Welcome to Sundays at Home
Good morning and welcome to Trinity! So glad you are tuning in virtually for today’s service. As we worship remotely during this time of change, each week you’ll find Sundays at Home with Trinity Episcopal Church. We will be featuring the full service recording, as well as the sermon and anthem on their own.
As we continue to adapt to changing guidelines regarding in-person gatherings, we have some exciting news for worship options. Starting this week, you can now join us for Drive-In Worship on Sundays at 10am! Read more about what to expect and how to join us by clicking here.
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 31, 2021
Please view the embedded video of our service below by clicking on the grey arrow in the middle of the image.
About the Music:
Our anthem for this week “Create in Me, O God, a Pure Heart” (op. 29, No. 2) is from the pen of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Composed around 1864, this short motet is in three sections, each corresponding to a verse from Psalm 51.
The text of Hymn 493, “O for a thousand tongues to sing”, by the great English hymn writer Charles Wesley (1707-1788), is commonly sung to the tune AZMON by Carl Gotthilf Glaser (1784-1829), arranged and adapted by the American composer Lowell Mason in 1839. Charles Wesley, along with his brother John, is credited with founding the “Methodist” movement, although they both remained Anglican their entire lives. Charles became one of the world’s most prolific hymn writers, penning some 6,000 hymns in all.
Organ Voluntaries
This week’s Prelude is “Meditation”, by the French organist and composer Maurice Durufle (1902-1986). Durufle was a highly self-critical composer who published only a handful of works and rarely performed them. Probably best known for his Requiem (1947), he was organist of the church of St. Etienne-du-Mont in Paris for many years.
The Postlude is based on the hymn tune Deo gracias, #449 in The Hymnal 1982 where it is married with the Epiphany text “O love, how deep, how broad, how high”. This hymn, also known as the “Agincourt Hymn”, was written sometime in the early 15th century by John Dunstable and later arranged for organ by the great American organist E. Power Biggs (1906-1977). Biggs composed a trumpet fanfare that serves as an introduction, and appears again at the end. Born in England, Biggs immigrated to the United States in 1930 and settled in Boston, where he was instrumental in the renewed interest in the classical pipe organ, especially the organ music of pre-Romantic composers such as Bach and Buxtehude and the organs they played. He is probably the only organist who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!