05 May 2016
14:06 | 
Posted by
LesleyB |
This morning we met for our Family Eucharist on a sunny but cool morning. The Children of the Sunday School told us about the lives of St Philip and St James who's feast's occur this week. More is known about St James who appears in the Gospels as a fisherman, brother to St John, one of the 'Sons of Thunder' , St Philip was from the town of Bethesda, the same place that the brothers Peter and Andrew came from. He introduced Nathaniel, sometimes called Bartholomew, to Jesus. This morning’s music reflected that we are still in Eastertide,, with seasonal hymns A brighter dawn is breaking, sung to an old German tune, and Sidney Carter’s Lord of the dance, for which he used the American folk tune ‘Simple Gifts’. At Communion the choir sang Charles Wood’s arrangement of This joyful Eastertide.
The tune for our final hymn – Charles Wesley’s Glory, love and praise and honour – was written by Francis Westbrook, who was a Wesleyan Methodist minister who also taught music at secondary level: his work ‘Using Music in the Classroom’ is highly regarded and is a standard text (in translation of course) for teacher training in Russia.
The organ postlude was Buxtehude’s Praeludium & Fuga in G No 7.
There was coffee after the service.
This Thursday is Ascension Day, an there will be a Eucharist at 7:30pm. Do come and complete the journey started in Lent with this celebration of Our Lord's return to his Father in heaven.
