Welcome to Sundays at Home
Good morning and welcome to Trinity! So glad you are tuning in virtually for today’s service. Each week you’ll find Sundays at Home with Trinity Episcopal Church. We feature the full service recording, as well as the sermon and anthem on their own.
In-person services are held at Trinity Church each Sunday at 8:00am & 10:30am and at 12:00noon each Wednesday. And join us for Christmas Events and Services!
Once again, thank you for tuning in and for being faithful with your time, talents, and treasures.
Grace and Peace!
Rev. Jonathan V. Adams
Worship for December 5, 2021
The Second Sunday of Advent
Please view the embedded video of our service below by clicking on the grey arrow in the middle of the image.
Our Trinity Kids series is currently featuring previously recorded episodes.
About the Music:
This week’s lessons focus on the messengers sent by God to preach repentance and prepare the way for Christ’s coming, especially John the Baptist. The music has been chosen to reflect this theme, particularly the first hymn. “On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry” was originally written in Latin by the Frenchman Charles Coffin (1676-1749) and first published in 1736. Our hymnal version is an 1837 translation by Anglican John Chandler (1806-1876). The original version of the tune, known as “Winchester New”, was first published in Hamburg, Germany in 1690.
Bruce Neswick (b. 1956) has held many positions in church music, including the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. He is currently the Canon for Cathedral Music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. Mr. Neswick has numerous compositions to his credit, including the “Partita on Winchester New”, published in 2002. This set of variations or suite is based on Hymn 76, “On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry”. The fourth movement, “Aria”, is the Prelude this week and the last movement, “Toccata” is the Postlude.
The Offertory Anthem is “How Beautiful Upon the Mountains” by John Antes (1714-1811), the second generation of a German Moravian family. Settling in Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the 18th century, the Moravians had the most sophisticated musical culture in early America, including anthems accompanied by chamber orchestra, trombone choirs, community bands, and fine organ building. Antes was one of the earliest American-born chamber music composers, having composed three string trios. He also crafted the earliest known American stringed instrument, a violin from 1759 which still exists today. He is also well known for his vocal works, including this anthem with a text from Isaiah 52:7 - “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion: thy God reigneth!”