Preparing for Worship

May 27, 2012  - The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday 

Collect  

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.       

Readings     

Ezekiel 37:1-14 / Psalm 104:25-35, 37 / Acts 2:1-21 / John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15           

Click HERE for the May service assignment listing.  

Music     
Hymns  

Organ  

Opening Voluntary:Danza del Espiritu Santo (Dance of the Holy Spirit) ~ Robert Greene

Each day at noon, the persons on this list are lifted up in prayer. On Sundays during the Prayers of the People, the Intercessor pauses while we pray aloud for each name on the prayer list, which is published in the bulletin. You are also invited to add these names to your personal prayer list.  

For Healing: Karen, Fred, Courtney Duncan, Loretta, Mary Haggin Scholtz, Kirsten Allen, Buddy Vaughan, Sherry, Darrell, Mary, Patrice.

Ongoing Prayer Requests: Bill Matthews, Ginny Green, Cheryll Armstrong, Howard Palmer, Rick Elliott, Litsa Prather, Sherri McVay, Chris Brannock-Wanter, Art Hellebusch, Janie Catron, Ann Maggard, Susan, Jane Armistead, Carolyn, Hazel Sullivan, Cecilia Roberts, Katie Bolin, Pat G., Madeline, Jake.

For the Departed: Dura Jean Crawford; Military members who died in Afghanistan: Michael Knapp, Jabraun Knox, Samuel Watts, Jesse Ozbat, Tobias Alexander, Arronn Fields.

The office will be closed on Monday, May 28 in observance of Memorial Day.

We publish the Banns of Marriage between Stephanie Amber Jean Case and Townsend Allan Miller. If any of you know just cause why they should not be joined together in Holy Matrimony, you are bidden to declare it. This is the third and final time of asking.

We publish the Banns of Marriage between Inga Marie Ryles and Robert Edward Hardman. If any of you know just cause why they should not be joined together in Holy Matrimony, you are bidden to declare it. This is the second time of asking. 

...that Leslie McCoskey and Gwenn Reho, our Wednesday office volunteers, completely refurbished the bulletin boards in the undercroft. They look great!

...that Good Shepherd Day School had 62 four- and five-year-olds "graduate" on Wednesday.

...that Bishop Chilton R. Knudsen was with us last Sunday! We welcomed her with a full house for the Bishop's Forum during Christian Formation and at the 11:15 service where 11 persons were baptized, confirmed and received.

Sunday's Music

The Feast of Pentecost is one of the rare times of the year where two seasons overlap, the season of Easter and the season of Pentecost (called Ordinary Time in some other Christian denominations) "Pentecost" means "fiftieth day," as it is the fiftieth day of Easter.  After Christ's Ascension he sent the Holy Spirit "to guide, to strengthen, and to cheer." (Hymn 449)  It is also called "Whitsunday" as it is a traditional day for baptisms, when those to be baptized wear white garments. In most European countries Pentecost Monday (the day after Pentecost) is a national holiday. 

Music for Pentecost is marked by joy, but with a solemn invitation to the Holy Spirit to enter our lives. The exuberance of "Hail thee, Festival Day" (Hymn 225) is balanced by the sweet melancholy of "Like the murmur of the dove's song" (Hymn 513). 

The Opening Voluntary is Robert Greene's Danza del Espiritu Santo (Dance of the Holy Spirit). Last year this piece won First Prize in the Region V Composition Competition of the American Guild of Organists, and John Linker performed it on the winner's recital in June 2011. Set in the lively meter of 12/8, this work features a penetrating rhythm and a gradual crescendo to a bombastic closing. After its composition, Greene decided it had a certain Latin American feel to it, hence the Spanish title. Greene borrowed some compositional ideas from several other pieces including Louis Vierne's Carillon de Westminster, and Maurice Ravel's Bolero. Bob Greene lives in Bristol, Virginia and has served churches of several denominations in Virginia, New York, and Florida.

This is balanced with the Closing Voluntary, Carillon-Sortie by Henri Mulet. Intended to imitate the ringing of church bells, an ostinato figure permeates the work accompanying the first theme while the second theme uses a descending fourth pattern, again emulating the sound of cascading bells.  Mulet served Parisian churches St. Roch (for 10 years, where he wrote Carillon-Sortie) and St.-Philippe-du-Roule (just up the street from where former Good Shepherd Assistant Organist Zach Ullery now lives), and was a student of Guilmant and Widor. In 1937 he burned all of his manuscripts and moved to Draguignan in the southeast of France where he spent the last 30 years of his life in seclusion.   

The Anthem Come down, O Love divine by William H. Harris takes on the air of sweet simplicity. Set in alternating meters of 3/4 and 4/4, the contour of the melody tends to hover around the fifth scale degree. The text is one of 92 hymns written by Bianco da Siena in the fourteenth century and translated into English by R.F. Littledale. Harris (known as "Doc H. by his choristers) was Assistant Organist at Lichfield Cathedral, then Organist of New College and Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, and later St. George's Chapel, Windsor.