Episcopal Church in Snellville, GA
Hymns At Home — Music For All Saints
Compiled By Kyle Osborne
Listen, singalong,& meditate on music for All Saints’ Day at home, work or with your family. Featuring “For all the Saints”, “I sing a song of the saints of God”, and The Souls of the Righteous.
Click here to go to the YouTube file, and enjoy!.
(sound begins at :38)
Co-Op’s Winter Wonder 2020 Christmas Assistance Program
Once again the Southeast Gwinnett Food Co-Op is offering gift cards as their Christmas assistance program to eligible clients who have minor children living in their household. This small offering will help the heads of house–holds care for their children’s needs and remind them that they have friends walking alongside of them.
You are invited to make a donation in the form of a $25 Walmart gift card. Gift cards can be placed in the special collection container before or after all Sunday’s outside services, dropped off at the church parking lot on Saturday afternoons 10/24,10/31,11/7 and 11/14 from 12-2pm or given to Jennifer Papadatos, Cheryl Wheeler, Greg Andrews or Dotty Merrifield. All donations must be submitted by November 16th.
The results for the survey conducted at St. Matthew’s in July are below. One file contains graphs of the questions around reopening. The other file contains all of the free text comments that were written by parishioners. On Friday, Holy Cow will meet with clergy and wardens to discuss the results for the diocese. We should learn how our results compare with other parishes. An updated report, which will summarize both the results from St. Matthew’s and how St. Matthew’s compares to other churches in the diocese will be published in the October 2 copy of The Messenger.
Holy Cow Survey St. Matthews Graphs
Holy Cow Survey St. Matthews Free Text Response
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
We passed a milestone of a different sort this past week – September 15 marked six months since we closed the building to sanctuary worship. Less than 24 hours after the vestry voted to close the church on March 14, Father Tommy, along with Amanda Livermont, Steve McFarland, Karen Anderson and Becky Olbon, created on-line worship in the Coil chapel to make sure we did not miss a Sunday service!
Back in those days, we talked about the celebration we would have back in the sanctuary at Easter. It hasn’t worked out that way, but thanks be to God and a lot of effort on the part of clergy, staff and parishioners, we have not missed a Sunday service and we added daily services on Facebook with the express purpose of affirming that coming together in community to worship God was STILL the most important thing we could do as Christians – in the face of pandemic, economic uncertainty, protests and hurricanes, we continue to share our faith and love for one another by showing up several times a week to praise God and pray for each other and the world.
On September 8, Bishop Wright let the clergy know that we could begin worshiping outdoors on campus, with the maximum number of persons capped at 50, for a service no longer than one hour, and maintaining social distancing and the wearing of masks. Several teams have been working on the required reopening plan for both outdoor and future indoor worship and these plans will be complete by the end of this month, with the required paperwork sent in to the diocese to allow us outdoor worship under the Pavilion in October. We will use Realm to register for ALL activities on campus, including these on-campus services, to comply with contact tracing requirements. For this reason it is important that all adult family members be signed into Realm, with updated contact information available for each adult.
There will be more information coming out soon with details about how to register for attending the service as well as information about the service for those continuing to attend online. St. Matthew’s remains committed to offering several options for parishioners (and visitors!) to remain connected with our church community. However, I wanted to take a moment to pause, and reflect back on the past six months, and to share how grateful I am to be part of this community and how amazing it is that so many people have stepped up to help make on-line worship happen – from technical management to leading worship. Beloved, we are blessed to have the church family we do, and so I thank each and every one of you – for your leadership, for your support and for your constant prayers. I pray that we will continue to move towards more people on campus and to returning to the sanctuary for our services. I also recognize that maintaining a presence on-line for those who cannot physically attend the service is critically important, and that ministry will go on. Please stay tuned to The Messenger for updates.
With deepest affection,
Mother Liz+
Register For Christian Education/Sunday School and Youth Group
Starts in Coffee Hour and breaks out into smaller classes — 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. Sundays. If you have problems registering, please email Crystal Furman, Debbie Stallings, or Fr. Tommy.
Youth Group meets Sundays at 4:00 p.m. Zoom Links available in your 9/20/2020 newsletter, The Messenger.
