February 12, 2023 + The Feast of Absalom Jones

Service Music:

Voluntary    Prelude on Beecher    Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927)

Processional Hymn 477    All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine    Engelberg

Gloria S280    Robert Powell (b. 1932)

Sequence Hymn 470    There’s a wideness in God’s mercy    Beecher

Offertory Anthem    Thou God of truth and love    Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)
Words: Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Thou God of truth and love,
We seek thy perfect way,
Ready thy choice to approve,
Thy providence to obey:
Enter into thy wise design,
And sweetly lose our will in thine.

Why hast thou cast our lot
In the same age and place?
And why together brought
To see each other’s face?
To join with softest sympathy,
And mix our friendly souls in thee?

Didst thou not make us one,
That we might one remain,
Together travel on,
And bear each other’s pain;
Till all thy utmost goodness prove,
And rise renewed in perfect love?

O may thy Spirit seal
Our souls unto that day,
With all thy fulness fill,
And then transport away!
Away to our eternal rest,
Away to our Redeemer’s breast!

Malcolm Archer’s setting of this Charles Wesley text contains a highly lyrical melody and emotional connection. Pay special attention to the dramatic treatment of the middle verse: “Didst Thou not make us one, that being one we must remain? Together, travel on, and bear each others’ pain.” The text and tune lift up a universal message of following Christ, serving others, and God being with us in times of trouble.

Sanctus  S130    Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Fraction anthem S164    Jesus, lamb of God    Franz Schubert

Communion Motet    Oculi omnium    Charles Wood (1866-1926)
Words: Psalm 144:15

Oculi omnium in te spirant Domine: et tu das illis escam in tempore opportune. Gloria tibi Domine. Amen.
The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord: and thou givest them their meat in due season. Glory be to thee, O Lord. Amen.

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

Hymn in Procession 599    Lift every voice and sing    Lift Every Voice

Voluntary    Toccato from Suite for Organ    Florence Price (1887-1953)

Florence Price was an American classical composer, pianist, organist and music teacher. Price was educated at the New England Conservatory of Music, and was active in Chicago from 1927 until her death in 1953. Price is noted as the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra. Price composed over 300 works. In 2009, a substantial collection of her works and papers was found in her abandoned summer home.