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The Chronicle
Advent & Christmas
2002
From the Rector
From the Organist & Master of Choristers
Music Schedule
Upcoming Events
From the Rector
My dear folk,
It seems to me that in recent years when Christmas actually arrives, I have found in myself a growing dissatisfaction. I hope it is not just a few early steps down the road to becoming an irascible old man, never content with the way things are now. But whatever is prodding my psyche, I find that I feel robbed. Christmas can feel like yesterday's news by the time that it actually is Christmas. And who can blame us for being a little tired of it. Christmas carols and music have blared at us for weeks and weeks from radio and public address systems in the stores. Advertisements have incessantly urged us to buy: clothing, toys (of course), electronic devices, diamonds, perfume, and even luxury automobiles, all touted as the perfect gifts to delight the recipient. (What's wrong with my marriage? Ruth didn't surprise me with a new Lexus this year?)
I understand what's going on in our culture, why the advertisers have to start early. If you are going to buy something to give on Christmas, it obviously has to be bought before Christmas. It makes sense that they must emphasize Christmas before the day itself. But I feel that we have all too easily given in to this way of thinking - and that we have lost something precious in the process. The Church, of course, teaches us a different way. We know that we can't celebrate something until it is here. Far from packing Christmas away when we unwrap the last gift under the tree, we Christians are just getting into the stride of our celebration. Far from being the last hurrah, like the fireworks at the end of the Pops' Fourth of July Concert, for us Christmas Day ought to be the glorious beginning, like a black-tie gala opening of the new opera season. It is just the start!
I find that I have to work harder each year to keep this right understanding. I let myself be robbed of some of the joy of the holiday. Like a child told not to eat too many cookies lest it ruin my supper, I often find that I arrive at the table with little appetite left. A sumptuous feast there is, but I'm feeling a little punky. To avoid this problem takes some discipline and some maturity - but then that is the story of life, is it not?
Now is the time to revel in the celebration of divine love, not merely to engage in conspicuous consumption. Now is the time to marvel at the celestial drama enacted two millennia ago, when God became man that he might restore all mankind to life. Now is the time to take heart from the faith of the pure and holy maid who was his mother. Now is the time to emulate the lowly shepherds who came to his manger-crib to worship and then told all that they had seen and heard concerning this child. This Christmastide, let us not to lose sight of the Christ in the midst of the trappings of the season which ostensibly honors him!
Yours, in our Lord's service,
Father Godderz
From the Organist & Master of Choristers
Greetings!
It has been a busy season for All Saints' Choir thus far. In October we traveled to sing Evensong at Christ Church, New Haven CT, where Andrew Sheranian is currently the organ scholar. It was a full and rich day, and the choir sang beautifully. More recently, three trebles and I performed with the Brookline Chorus (Scott Jarrett, conductor) in performances of "Rejoice in the Lamb" and "Saint Nicolas" by Benjamin Britten. There were two identical performances, one at All Saints Episcopal Church in Brookline, and the other at Marsh Chapel on the Boston University Campus. Both performances were extremely well attended, and were similarly well received. The trebles participating were James Keefe, Niles Turner, and Christian Van Dyck.
Looking ahead, we are preparing for our trip to sing at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City on Sunday morning, January 5, where we will sing the 11a.m. Festal Eucharist and the 4p.m. Festal Evensong. We will travel by bus to New York on Saturday morning, Jan. 4, and following an afternoon rehearsal, the boys and teenagers will be treated to dinner at Mars 2112 (a very unique dining experience, from what I understand). Following dinner, the trebles and teens will then go to the St. Thomas Choir School, where they will have free time in the school's gym (which also happens to be the boys' rehearsal space) before going to bed. Several weeks later, the full choir will spend approximately 15 hours in recording sessions at The Church of the Advent over a three day period in order to produce a new compact disc of Advent and Christmas music. Stay tuned for more details!
