Tag Archives: hymns

“What is your hand in this?”

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Commemorative concerts for America’s 250th anniversary will be dotting the musical landscape in 2026. An inventive program that may prove to be one of the most challenging for audiences has been launched by Davóne Tines and Ruckus, “a shapeshifting, collaborative, baroque ensemble with a visceral and playful approach to early music.” Sanders Theater hosted them on January 31, 2026, as part of their ten-cities tour.

Created by bass-baritone Davóne Tines, bassist Douglas Adam August Balliett, and Clay Zeller-Townson, founder of Ruckus, the program called “What is your hand in this?” recasts “Colonial and Revolutionary-era hymns, ballads, and Baroque compositions, on a musical journey that weaves through the pre-Civil War period, the Civil Rights era, and into the present day.” (Everyone 250 Continue reading →

Letting Our Hearts Speak

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Advent 4C.  19 December 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Micah 5:2-5a He shall be the one of peace.
Hebrews 10:5-10. I have come to do your will, O God.
Luke 1:39-56 From generation to generation.

O God of “she who believed”, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Our Gospel reading this morning depicts an amazing scene, rare in its proclamation in the church but much celebrated in art and music. It’s an extended dialogue between two loving women in the Biblical narrative (only Ruth and Naomi have similar prominence). Here is a story of two pregnant prophets, one a crone and one a maiden, whose lives have been turned upside-down, and who sensed that the children they carried were prophets also and would someday and forever turn other lives right-side up. Here are two pregnant prophets pronouncing blessing and singing a version of an old song, Hannah’s song from 1 Samuel, about the glorious impossibility of how God works and what God has done. Continue reading →

The Temple in a Church

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Celebrating 13 Years of Love & Friendship

Sunday, October 15, 2017; Rabbi Howard A. Berman

 

This morning, in my first sermon of both this new church program season, as well as our Jewish New Year,  5778,  I want to share some reflections on a very special shared milestone for all of us — of both Central Reform Temple and Emmanuel Church. The New Year, that we have just celebrated, is indeed a momentous one for all of us of the Temple, as we mark the 13th Anniversary of the Founding of our Congregation!   Just three weeks ago,  our celebration of Rosh Hashanah inaugurated what we are calling our Kehilat Mitzvah Year– an egalitarian Hebrew variant on the Bar and Bat Mitzvah 13th birthday tradition, which means “ A Community of the Commandments.” In this very symbolic way, we seek to frame and reaffirm many of our Temple’s core values as we celebrate this milestone. Continue reading →

What Difference It Makes

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Trinity Sunday, Year B, May 31, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 6:1-8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!
Romans 8:12-17 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
John 3:1-17 How can anyone be born after having grown old?

O God incarnate, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Last week I told you that the Feast of Pentecost is my favorite church holiday. It’s always followed by Trinity Sunday – not my favorite. It’s the only Sunday in the church year entirely devoted to a doctrine – that’s the good news I guess (that there’s only one). Even though it is the most beautiful of doctrines, I doubt if it’s possible (for me) to preach on Trinity Sunday without accidentally tripping over some orthodoxy and falling headlong into heresy. One option, I guess, is to just choose the alternative lessons for the first Sunday after Pentecost, or focus on the Feast of the Visitation, which falls on May 31 (and is the twelfth anniversary of when the Church named me a priest). The thing is, though, I love the Trinity hymns. I love St. Patrick’s Breastplate – the name of our processional hymn this morning. It’s frequently playing in my head. I love the hymn we will sing at the offertory – Holy Holy Holy – called Nicaea. In the hymnal of my childhood, it was number one in the book and in my heart. I still remember the time about thirty years ago when I first heard someone read Isaiah 6:1-8 in Hebrew, demonstrating the power of the poetry and the mystery – Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh. Continue reading →

1932

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    • Feb. 12. The Rev. Dr. Phillips Endecott Osgood was installed as our fifth rector. For information about him and his tenure, please see the chapter on him in Emmanuel Church, 1860-1960: The First Hundred Years.
  • Nov. 23.  Our former organist Lynnwood Farnam, who had become head of the Organ Department at the Curtis Institute of Music before his death in late 1930, bequeathed his papers to their library.   Theodore Presser published in Philadelphia Farnum’s Toccata on “O Filii et Filiae“.   Often played at Easter, the magnificent piece is employed to test organs. 
  • Charles Scribner’s Sons published The Rev. Elwood Worcester‘s autobiography Life’s Adventure: The Story of a Varied Career (OCLC# 1896075). For a description of his ministry based on it, please see our page and Wikipedia’s on the Emmanuel Movement