Tea And Conversation — Tuesdays at 2:00 p.m
Written and compiled by Kyle Osborne, Director of Music at St. Matthew’s
The office of Morning Prayer was created by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, for the 1549 Book of Common Prayer. Cranmer combined the offices of Matins (the nighttime vigil), Lauds (which took place at Dawn) and Prime (which took place around 6am) from the Liturgy of the Hours (also known as the Divine Office which marked the hours of each day with prayer) to create Morning Prayer.
Invitatory and Psalter
At the Invitatory, the Venite (Psalm 95) or the Jubilate (Psalm 100) are said or sung. The Venite, a carryover from the office of Matins (Vigil), is an invitation to worship. The Jubilate, which was used as an entrance song in The Temple, is a song of thanksgiving and praise. The Jubilate was also the opening Psalm at Lauds (Dawn Prayer). This coming Sunday we will be singing a setting of the Venite (S-35).
Venite Psalm 95:1-7
Come, let us sing to the Lord; *
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *
and the heights of the hills are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, *
and his hands have molded the dry land.
Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *
Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!
Jubilate Psalm 100
Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; *
serve the Lord with gladness
and come before his presence with a song.
Know this: The Lord himself is God; *
he himself has made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise; *
give thanks to him and call upon his Name.
For the Lord is good;
his mercy is everlasting; *
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.
Canticles
After the first and second lesson at Morning Prayer a Canticle is said or sung. A Canticle is a song of praise with a biblical or biblically inspired text. Perhaps the most famous Canticles are the Gloria (Glory to God in the highest) and the Magnificat (Song of Mary). See BCP pages 85-96 for a list of Canticles 8-21. Canticles 1-7, which use traditional language, can be found on BCP pages 47-52. Many different musical settings of the Canticles can be found, including chant, choral, organ, and metrical paraphrase.
We will be using metrical paraphrases for both Canticle 12 – A Song of Creation (Benedicite, omnia opera Domini), and Canticle 21 – You are God (Te Deum laudamus) this coming Sunday.
A Song of Creation is from the Greek Septuagint version of the book of Daniel. This Canticle is often referred to as the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men (Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were the three young men who praised God even after being placed in the fiery furnace during the Babylonia Exile). A Song of Creation was originally used in Christian worship as a canticle at Easter Vigil and Thomas Cranmer suggested its use as an alternative to the Te Deum during Lent.
Our setting for Canticle 12 comes from Wonder, Love, and Praise #885. The metrical paraphrase of the text is by Carl Daw. The music is by Williams Bradley Roberts and was written specifically for the text.
Let all creation bless the Lord,
till heav’n with praise is ringing.
Sun, moon, and stars, peal out a chord,
stir up the angels’ singing.
Sing, wind, and rain! Sing, snow and sleet!
Make music, day, night, cold and heat:
exalt the God who made you.
All living things upon the earth,
green fertile hills and mountains,
sing to the God who gave you birth;
be joyful, springs and fountains.
Lithe waterlife, bright airborne birds,
wild roving beasts, tame flocks and herds:
exalt the God who made you.
O men and women everywhere,
lift up a hymn of glory;
let all who know God’s steadfast care
tell out salvation’s story.
No tongue be silent; sing your part,
you humble souls and meek of heart:
exalt the God who made you.
Carl P. Daw, Jr.
The Te Deum is one of the oldest hymns of praise. Dating from c. 387 the authorship was traditionally ascribed to Saint Ambrose (d. 397) but is now considered to be by an unknown author. Traditionally, the Te Deum was said at the end of Matins on all days that the Gloria was said at Mass.
Our setting for Canticle 21 is #366, verses 1-4, from The Hymnal 1982. The text is attributed to Ignace Franz and translated by Clarence A. Walworth. The music GROSSER GOTT is from Katholisches Gesangbuch, Vienna, c. 1774.
Holy God, we praise your name;
Lord of all, we bow before you;
all on earth your scepter claim,
all in heav’n above adore you.
Infinite your vast domain,
everlasting is your reign.
Hark, the loud celestial hymn
angel choirs above are raising;
cherubim and seraphim
in unceasing chorus praising,
fill the heav’ns with sweet accord:
“Holy, holy, holy Lord.”
Lo! the apostolic train
join your sacred name to hallow;
prophets swell the glad refrain,
and the white robed martyrs follow;
and from morn to set of sun,
through the church the song goes on.
Holy Father, Holy Son,
Holy Spirit, Three we name you;
while in essence only One,
undivided God we claim you,
and adoring bend the knee,
while we sing this mystery.
