April 16, 2022 The Easter Triduum: The Great Vigil of Easter

The Easter Triduum (TRIH-djoo-um), the Great Three Days, begins on Maundy Thursday.  Lent has ended.  We begin the celebration of the Passover of the Lord from death to life.  During these Three Days Christians still reckon time according to the customs of the Jewish people.  On Maundy Thursday, a number of ancient rites are observed during the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  On Good Friday, we celebrate the second of the great liturgies of the Easter Triduum, the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord.  The Great Vigil of Easter, celebrated on Saturday night, is the final part of a service which began on Maundy Thursday.  It begins in an Upper Room.  It ends at a tomb wherein Christ rises from the dead.  In the dark we await the light that proclaims the resurrection.  Then we share that light.  The ceremonies of this night are about death and life, about an old Adam and a new Adam, about an apple, about bees, and about the smell of blood, both at death and at birth.  The central Christian belief is that Jesus was crucified and he rose from the dead.  In the liturgical tradition of the Church this is not a past or an abstract reality.  The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is remembered and made present in our worship and in our common life.  “Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, the Beginning and End, Alpha and Omega.  His are all times and ages.  To him be glory and dominion through all eternity.”  The service is from the red Book of Common Prayer 1979.  All hymns are taken from the blue Hymnal 1982.  All hymns are reprinted with permission under OneLicense.net A713125.

Our Celebrant and Preacher is the Reverend Matthew Hoxsie Mead, 


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Sunday Offerings & Financial Donations to Christ Church

Christ Church is supported by the generosity of members and friends who donate time, talent, and money to the church to ensure that it is open, staffed, safe, and active. God has given each of us many gifts and we are called to use them to build up the church and to show the spread the love of God to our community. Click on the Donate Button for a variety of ways to support Christ Church, including one-time donations, annual pledges, and raising funds through FaceBook or Amazon.


The Liturgy of the Word

Genesis 1:1-2:4a [The Story of Creation]
Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18, 8:6-18, 9:8-13 [The Flood]
Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 [Israel’s deliverance at the Red Sea]
Ezekiel 37:1-14 [The valley of dry bones]

 

Today’s Propers (Collect & Lections from Holy Scripture)

The Collect
O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the glory of the Lord’s resurrection: Stir up in your Church that Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

At The Eucharist

Romans 6:3-11
Psalm 114
Luke 24:1-12


Parish Prayer List

Please note that names are listed alphabetically by last name of the person being prayed for (if it is known).  We do not list last names for privacy reasons. For pastoral emergencies call or text one of the clergy: While Father Matt is in the Holy Land, please call Deacon Chisara Alimole (914.338.5194), or call the parish office (914.738.5515).  If you have any updates (birthdays, prayers additions, etc., please let us know.) Please submit names you wish to be included by Tuesday morning, to Marie at: marie@christchurchpelham.org.

Our prayers are asked especially for: Marion, Mark, Marcia, Elizabeth, Zachary, Anne, Rosemarie, Ginny, Ralph, Douglas, Ethan, Barbara, Russell, Fran, Mary, Ralph, Ursla, Marcia, Scot, Sammy, Ted, James, Monica (in hospital), Rebecca, Janet, Jackie, Amina, Celine, Brayden, Alexia Grace, Alison, Nicole, Emma, Pelin, Hildy, Martin, Nate, Yen, Erica, Rosalina, Walter, Susan, Ariana, Danielle, The Salvatore family, Dean, Sue, Xandra, Sigi, Joyce, Julie, Scott, Robert, Sherry, Michelle, Rob, Drue, David, Rob, Chuck,  Bill, Sue, Lael, M&D, Sandy, Morris, and Katie.

We give thanks for those celebrating birthdays this week and in the coming week Ed Cragin (April 11), David Dierking (April 13), Chris Ganpat (April 14), Mia Genovese (April 15), Kristine Valerio (April 16), Kari Black (April 17), Gus Ipsen (April 17), Kristin van OgTrop (April 17), Vanessa Dierking (April 18), and Tom Bricker (April 21).

