Worship July 4, 2021

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, 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.

If you would like to join us for an in-person service we have two options for Holy Eucharist. An 8am service in our sanctuary (without music) and then a full service at 9am in the Bishop’s Garden each Sunday. Simply bring a chair, mask, and a heart for worship.

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 July 4, 2021

Please view the embedded video of our service below by clicking on the grey arrow in the middle of the image.

 

During the summer, our Trinity Kids series will be featuring previously recorded episodes.

 

About the Music:

The organ voluntaries this week are a set of variations on the hymn “God Save the King”, or “America”, by Charles Wesley (1757-1834). The name of this composer probably rings a bell if you are at all familiar with Protestant hymnody. This Charles Wesley is the eldest child of the English clergyman and hymn-writer Charles Wesley, the nephew of Methodism founder John Wesley, and uncle of English composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley. The Prelude begins with a statement of the theme, followed by four variations in which the composer treats the tune differently each time. The Postlude is the final, or fifth, variation which ends with another statement of the theme.

Tenor Chip Connolly will sing the Offertory, an adaptation of the traditional American hymn “Shall We Gather at the River”, called simply “At the River”, by the American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1980).Copland included this arrangement in his collection of “Old American Songs”, published in 1952. This hymn was originally written by the American poet and Gospel hymn writer Robert Lowry (1826–1899). Written in 1864, the tune is also known by the title “Hanson Place”, in reference to the Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn where Baptist minister Robert Lowry sometimes served. During Communion, Chip will sing the hymn “O beautiful, for spacious skies” by Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929). Inspired by a trip to Pikes Peak in 1893, Katherine Lee Bates wrote the poem America the Beautiful. Her poem first appeared in print on July 4, 1895 in The Congregationalist, a weekly journal. Ms. Bates revised the lyrics in 1904 and again in 1913.

Hymn 680, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”, is a hymn by Isaac Watts written in 1708 that paraphrases the 90th Psalm. The tune “St. Anne”, to which the hymn is most often sung was composed by William Croft in 1708 while he was the organist of St. Anne’s Church in London, hence the name.