Candlelight

121st Candlelight Service
St. George's Episcopal Church, New York
December 20, 2009

Processional chant: Alden Ashforth, "Hodie Christus natus est"
Congregational hymn: "O come all ye faithful"

First Lesson: Genesis 3:9–15
Congregational hymn: "O come, O come Emmanuel"

Second Lesson: Isaiah 9:2, 6–7
Anthem: Matt Veligdan, "O magnum mysterium"
Third Lesson: Micah 5:2–4
Congregational hymn: "O little town of Bethlehem"

Fourth Lesson: Luke 1:26–33
Choir carol: Basque carol (arr. Robert Ross), "The Angel Gabriel"
Anthem: Benjamin Britten, "This little babe" from Ceremony of Carols

Fifth Lesson: Luke 2:1–7
Congregational hymn: "What child is this"
Choir carol: James R. Murray (arr. Jackson Berkey), "Away in a manger"

Sixth Lesson: Luke 2:8–14
Anthem: Kamel Boutros, "Magedooh!"
Anthem: William Mathias, "Alleluya! A new work is come on hand"
Choir carol: Harold Darke, "In the bleak mid-winter"
Congregational hymn: "Angels we have heard on high"
Congregational hymn: "The first nowell"
Choir carol: French trad., "Il es né le Divin enfant"
Choir carol: West Indian carol, "The Virgin Mary had a baby boy"
Anthem: Jester Hairston, "Mary's little boy child"

Offertory: Buddy Greene, "Mary did you know"

Congregational hymn: "Joy to the world"
Congregational hymn: "Hark, the herald angels sing"
Congregational hymn: "Silent night"

Seventh Lesson: John 1:1–12

Homily

Anthem: Adolphe Adam, "O holy night"

Closing prayer and benediction

Choir and congregational chorus: G. F. Handel, "Hallelujah" from Messiah

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St. George's is paired with Calvary Church (where I went for morning Mass) into a single parish that shares a rector and an organist/music director. Ian had met one of the priests and the organist at the Gramercy Park Hanukah party a few days previous, so he decided that we should go to this service to check out the neighborhood Christians. I found it an interesting opportunity to observe the different congregations within a single joined parish, and the differences were quite distinct.

The church building itself at St. George's is much larger than Calvary, and the nave is a big barn of a place that reminds me more of 19th century Catholic architecture than Anglican architecture. The choir was a 32-voice amateur choir that looked very young; they were all dressed in all black, with some of the women wearing colorful mufflers. The organist (who ran back and forth between organ and piano) was supplemented by a dozen instrumentalists.

Much of the evening's music was contemporary. The opening processional chant, for example, was interestingly aggressive, and built from a capella chant to accompaniment including bongos. The congregation got to light and hold individual candles during the procession and opening hymn. All of the arrangements for the choir carols sounded very Christian contemporary. Some of the music was new, too. The music director wrote the "Magedooh!" anthem (which was sung in Arabic) and the choir director of the St. George's portion of the parish wrote the "O magnum mysterium" setting.

The congregational sing-along for the Hallelujah chorus caught me off guard. I've not sung it in several years and I never memorized it, so I really needed a score to sing all of my part correctly, but we all mucked through it successfully.

The service was a fun evening, and it seems the service is a big neighborhood tradition. The music was pretty good, though the traditional repertoire anthems (even the 20th century things like the Mathias and Britten) were, perhaps, a bit over-ambitious for the singers, but they made up for it with enthusiasm on the contemporary Christian things. I found it interesting, though, that this big contemporary congregation was not nearly as friendly as the more traditional congregation at Calvary.