We pray for those in our Armed Services especially: Joseph, Kevin, Jack, Leopold, Philip, Jake, Matthew, Robert, Philip-Jason, Nicholas, Sam, Helen, Mitchel, Alec, Jonah, Tia, Tyrese, and Terrence.

We pray that all elected and appointed officials may be led to wise decisions and right actions for the welfare and peace of the world, especially Joseph our President, and Kathy our Governor.

We pray for those who have died, (especially ______).  And we pray for those who have died from COVID-19.

Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord

And let light perpetual shine upon them.

May their souls and the souls of the departed, through the mercy of God,

rest in peace.  Amen


About The Music

Tómas Luís de Victoria, he is considered one of the great Spanish composers of the Renaissance. Not much is known about his early life. He appears to have been educated in the classics and music (likely as a cathedral chorister). He spent three years as maestro de capilla (choirmaster) of the cathedrala in Ávila and Plasencia before joining the papal choir in Rome in 1535. He remained a singer of the papal choir for ten years, publishing numerous works and becoming widely known around the continent. After returning to Spain, he had hoped to be appointed maestro de capilla in Toledo, but died before realizing this ambition. Morales’s motet Vidi aquam (I saw water flowing) is treated as a responsory, incorporating a cantor intoning the first phrase of the ancient Gregorian melody associated with this Easter baptismal text as an incipit with the full choir responding in canon.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594) was the definitive composer of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation in the 16th century. Born in Palestrina, near Rome, he was trained as a boy chorister in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Influenced by the Netherlandish composers Guillaume Dufay and Josquin des Prez whose mastery of the polyphonic style and papal service had defined the height of Renaissance motet and mass composition, Palestrina responded to the demands of the Counter-Reformation to eschew elaborate, melismatic polyphony, for a clearer and less florid style of writing where the sacred text retained the central focus. Sicut cervus (Like the deer) is one of his best-known and best-loved motets.

Following an ancient liturgical custom, The Easter Anthems, known in Latin as Pascha nostrum (Christ, our Passover), are prescribed as the Gregorian responsory for Communion on Easter Day n the Liber usualis, and have been incorporated into Anglican liturgy for Eastertide since the first Book of Common Prayer (1549). With a text taken from the fifth and fifteenth chapters of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and the sixth chapter of his letter to the Romans, this canticle, which can also replace the Venite at Morning Prayer throughout Eastertide, reminds the Church of the purpose and effect of Christ’s full and final sacrifice both to honor and also to transform the ancient Jewish Passover feast into the joyous celebration of His glorious Resurrection.

Described by the Manchester Evening News as “the premier English organist of his generation,” John Scott (1956-2015) was an English organist and choirmaster. Born in Yorkshire, he trained as a boy chorister at Wakefield Cathedral, was Organ Scholar at St. John’s College, Cambridge and held two noteworthy posts as choirmaster in a distinguished cathedral career first at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and then at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue in New York City. John died suddenly and untimely in August of 2015. His setting of the Pascha Nostrum (Easter anthems) is an Anglican chant with rich contemporary harmonies.

Fulbert of Chartres (c. 952-c. 1028) was bishop of Chartres in the early 11th century. Some biographers believe he was born in Rome; more recent scholarship suggests his birthplace was the village of Laudun in the South of France. Whatever the place of his birth, the circumstances of his birth were undoubtedly humble. He was educated at the Cathedral School of Rheims, which had a reputation as one of the great learning centers in the late Middle Ages in France and where he studied under Gerbert d’Aurillac, later Pope Sylvester II, one of Rheims’s most noteworthy scholars. Fulbert excelled academically and went on to found a similar school in 990 in Chartres. He was elevated to the office of Archbishop in 1007 primarily at the request of King Robert, who had been his fellow student at Rheims. As a scholar and bishop, Fulbert’s writings include numerous epistles which detail the liturgy and church discipline of the 11th century, two important homilies, and twenty-seven hymns, of which “Chorus novæ Jerusalem” (“Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem”) remains the most widely known in English translation first published by an Edinburgh attorney named Robert Campbell in his 1850 hymnal Hymns and Anthems and altered for inclusion in Hymns Ancient and Modern.