I encourage you to take time to read, explore, and meditate on the Canticles. Listen to different musical settings and be refreshed.
Blessings,
Kyle Osborne
Director of Music and Organist
Links for listening:
Te Deum in alternatim – The Te Deum sung by the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame-de-Paris led by Cantor Jehan Revert, in alternatim with Pierre Cochereau at the Grand Orgue of Notre-Dame. The choir sings the first half of the verse. The organ, representing the Heavenly Choir of Angels, plays the second half of the verse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohDqL6pjpjY
Te Deum for Solo, Chorus and Orchestra by Marc Antoine Charpentier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxZQ1ODN1iU
Coronation Te Deum by William Walton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_lfKdAHgGw
Jubilate Deo by Benjamin Britten
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_lfKdAHgGw
Te Deum by Anton Bruckner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgDBhcF8mus
Magnificat from Collegium Regale by Herbert Howells
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpB9mQHORlg
Nunc Dimittis in C by Charles Villiers Stanford
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e17kukPiXz8
Let all Creation bless the Lord – A song of creation by Alice Parker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6UxsYRwXQ
Glory to God in the Highest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBWbAmKr5OU
Earlier this month, the Church Preschool Board and the Vestry reviewed the documents Juanita Little had prepared for reopening the preschool. Juanita spent an inordinate amount of time going through CDC and other recommendations that applied to the safe opening of preschools. We so appreciate her time and effort spent in this; she was able to take a large volume of information and distill it into policies and procedures for reopening the preschool following CDC guidelines. After reviewing those documents, the Executive Board and the vestry approved reopening the preschool, provided that COVID 19 counts in the surrounding area served by the preschool do not dramatically go up. The current plan is to open the preschool on September 14.
The first question many of us might ask is, “Why the preschool and not the church building?” There are two key reasons for this. First, the diocese allows the Episcopal Schools and Preschools to go by the recommendations of the CDC, whereas the churches go by the decision of the bishop, based on input from his advisors. Second, the demographic for the preschool (predominantly young children and their teachers) is very different from the demographic for the church. Additionally, the preschool is designed to keep each class separate from the other classes – in teaching, and in exercise and bathroom breaks. This is not something we are able to do in the church.
Please know that we have teams working on preparing the church for a time when the buildings can be opened – we want to be ready to offer safe on-site worship as soon as we get clearance to do it. In the meantime, please join us if you can for online services: Monday and Friday Compline at 6 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday Morning Prayer at 8:00 a.m., Wednesday Healing Service at 10:00 a.m., and Sunday Worship at 10:00 a.m. All these services may be accessed using the link to Facebook on our website, or by going directly to the St. Matthews page on Facebook. And all the services are recorded, so you can watch them anytime!
One of the key lessons from both the Gospel and the Old Testament readings last Sunday was the idea of fostering Holy Trust. Elijah was looking to God to save him from what he thought was certain death at the hands of Jezebel. Elijah believed that all the other prophets of Israel had been slain and that there was no one left to acknowledge God as Supreme other than he. Peter challenged Jesus to prove him self and Jesus invited Peter to get out of the boat and walk to him on the water. And it worked, until Peter took his eyes off Jesus.
As a community of Christ, we find ourselves in a time of Holy Trust. We are five months in to this pandemic, and the trust we had five months ago that God was in control of what is happening in the world – well, that trust may not feel as strong today as it was in March. I don’t know about you, but I must be careful here, because my trust in God gets tangled up with what I think God should be doing. In other words, I may find myself trusting God if things move in a direction of which I approve. If things don’t seem to be moving at all, or they are moving in a direction which I don’t agree with, then my trust in God – well, safe to say it takes a beating. And sadly, that’s not really trusting God – rather, it’s asking God to trust ME – to bring about that which I think is right.
I know that we are not all in agreement about whether we should be able to come together in the sanctuary to worship. However, this is the bishop’s call, and I believe he is going by the counsel of health experts in making his decisions. Last week, the bishops of the Episcopal Church had a Zoom meeting with Dr. Anthony Fauci. From Bishop Rob’s report, Dr. Fauci commended the Episcopal Church for its wisdom in NOT returning at this time to in person worship.
So I am going to humbly ask you to hang in there, and hold tightly to Holy Trust – trust that we WILL get through this and that, in the interim, we will use the gifts of social media to stay connected. In Peace, Liz+
Celebration of Life Service for
