Sunday, January 3, Second Sunday After Christmas
Sunday, January 3 is the second Sunday after Christmas. Find the readings here.
Friends,
Please find attached a service leaflet and the links for a worship service for January 3, the Second Sunday of Christmas. I've chosen the Epiphany reading of the 3 Gospel options, because it seemed to have a connection with one of my favorite services, that of our Epiphany evening mass with potluck. We cannot have this together this year unfortunately. So we will open with the "Chalking of the door" (which I hope you'll do to your doorway as we do each year). We will sing many of the carols that we haven't sung yet, our Choristers and our adults have been working hard on "just the right amount of carols" to bless us. The Choristers (Cape Ann Choir School) open the singing with "We Three Kings" and also sing "Away in a Manger." The adults have a bunch, and we hope you have a bell to ring, you'll figure out the right time! We're including a wonderful poem "Ring Out Wild Bells," a nod to our usual Christmas Readings and Carols which include non-Biblical readings. The Tennyson poem seems particularly apropos at this time. I've attempted to recreate the chanted gospel reading of the adoration of the Magi that David and I did years ago together with my nephew Nelson singing soprano. I'm hoping that the three of us can recreate it yet, but my offering will be enough for now. Finally my sister and I made an opportunity to sing together a simple anthem by my voice and conducting teacher from college, Ken Jennings. A wonderful text by Richard Crashaw, "Summer in winter" has a nice warmth to it.
It is wonderful to have a chance to sing. I hope you're singing along with these hymns and carols. I'm thrilled with the inclusion of every new singer (this week, Sue Lupo and Maliyah Harnish), that more of us get to experience this, if only via a set of earbuds. We can sing together again! Thank you singers! If you'd like to try, please let me know.
Finally let me say that with 9 choral offerings and 2 organ pieces, we couldn't fit a sermon in. I hope you'll understand. Next week we can get back to our excellent preaching as Fr. Bret returns. I enjoyed having an opportunity to bring you my vision of what we do together. But it is just the very right amount of too much work to do!
-Mark Nelson, Music Director
Join at 12 noon for coffee hour, hosted this week by Karen Kasper:
Meeting ID: 820 7332 8146
Passcode: yqmXA9