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This Week at St. Matthew's
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Thoughts about God
God will not look you over
for medals,
degrees,
or diplomas,
but for scars.
Elbert Hubbard, The Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams, 1923
The God whom science recognizes
must be a God of Universal laws exclusively,
a god who does a wholesale not a retail business.
He cannot accommodate his processes
to the convenience of individuals.
William James, Pragmatism, 1907
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Service Music for This Week
Opening Voluntary
on the Hymn Tune St. Albinus
Malcomb Archer
Processional Hymn 205
Good Christians, All Rejoice and Sing
Responsorial Psalm 150
Verses 1-6
Sequence Hymn 242
How Oft O Lord, Thy Face Hath Shone
tune Dunedin
Offertory Interlude
The Giving
Michael W, Smith
Communion Hymn
178 Alleluia, Give Thanks
Recessional Hymn 209
We Walk By Faith
Closing Organ Improvisation
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Vita brevis, Longa ars
(Life is Short, Art long - Hippocrates)
"O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for 'evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen"
It has been a moving and timely Lenten/Easter season at St. Matthews. Proudly, "through art and music" we believe in "perfecting the praises offered by your people on earth" and are not slaves to liturgical prowess or to the "minutae of historical Anglican legalism".
One cannot define "transcendence" and it always surprises me when it actually happens.
On Palm Sunday we were to perform the great Adagio by Tomaso Albinoni for the offertory interlude. We knew it was lengthy for this place in the service and intentionally cut one repeat. It just so happened that they chose to dedicate the new sound system and Yamaha Motif to the memory of Jerry Whitten that week just prior to the offertory.
We began the Adagio and something profound happened.
As the offering plates were presented and in our traditional fashion of standing...we reached the pivotal section of the piece where the full organ enters and the intensity of the music is simply astounding in it's intensity. As the entire congregation and choir stood silently during the final few moments in the music, it was as if there were a portal opening heavenward - we were all riveted in place.
I cannot remember a more significant moment in my entire musical career. If we had planned this it would have never happened with the same degree of authenticity and spontaneity. In fact, that particular Palm Sunday was our Easter Sunday...and we ended the day with the Faure Requiem. You just would have had to have been there. RDL
(obtw, you can listen to the recording by clicking on the link in the Sounds of St. Matthewsbelow)
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Adult Sunday School Class Continues New Discussion
Come join our weekly Adult Inquiry Sunday School class that meets each Sunday morning at 9:30 AM in the Parish Hall. The class is growing and is a very interactive discussion of topics that concern our lives as the people of God.
This week the class continues their new study from a book entitled "Same Kind Of Different As Me".
Please join us and help enrich the lively discussion and insights as we continue this new study.
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Thank You!
 Rick & I would like to offer a heart felt thank you to all who helped make last Sunday evening's concert with the Pampa Civic Chorus a beautiful night of worship and music. We would like to especially thank the St. Matthew's Vestry, Altar Guild, Mother Linda, Jan Ragsdale, Mark Lang, Sue & Hall Cree and Natalie Reeve. Without your help and continuous support Rick & I could never be able to do what we do.
The evening of passionate music was a true joy and a transcendent experience. We were able to get a great recording of the concert and have posted MP3 audio clips of each song on our website at www.RnRFusion.com and will soon be posted on St. Matt's new website due to be online next week! To listen to the evening's music and hymns click on the following link: Pampa Civic Chorus Performs the Faure Requiem.
Be looking to hear more from the Pampa Civic Chorus this Summer, Fall & Christmas Season.
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The Sounds of St. Matthew's
 You can listen to complete audio recordings of Palm Sunday night's service featuring the Pampa Civic Chorus performing the Faure Requiem. You can also listen to a few clips from week before last's AM service (3/28/2010) as well as clips from past services online by clicking one of the following links: |
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Rick & Russ' Blog 
at RnRFusion.com
Visit Our Homepage
by Russ
If you have not visited our home page at RnRFusion.com lately stop by and experience moments as they are captured each week in our live worship services. What you hear as you visit our site through the media player at the top of each page at RnRFusion.com are the original arrangements and compositions that Rick & I are creating each week in service to our little church in the Texas panhandle, St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Pampa, TX. Although we have our fingers in so many pies we make our service music for St. Matthew's our top priority each week. We are having a blast while breaking through the barriers of church music with our special "fusion" of great literature, original compositions and improvisations in the use of the historic Mohler Pipe Organ and the Yamaha Motif Synthesizer.
We are very grateful to the people of St. Matthew's for allowing us to express our hearts of worship through our spiritual and musical gifts.
Rick & I have experienced leading worship and making music in the largest evangelical churches in the state of Texas, but they do not compare to the beauty, tranquility and aesthetic spiritual depth that we have the freedom to experience at St. Matthew's through our weekly musical offerings in service to God and the dear people of St. Matt's.
We hope that you are blessed by what you hear. To hear the corporate musical expressions from the congregation of St. Matthew's.....(click here to read more of what you can find at RnR Fusion)
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We would love to invite you to participate in a weekly discussion with Rick & Russ through their blog at www.RnRFusion.com.
We hope to engage our fellow worshipers in thoughtful discussion on many topics concerning worship, religious and humanitarian issues. Just click on the above web address link or logo and join in the discussion. You can contribute comments by filling out the form on the blog page at the bottom of the post. Let us know what your thoughts are on the subjects discussed about in our blog. Our discussions will be fun as well as provocative.
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Sounds of
St. Matthew's You can listen to clips from last Sunday's service by clicking on this link:
WORSHIP MUSIC CLIPS
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St. Matthew's Worship Ministries
Rev. Linda Kelly, Rector - Rick Land & Russ Tapp, Musicians
St. Matthew's Episcopal Church 727 W. Browning, Pampa, TX 79065
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