

Sequence Hymn 495    Hail, thou once despised Jesus!    in Babilone

Offertory Music    Christ is our cornerstone    Noel Rawsthorne (1929-2019)
Text: translated from the Latin by J. Chandler

Christ is our cornerstone, on him alone we build; with his true saints alone
The courts of heaven are filled; on his great love our hopes we place of present grace and joys above.

Here, gracious God, do thou forevermore draw nigh; accept each faithful vow,
And mark each suppliant sigh; in copious shower on all who pray, each holy day, thy blessings pour.

O then with hymns of praise these hallowed courts shall ring; our voices we will raise
The three in one to sing; and thus proclaim in joyful song both loud and long, that glorious name.

Sanctus S128    William Mathias

Fraction Anthem S166    Agnus Dei    Gerald Near (b. 1942)

Communion Anthem    Set me as a seal    René Clausen (b. 1953)
Text: from Song of Solomon, 8:6a; 8:7a

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death.

Many waters cannot quench love;
neither can the floods drown it.

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death.

After the loss of his child, Rene Clausen, composer of Set me as a seal wrote: ‘Normally, when I am asked about the “inspiration” process, I laugh and deny inspiration in favor of work and effort. In this case, however, I just sat down and wrote the piece. I don’t know what is wrapped up inside these few, simple notes. I can say actually very little about the piece. Whenever I return to it, however, I am struck by the phrase “for love is strong as death,” because when I wrote it my actual feeling was “for love is stronger than death”; abiding, all-encompassing love absorbs even the pain of death. If the piece is about anything, it is about the simple but powerful conviction of permanent love that seeks to overflow the boundary between life and death. I can’t imagine a choir singing it without open hearts.’

Communion Hymn 609    Where cross the crowded ways of life    Gardiner

Hymn in Procession 494    Crown him with many crowns    Diademata

Voluntary    Flourish in G (2018)    Carson Cooman (b. 1982)