I hope that you have a very safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! With best holiday wishes, I remain
Yours sincerely,
Jeremy S. Bruns
Music Schedule
- Sunday, December 1 (Advent I)
- 10a.m. Solemn Mass - The Gentlemen of the Choir
The Great Litany
Service: Mass for 3 Voices - William Byrd
Anthem: The Advent Prose - Plainsong - Sunday, December 8 (Advent II)
- 10a.m. Solemn Mass - The Trebles of the Choir
Service: Communion Service in D - Leo Sowerby
Anthem: Advent Message - Martin How - Sunday, December 15 (Advent III)
- 10a.m. Solemn Mass - The Full Choir
The Great Litany
Service: Communion Service in F - Harold Darke
Anthem: This is the Record of John - Orlando Gibbons - Sunday, December 22 (Advent IV)
- 10a.m. Solemn Mass - The Full Choir
Service: Missa secunda - Hans Leo Hassler
Carol: A Maiden Most Gentle - Andrew Carter
4p.m. Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols - The Full Choir
Invitatory: Matin Responsory - after Palestrina
Carol: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree - Elizabeth Poston
Carol: In the bleak mid-winter - Harold Darke
Anthem: The Lamb - John Tavener
Carol: A Maiden Most Gentle - Andrew Carter
Carol: Manger Carol - Leo Sowerby (trebles only)
Carol: Shepherd's Pipe Carol - John Rutter
Carol: Lully, lulla thou little tiny child - Kenneth Leighton
Anthem: A babe is born - William Mathias - Tuesday, December 24 (Christmas Eve)
- 7:30p.m. Choral Prelude - The Full Choir
Carol: In the bleak mid-winter - Harold Darke
Carol: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree - Elizabeth Poston
Carol: Manger Carol - Leo Sowerby (trebles only)
Anthem: A babe is born - William Mathias
Anthem: The Lamb - John Tavener - 8p.m. Procession and Solemn Mass - The Full Choir
Service: Missa O magnum mysterium - Tomás Luis de Victoria
Motet: O magnum mysterium - Tomás Luis de Victoria
Carol: Shepherd's Pipe Carol - John Rutter - Sunday, January 5 (Christmas 2) at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, NYC
- 11a.m. Festal Eucharist - The Full Choir
Service: Missa O magnum mysterium - Tomás Luis de Victoria
Motet: O magnum mysterium - Tomás Luis de Victoria - 4p.m. Festal Evensong - The Full Choir
Responses: Philip Radcliffe
Service: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in G - Charles Villiers Stanford
Anthem: The Lamb - John Tavener - Monday, January 6 (The Epiphany)
- 7p.m. Procession and Solemn Mass - The Full Choir
Service: Missa O magnum mysterium - Tomás Luis de Victoria
Carol: Lully, lulla thou little tiny child - Kenneth Leighton - Sunday, January 12 (I Epiphany)
- 10a.m. Solemn Mass - The Full Choir
Service: Communion Service in D - Kenneth Leighton
Motet: Ave verum - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Sunday, January 19 (II Epiphany)
- 10a.m. Solemn Mass - The Gentlemen of the Choir
Service: Mass for 3 Voices - William Byrd
Anthem: Surge illuminare - William Byrd - Sunday, January 26 (III Epiphany)
- 10a.m. Solemn Mass - The Full Choir
Service: Communion Service in F - Herbert Sumsion
Anthem: Lead me, Lord - Samuel Sebastian Wesley - Sunday, February 2
- 10a.m. Solemn Mass (IV Epiphany) - The Full Choir
Service: The Office of Holy Communion "Collegium Regale" - Herbert Howells
Anthem: A Prayer of St. Richard of Chichester - L.J. White - 4p.m. Solemn Evensong, Procession and Benediction (Candlemas) - The Full Choir
Responses: William Byrd
Service: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis "Collegium Regale" - Herbert Howells
Anthem: Senex puerum portabat - William Byrd
Advent: The Season of Sarum
"As God has flooded the earth and sky with color, so the Church has sensed the symbolic use of color in its worship. As dominating colors in nature change with the seasons in the fourfold year, so there is a color sequence in the Church Year." from the Ashby Company's Episcopal Church Year Guide
By the sixth century of the Church, imaginative souls created liturgical rhythms and, eventually, backdrops of color for each season, each with its own meaning and symbolism" Just as the sacraments are outward and visible signs of grace instituted to reveal inward and invisible truths, we move in community through the liturgical seasons to act out the drama of our faith walk with Our Lord. Like words and music, color helps to trigger in us a response, evoke a memory, make manifest, and we are invited to visit and revisit the interior land of our hearts, living and re-living the unfolding patterns and cycles of our faith.
During Advent we are invited to step deeply into the drama of the Incarnation. The Church suggests to us that we enter this seasonal space surrounded by a backdrop of sarum blue. This symbolizes a time of gestation, readiness, openness, receiving, carrying, and anticipation. We walk with Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, and all the ancient ones who prepared the way. We hear their stories, pray for hope, and sing of our expectations. It is an opportunity to do nothing less than prepare the womb-space of our hearts for the birth of the Child of Light, the Anointed One, the Christ, come Christmas morning. When we see blue in our worship spaces, and even in our private places of meditation, it can serve as a kind I of marking of the region on our interior I maps, or the color of the walls of our inner sanctuary. When we use color in our worship as a community , it is like using a I shared visual language, just as we sing and I pray special songs and prayers together for each season.
In the past, the color purple has been used for both Advent and Lent. Though both seasons invite us to explore the process of becoming, of creating clean spirits within us, the Church has come to believe that each season symbolizes a different cycle of the Christian drama. Advent is a season of anticipation and preparation for birth, while Lent is a season of penitence and preparation for death and eventual resurrection.
Whatever the color and whatever the season, we try to find ways of sharing our faith walk together in a spirit of compassion, peace, and understanding, using the only language we have to express that which is beyond describing. The season of sarum blue speaks of our invitation to make love manifest in the incarnation of our own being.
Mary Ann Breisch
Mary Ann Breisch is a Liturgical Artist who has designed church textiles and vestments and a parishioner of St. Paul's Church, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. This column is reprinted from the 24 November 2002 issue of Parish Notes of St. Paul's Church.
Upcoming Events
Monday, 6 January 2003
Solemn Mass at 7 o'clock
The Rev'd F. Washington Jarvis, preaching
Sunday, 12 January 2003
4 o'clock
Michael Kleinschmidt
Associate Director of Music and Organist
Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston
suggested donation: $10 adults/$5 students
Sunday, 2 February 2003
Evensong, Solemn Procession & Benediction at 4 o'clock
The Rev'd Robert M. Arida, preaching
Dean of Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, Boston,
Orthodox Church in America
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