Worship From Home
As we worship remotely during this time of change, each week you’ll find Sundays at Home from Bishop Martin G. Townsend and Trinity Episcopal Church. We will be featuring the full service recording, as well as the sermon and anthem on their own. You can also download PDFs of the Readings and Gospel, as well as the full sermon on our website.
This week we appreciate the return of our organist, Richard McPherson, as he offers the prelude. We thank our Parish Staff for their involvement in today's liturgy. Sexton, Tommy Breeden, wrote and reads his poem, "Blood, sweat, and tears." Jim Hammond reads the Gospel. And we join Sr. Warden Johanna Jackson, Parish Administrator Di Demaree and Assistant PA Betsy Crenshaw in offering the prayers. As always we are grateful to Christian Myers and our choristers for having recorded the anthem, Gloria and Sanctus just prior to Easter.
Sunday Worship for June 14, 2020
Please view the embedded video of our service below by clicking on the grey arrow in the middle of the image.
Our service begins this Sunday with the Voluntary on “Come down, O love divine” by Raymond Haan. It is based on the Ralph Vaughan Williams hymn tune named for his birth place, Down Ampney, England.
Hymn 488, "Be Thou My Vision", is a prayer from the Irish monastic tradition that may be as ancient as the year 700. Similar to St. Patrick's Breastplate from last Sunday this is the other example of an Irish "lorica" in our Hymnal 1982. While the folk tune Slane is also quite old and Irish, this familiar text and tune were only first mated in the Irish Church Hymnal of 1919.
"Speak to One Another" by Jean Berger is from a set of four "Devotional Songs" based on a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch text and is the last of the anthems recorded by our wonderful choir section leaders. Pianist, composer, and musicologist, Jean Berger was born Arthur Schlossberg, into a Jewish family in Hamm, Westphalia. In 1933 he sought refuge from the Nazi Party and a new name in Paris, France. After two years in South America, Berger lived in the US from 1941 until his death in 2002 where he spent the rest of his career teaching at several different universities.
The choral benediction, "Deep Peace" was written, using a traditional Celtic Blessing, for Bishop Martin Townsend's last Sunday in June 2007, after serving for more than two years as Trinity Church's Interim Rector. On this last Sunday of Martin and Barbara's second interim period with us, we offer them these same words that Martin has so devoutly offered us each Sunday for the last six months. With the deepest gratitude for the peace your ministry has twice brought our parish family during difficult times: Deep peace to you, Martin and Barbara. Deep Peace to you.