Sunday, January 24, Third Sunday After Epiphany
Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sunday, January 24 is the third Sunday after Epiphany. Find the readings here.
Dear Friends in Christ,
This week’s worship video is now available:
I'm sorry that technical difficulties prevented me from making two different versions of our worship video this week, but I hope you'll agree that the great music from our ever-expanding online choir more than makes up for that loss.
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:
Hymn 661 “They cast their nets” is a commentary on the Gospel reading for the day, Mark 1:14-20, the calling of the first disciples. Curiously, this subject has humorously been rendered as “castanets,” and, of course, the meme reappeared this week with Bernie in his parka and mittens in the boat.
Our final hymn “Arise, your light is come” was written by Ruth Duck who tells the story: "I was adapting 'Rise Up, O Men of God,' when this new hymn text came to me, as if the new wine of the faith I wanted to express would not fit into the old wineskin of the earlier text." Based on Isaiah 60 & 61 you'll hear some familiar Advent themes of justice and mercy. I like the idea of writing a new fine text instead of reworking something familiar! And our singing this helps rebalance the near monopoly of singing words & music by “dead white men!” Psalm 98: “O Sing to the Lord a New Song!”
Organ music is by Dale Wood, a prolific composer for organ and vocal music. He wrote many settings of familiar hymn tunes and these two seemed appropriate after the inauguration this week: “Amazing Grace” and “Lord of all hopefulness.”