Sunday, January 17, Second Sunday After Epiphany
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Sunday, January 17 is the second Sunday after Epiphany. Find the readings here.
Dear Friends in Christ,
This week’s worship videos are now available:
Morning Prayer, Rite II
Morning Prayer, Rite I
Our sermon this morning comes from Fr. Clyde Elledge, Dean of the North Shore Deanery. As stated on the diocesan Web site, "The congregations of our diocese are grouped into 12 deaneries whose boundaries are drawn according to natural watersheds, reminding us of our connections with God’s creation and symbolic of the waters of Baptism... Each of the deaneries has a dean—a priest appointed by the bishops to enhance pastoral care and communication among the clergy of the respective deanery." Fr. Elledge sends warm greetings and offers us a fine exploration of vocation, community, and prayer. Between isolation at home and conflict in society, his sermon is an encouraging and comforting reorientation to the sacred.
Please find attached the Warrant for the Annual Meeting, which will be held over Zoom on Sunday, January 31, at noon. The Annual Meeting will use a different Meeting ID and passcode than are used for coffee hour. Instructions are on the second page of the Warrant. It's very important that we all participate in the governance and organizational life of our church, and this year we'll have a brief presentation from Claudette, Connie, and Rick on upcoming anti-racism programming, so please make the meeting a priority. And remember that, weather permitting, we'll have a Sunday Stroll afterwards.
Speaking of which, please join us for coffee hour at noon:
• To join on a computer, tablet, or smartphone with the Zoom app installed, click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86398096400?pwd=dk5oTjNkYzNIOVl4TEExcCtiZEw2dz09
• To call in on a smartphone, tap here: +16465588656,,86398096400#,,,,,,0#,,296917#
• To join on a conventional phone, call (646) 558-8656 then enter the Meeting ID: 863 9809 6400 and the Passcode: 296917
Here are Mark's music notes:
I’m so happy to see Astrid afKlinteberg joining our “singing together apart” choir. This means that everyone in our recent choir has joined in at least once since we started. And even a few others, not regular singers. Would you like to sing, just to try it out?
Hymn 542, “Christ is the world’s true light” first appeared in the Hymnal 1940, both words and music. The words are by George Wallace Briggs, a prolific British hymn writer of the early 20th century. The music was written for the Hymnal 1940 for this tune, and the tune name honors the composer’s wife!
Hymn 599 was written in 1900 by 2 brother team for a chorus of black school children to honor President Lincoln, the signer of the emancipation proclamation, on his birthday for a school assembly. The words and its musical setting “speak with such a dynamic force that it is considered by many African Americans as their national anthem.”
Noel Da Costa, composer of the closing Voluntary was of Jamaican parentage, yet born in Lagos Nigeria. He family returned to Jamaica in his youth and then on to the US. He studied at Queens College CUNY and at Columbia. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Florence. He served as Professor of Music at Rutgers University. “Round About the Mountain” is a spiritual, new to me. Da Costa uses mostly traditional harmonies mostly, but also uses daring harmonies as well, and leaves with a quiet but dissonant chord cluster to end his setting.