Services & Preacher

  • Said Eucharist with Hymns (Rite II) is celebrated at 10am. 
  • Our Celebrant and Preacher today is the Rev. Matthew Hoxsie Mead, Rector. 
  • Donate to Christ Church HERE.

About Today's Service

The Holy Eucharist, the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord's Day and other major Feasts, and Daily Morning and Evening Prayer, as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, are the regular services appointed for public worship in the Episcopal Church. At Christ Church we celebrate the Holy Eucharist every Sunday at 8am and 10am, occasionally Sundays at 5pm, and also on Holy Days and other occasions. The 10am celebration of the Holy Eucharist includes organ music, congregational hymnody, and during the academic year psalms, anthems, and motets sung by our choir. 

It was not uncommon for Christians who came to the Americas to celebrate one or more days of thanksgiving to God throughout the year.  This practice continued in many and various ways until states began to establish official government days of thanksgiving.  In 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln made proclamation that there be a National Day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November.  In 1939, during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to move the national celebration back one week to the second-to-last Thursday in November.  However, his proclamation was not mandatory and the result was that twenty three states celebrated Thanksgiving on the penultimate Thursday of the month, twenty-two states celebrated Thanksgiving on the final Thursday of November, and other states, following Texas’ lead, celebrated both “Franksgiving,” as it became known, and Thanksgiving as government holidays.  In 1941 Congress settled the matter by designating the Thursday in the fourth week of November as Thanksgiving Day.  The Episcopal Church has officially celebrated a Day of Thanksgiving in November since at least the 1892 Prayer Book.  The 1892 and 1928 Prayer Books state that “in November, the first Thursday (or, if any other day be appointed by the Civil Authority, then such day) shall be observed as a Day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God, for the Fruits of the Earth, and all other Blessings of his merciful Providence.”  The current Prayer Book offers propers for Thanksgiving but designates no specific day or month for the feast to be celebrated. 

Music & Lectionary Notes for the 10am Eucharist

  1. Prelude: Improvisation by Justin Bischof
  2. Procession Hymn: 290, Come, ye thankful people come, St. George's Windsor
  3. Song of Praise: 379, Now thank we all our God, Nun danket alle Gott
  4. Old Testament: Joel 2:21-27
  5. Psalm 126
  6. New Testament: 1 Timothy 2:1-7
  7. Sequence Hymn: 291, We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land, Wir Pflugen
  8. Gospel: Matthew 6:25-33
  9. Offertory Voluntary: Improvisation by Justin Bischof
  10. Offertory Doxology: Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Old 100th
  11. Sanctus & Benedictus: S114 from Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena, Healey Willan (1880-1968)
  12. Agnus Dei: S158 from Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena, Healey Willan (1880-1968)
  13. Communion Voluntary: Improvisation by Justin Bischof
  14. Post-Communion Hymn: 288, Praise to God immortal praise, Dix
  15. Processional Postlude:  Choral Improvisationen Op. 65     Sigfrid Karg-Elert 1877-1933
         #59 Nun danket alle Gott (Now Thank We All Our God) 
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