Happy Passover

I'm celebrating Passover at Tyson's Corner Mall. I'm passing over all the things that aren't on sale.

We're eating matzo crackers and wishing we had some of that apple chutney stuff to put on it.

Observation

You know, only an Episcopal Church would have a charge account at the local liquor store.

News from Rome

I always said I thought the Vatican choir sucked, but I wasn't intending to be taken so literally.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/04/vatican-gay-sex-scandal

Protests

Same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia starts today. Naturally, the Phelps family crazies from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka are here protesting.

My favorite counter-protestor sign?

"Jesus had two dads and he turned out fine."

LOL

Yep

Lyric_Baritone is very religious. He even has his own church key.

Wedding bells

Sang and played a noon wedding today.

This is the dog that "accompanied" me from under the piano.

Grrr

It's people like this who make me embarrassed to be a Christian.

Notice

Merry Christmas! It's the Twelfth Day of Christmas. You now have permission to take down your Christmas tree!

The Tenth Day of Christmas

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols for Christmastide
St. Paul's Parish, K Street (Episcopal), Washington, D.C.
Sunday 3 January 2010

Organ prelude: Claude-Bénigne Balbastre, Noël "Votre bonté grand dieu"

Processional hymn: Irby, "Once in royal David's city"
Bidding prayer
Invitatory carol: Trad. English, arr. Philip Ledger, "Sussex Carol"

First Lesson: Genesis 3:8–15
Carol: Peter Warlock, "Adam lay y bounden"

Second Lesson: Isaiah 9:2, 6–7
Carol: Trad. English, arr. Henry Walford Davies, "The holly and the ivy"

Third Lesson: Micah 5:2–4
Congregational hymn: Forest Green, "O little town of Bethlehem"

Fourth Lesson: Luke 1:26–38
Carol: Trad. English, arr. Stephen Cleobury, "Joys Seven"

Fifth Lesson: Luke 2:1–7
Carol: Normandy Carol, arr. Reginald Jacques, "Away in the manger"

Sixth Lesson: Luke 2:8–10
Congregational hymn: Hampton, "While shepherds watched their flocks by night"
Anthem: John Rutter, "Candlelight Carol"

Seventh Lesson: Matthew 2:1–12
Carol: French carol, arr. Stephen Jackson, "Noël nouvelet"
Congregational hymn: Humility, "See amid the winter's snow"

Eighth Lesson: Hebrews 1:1–12
Offertory anthem: William Mathias, "A babe is morn all of a may"

Ninth Lesson: John 1:1–14
Congregational hymn: Adeste fideles, "O come all ye faithful"

Collect and Christmas Blessing
Recessional hymn: Mendelssohn, "Hark! The herald angels sing"

Organ voluntary: Keith Chapman, "Bring a torch, Jeanette, Isabella"

Solemn Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament

Exposition hymn: Hereford, "O saving victim"
Meditation

Hymn: Oriel, "Therefore we before him bending"
Versicle, Response, and Collect

Benediction

The Divine Praises
Psalm and Antiphon: Mode I, Ego sum panis vivus

Postlude: Robert McCormick, Improvisation on Mendelssohn

---

Had a nice evening of lessons and carols at St. Paul's K Street tonight (at least once I found a parking place!). They supplemented the usual Evensong men and boys choir with the girls choir and the women of the parish choir. The chancel was packed with singers, and they had to put the kids on benches on both sides in front of the choir stalls.

While some of the words and titles to tonight's hymns and choir carols might seem at first glance to be familiar, many of them were completely different tunes. For example, the "O little town of Bethlehem' was sung to Ralph Vaughn-Williams' hymn tune, not the familiar American tune, and "While shepherds watched their flocks by night" was sung to the contemporary tune Hampton. Similarly, the choir carol "Away in the manger" was the Normandy Carol tune, not either of the usual familiar hymn tunes.

Stephen Jackson's arrangement of "Noël nouvelet" was quite interesting and the organ part was very, very modern.

I always have to giggle a bit when I attend a church service and hear something like the "Candlelight Carol" by John Rutter, who, although he is a famous English church musician and composer, is an openly avowed atheist.

They have some adorable boys in the choir right now. I love watching the earnestness of their singing. I suppose the girls were adorable, too, but one of the girl soloists has been listening to too much Charlotte Church and has an unpleasant warble. However, I've spoken on many occasions about my strong preference for boys voices only in treble church choirs, and I need not repeat my arguments here.