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) was born in Dublin, educated at Cambridge University and the Liepzig Conservatory, and went on to become one of the most influential English composers and musicians of his generation. A founding professor of the Royal College of Music, his notable students there include Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, Frank Bridge, and Arthur Bliss. Stanford’s 1910 setting of “Ye choirs of new Jerusalem” is a staple of the Anglican choral repertoire for Eastertide.

The American horn virtuoso and composer Kerry Turner (b. 1960) is a native of San Antonio, Texas who was educated at Baylor University and Manhattan School of Music, and who won a Fullbright Scholarship to study with Hermann Baumann at the Stuttgart College of Performing Arts in Germany. Though he focused in his young adulthood on performing on the French Horn, Turner won the San Antonio Music Society’s Composition Competition at the age of 11 and Baylor awarded him a composition scholarship at 17. After joining the American Horn Quartet, his interest in composition was rekindled in an effort to expand and enlarge the repertoire for horn quartet, which has gained him an international reputation as a composer, particularly as a composer for French Horn. In 1987, Turner composed ’Twas a dark and stormy night for horn duet with orchestra or organ. Inspired by a collection of short, all of them beginning with the same line “’Twas a dark and stormy night,” but each of them entirely different. Of this piece, Turner says “I hoped to fill a major gap, that is, a challenging recital piece for horn[s] and organ that shows off the best loved characteristics of each instrument, and one that is completely different from anything else that might appear on the program.”


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April 17, 2022 Easter Day – The Sunday of the Resurrection

Today is Easter Day, the Sunday of the Resurrection.  The central Christian belief is that Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.  In our worship this is not a past or an abstract reality.  The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is remembered and made present in our worship and in our common life.  “Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, the Beginning and End, Alpha and Omega.  His are all times and ages.  To him be glory and dominion through all eternity.”  “Easter” is the English language name for the Sunday of the Resurrection.  In most languages, the given name is some form of the word “Passover.”  Easter celebrates the “Passover” of Jesus from death to life.  The date of Easter, though a matter of controversy at different points in history, has always been connected with the conjunction of the lunar and solar calendars.  For Western Christians, Easter Day is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox.  Easter Day cannot be earlier than March 22 or later than April 25.  The service is from the red Book of Common Prayer 1979.  All hymns are taken from the blue Hymnal 1982.  All hymns are reprinted with permission under OneLicense.net A713125.

 

Our Celebrant and Preacher this Sunday is the Reverend Matthew Hoxsie Mead.


Today’s In Person Worship


Today’s Live-Stream Worship & Sermon Archives


Sunday Offerings & Financial Donations to Christ Church

Christ Church is supported by the generosity of members and friends who donate time, talent, and money to the church to ensure that it is open, staffed, safe, and active. God has given each of us many gifts and we are called to use them to build up the church and to show the spread the love of God to our community. Click on the Donate Button for a variety of ways to support Christ Church, including one-time donations, annual pledges, and raising funds through FaceBook or Amazon.


Today’s Propers (Collect & Lections from Holy Scripture)

The Collect
Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Old Testament
Acts 10:34-43
Peter began to speak to Cornelius and the other Gentiles: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ–he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

The Psalm
Gradual Motet in Place of the Psalm

The Epistle
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you–unless you have come to believe in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them–though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

The Gospel
John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.


Parish Prayer List

Please note that names are listed alphabetically by last name of the person being prayed for (if it is known).  We do not list last names for privacy reasons. For pastoral emergencies call or text one of the clergy: While Father Matt is in the Holy Land, please call Deacon Chisara Alimole (914.338.5194), or call the parish office (914.738.5515).  If you have any updates (birthdays, prayers additions, etc., please let us know.) Please submit names you wish to be included by Tuesday morning, to Marie at: marie@christchurchpelham.org.

