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.
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 January 30, 2022
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.
Music Notes
This week, the organ voluntaries are by composers of the Baroque era (1685-1750). J. S. Bach’s hymn prelude on “Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier” (Blessed Jesus, we are here) features a highly decorated melody in the RH with a steadily moving 8th note accompaniment in the LH and pedal. We will sing the same hymn, #440 in The Hymnal 1982, before the Gospel, The final hymn encourages us to spread the word of God to the ends of the earth.
In the autumn of 1705, a young Bach set out on foot from the city of Arnstadt, Germany, a grueling journey of some 250 miles to Lubeck to hear one of the most renowned organists of the time, Dietrich Buxtehude. Basically this was his version of study leave, as he asked his superiors to grant him a month’s leave to make this journey and hear what this great man had to say. Bach was so engrossed in studying with Buxtehude that he ended up staying for four months instead of one, much to the dismay of the church authorities. The “Praeludium in C major” is one of Buxtehude’s best known compositions. An improvisatory like composition, this piece has three sections - a prelude, a fugue, and a chaconne (variations over a ground bass). This week’s Postlude is the Chaconne, which stands alone nicely as a majestic finish to the service.
The Epistle lesson this Sunday is the familiar “love shapter” from 1 Corinthians. I chose Hymn 379 by Cyril Taylor and Timothy Rees to complement the reading. This hymn tells us that “God is Love”, and that “love enfolds us”. Love doesn’t just enfold us, but the whole world, including “every child of every race”. God’s love is not exclusive but is for all people, no matter how different they may be from us. God’s love doesn’t let us go, but is always with us.
The contemporary young Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978) has created a beautiful composition that draws its inspiration from the Gregorian chant tradition, although it is entirely original and not based on any existing chants. His setting of the text “Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est” (Where charity and love dwell, God is there) captures the universality of love, and encourages us to love more fully. When we are reminded that our actions represent the love beyond our understanding, we find new ways to love. We can always love more, give more, and empathize more.