I sat on the center aisle on the back row of pews in the nave so I could hear the choral blend from there. The service was standing room only, and many people were temporarily seated on folding chairs behind me in the narthex (the choir stands there before the processional and at the end of the recessional, so the people are moved away). I don't understand why so many people come in so incredibly late, as in 45 minutes after the service started. I was amused, though, when we got to the final Great Hymns of Christmas and John the organist engaged the tuba mirabilis pipes in the back of the church. It made all the late comers jump out of their seats! I guess they aren't regular parishioners. LOL

We seemed to have been invaded by out-of-town tourists. Why is it that tourists in D.C. always have to dress so abominably? I just can't imagine wearing a sweatshirt and blue jeans to church—especially an Episcopal church!—and I'm talking middle-aged adults, not teenagers. I did dress down a bit myself tonight because of the bitter cold winds out, but I still had on a tweed jacket, sweater vest, and bow tie.

After Benediction, Robert the choirmaster played a postlude that was his improvisation on "Hark! The herald angels." It was dark and in a minor key, only hinting at the Mendelssohn melody, and I thought it was absolutely smashing.

I just can't say how much I appreciate the commitment to high quality sacred music and liturgy at St. Paul's. That commitment comes down from the priests through the organists and the choristers, and even the congregation is so musical they are able to read music and sing harmony during the hymns. These people truly believe in giving their best to God.
As always, the parish hosted everyone upstairs in the parish hall afterwards for wine and food, and they are always gracious hosts. I noticed tonight (and also at Advent lessons and carols last month) that they are doing almost all sweets, cookies, bars, and gingerbread houses for the food, and that is quite unfortunate, since I don't really like to eat much of that. In the past, they have had lots of cheeses, pates, dips, finger sandwiches, and I even remember one Easter Vigil when I think they had several poached salmon and probably all the shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico. I suppose their hospitality gets expensive, though (I always try to remember to stick money in the freewill-contribution jars), and they are cutting corners with sweets and Trader Joe's wines. It's still a wonderfully nice gesture of the parish to entertain people after their special evening services. I meet and chat with lots of interesting people from all over the metropolitan area up there.

In classic Episcopalian style, you can see where the parishioners' priorities lie by seeing how they decorated the parish hall, most especially the message posted at the wine station.

Sunday in the snow

Finally got out and made it to church at St. Luke's this morning.  The snowdrift that blocked me in on Christmas Eve was still there on Christmas morning, so it wasn't until afternoon Christmas Day that my dad and I got out and shoveled off the driveway.  We had over half an inch of ice under the snow to try to break up and remove, too.  The streets are still a mess around here.  In the South, municipal governments aren't equipped with snow plows as they are up north, so we wait for the weather to warm up and the limited car traffic there is to wear away the snow.  My parents' house is near the local hospital, so their street usually gets enough traffic to make the road passable after a day or so, but my tires were still spinning on my way up the hill.

Church attendance was light this morning.  I walked in five minutes before Mass was to start, and they were putting everybody up in the choir.  By the time the processional was going, enough more people had wandered in to fill up the first several rows of pews on both sides.  I think a little over 50 ended up finally there (the deacon told me there were only 18 people in church Christmas Eve, mostly people who lived near the church who could walk there).

Hymns this morning were Regent Square (Angels from the realms of glory) for the processional, Puer nobis nascitur (Unto us a boy is born) for the sequence, Venite adoremus (The snow lay on the ground) for the offertory, Antioch (Joy to the world, v. 1) for the fraction anthem, Greensleeves (What child is this) during communion, and In dulci jubilo (Good Christian men rejoice) for the recessional.

The Mass setting included a Taizé setting called "Glory to God" in lieu of the Gloria and Proulx's A Community Mass setting of the Sanctus and Benedictus.

The rector was out on his post-Christmas vacation, so the assistant, a priestess, was the celebrant.  She wore an ungirdled alb with her stole hanging straight down on both sides bishop-style, but at least she put on a chasuble for the consecration and communion.  The deacon preached this morning.  He talked about how God didn't make change in a big "shazam" way, but provided a tiny spark to build up inside us, and analogized that to how scientists believe that during the "big bang" that began the creation of the universe, it all started with a singularity that had no dimension, and yet within a couple of seconds, 75% of the universe was formed.  In case you were wondering, this isn't exactly a parish of Creationists!  LOL  We can get very scientific and rational here, since ConocoPhillips has a research and development center in town, and there are lots of scientists and engineers out there with one or two Ph.D.s.

It's always nice to be back at St. Luke's, since this is the parish where I grew up, and I still know lots of people there.  Sitting in the choir is always fun, too, since that is where I learned to sing as a young choir boy many years ago.

Time to go figure out what to fix for lunch.  Maybe if things clear off tomorrow, we can start running around town, but for now, we're essentially at home in the snow.