Our prayers are asked especially for: Marion, Mark, Marcia, Elizabeth, Zachary, Anne, Rosemarie, Ginny, Ralph, Douglas, Ethan, Barbara, Russell, Fran, Mary, Ralph, Ursla, Marcia, Scot, Sammy, Ted, James, Monica (in hospital), Rebecca, Janet, Jackie, Amina, Celine, Brayden, Alexia Grace, Alison, Nicole, Emma, Pelin, Hildy, Martin, Nate, Yen, Erica, Rosalina, Walter, Susan, Ariana, Danielle, The Salvatore family, Dean, Sue, Xandra, Sigi, Joyce, Julie, Scott, Robert, Sherry, Michelle, Rob, Drue, David, Rob, Chuck,  Bill, Sue, Lael, M&D, Sandy, Morris, and Katie.

We give thanks for those celebrating birthdays this week and in the coming week Ed Cragin (April 11), David Dierking (April 13), Chris Ganpat (April 14), Mia Genovese (April 15), Kristine Valerio (April 16), Kari Black (April 17), Gus Ipsen (April 17), Kristin van OgTrop (April 17), Vanessa Dierking (April 18), and Tom Bricker (April 21).

We pray for those in our Armed Services especially: Joseph, Kevin, Jack, Leopold, Philip, Jake, Matthew, Robert, Philip-Jason, Nicholas, Sam, Helen, Mitchel, Alec, Jonah, Tia, Tyrese, and Terrence.

We pray that all elected and appointed officials may be led to wise decisions and right actions for the welfare and peace of the world, especially Joseph our President, and Kathy our Governor.

We pray for those who have died, (especially ______).  And we pray for those who have died from COVID-19.

Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord

And let light perpetual shine upon them.

May their souls and the souls of the departed, through the mercy of God,

rest in peace.  Amen


Today’s Music

Opening hymn: 693, Just as I am without one plea, Woodward

Trisagion: S-101, John Rutter (b. 1945)

Psalm 126; In convertendo; Gregorian chant, Mode 8

Sequence hymn: 474, When I survey the wondrous cross, Rockingham

Motet at the Offertory: Videns Dominus flentes sorores Lazari Adrian Willært (c. 1490-1562)

Videns Dominus flentes sorores Lazari ad monumentum, lacrimatus est coram Judaeis, et clamabat:
Lazare, veni foras:
Et prodiit ligatis manibus et pedibus, qui fuerat quatriduanus mortuus.
– paraphrased from John 11

The Lord, seeing the sisters of Lazarus weeping at the tomb, wept openly before the Jews and cried out:
“Lazarus, come forth!”
And he who had been dead for four days came out, bound hand and foot.

Offertory Hymn: 482, Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy, Slane

Sanctus et Benedictus: S-131 Gerald Near (b. 1942)

Agnus Dei: S-166 Gerald Near

Anthem during Communion: Sweet rivers of redeeming love, Robert J. Powell (b. 1932)

Sweet rivers of redeeming love
Lie just before mine eye,
Had I the pinions of a dove,
I’d to those rivers fly–
I’d rise superior to my pain,
With joy outstrip the wind;
I’d cross o’er Jordan’s stormy main,
And leave the world behind.

A few more days or years, at most,
My troubles will be o’er;
I hope to join the heavenly host
On Canaan’s happy shore.
My raptured soul shall drink and feast
In love’s unbounded sea;
The glorious hope of endless rest
Is ravishing for me.
– John A. Granade (c. 1763-1807), altered

Hymn: 495, Hail, thou oncedespised Jesus! In Babilone

This morning’s quartet is Jeanmarie Lally, Jann Degnan, José Ruíz, and Simon Cram
Choir members: Curtis Chase, Linda Gerra, Cherrie Greenhalgh, and John Hastings
Jeffrey Hoffman, organist & director of music

Live-stream licensed under OneLicense.net A-713125.


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