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This is an episode of Songs in the Desert, a collaborative audio project designed to explore the words and music of Christian hymnody and our responses to them.

Listen:

Ep 8 - Hymn 469: "There's a wideness in God's mercy" (mp3)

Subscribe to the Songs in the Desert podcast.

Today's episode comes from Michelle Walker of St. Paul's, Richmond, Va.

Many thanks to Michelle who submitted a written reflection to the project, proving that you don't have to record yourself talking if you really don't want to!

The remaining spots in the project are being filled, so if you're still considering adding your own reflection to the project, don't delay! Visit sinden.org/hymns for details.

Like Episode 4, this episode also features that standout from the Hymnal 1982, Calvin Hampton's hymn tune ST HELENA sung to the words "There's a wideness in God's mercy".

Music used is "Going Home" and "Reflections," both by Lee Rosevere, distributed under a Creative Commons license.

Songs in the Desert began during the season of Lent 2017. You can read more about the project and learn how to submit your own reflection about any hymn you want at the Songs in the Desert homepage. Submissions are still being accepted!

Hymn numbers refer to the Episcopal Hymnal 1982.

Thank you for listening.

Labels: Calvin Hampton, Hymn 469, Songs in the Desert, St Paul's (Richmond)

"Have you done this service before?" someone asked me at coffee hour on Sunday. We were talking about our upcoming Service of Lessons and Carols for Advent on Sunday, December 11, 2016 at 5:30 p.m..

Of course I had, hadn't I?

But really the answer is no, I haven't. Not exactly.

So I explained that while I had done similar services, I have never actually done the specific liturgy that we will use this Advent.

But I couldn't give her the longer answer. So, here it is.

I'm sort of obsessed with Carol Services (can you tell?). Why? Well, if it came right down to it I'd have to say that the innovation of Lessons and Carols is the apotheosis of the "low church" tradition.

“Lessons and Carols is the apotheosis of the ‘low church’ tradition”

Let's define the terms. Here "Lesson" means a short reading of scripture, though "Short" is relative. A "Carol" can be many things, but historically these are strophic songs (often with a refrain) of a popular or "dance" character on subjects related to Christmas (or Easter, or some other sesason). We will consider the development of carols in relation to these services in part 2.

There's something about the juxtaposition of the familiar and the new that speaks to our spiritual selves. This is especially true if the tradition truly takes hold and you get to hear the same lessons year after year the music offers new commentary, new insight alongside the biblical text. The carols and hymns themselves serve a homiletical function and reinforce each other. Without Sermon or Eucharist, the congregation is allowed to hear in word and music the message of the season and respond with vigorous hymn singing.

I suppose my very first memory of a Carol Service for Advent would have been an order from the Episcopal Church's official Book of Occasional Services (BOS).

There are plenty of lessons to choose from. But if you follow that order literally you have to include the lesson from Gen. 3 about Adam and Eve. And isn't that same lesson typically used at a Christmas Lessons and Carols service? Kind of an odd choice, but okay.

And the Bidding Prayer in that book is ... well ... it's really lousy. It's just the Christmas Bidding Prayer slightly warmed over. It really misses the mark and doesn't speak to Advent at all.

Don't get me wrong, I think I was involved in some lovely services that used the BOS scheme, but I wanted to look elsewhere.

Anyone who has spent any time planning carols for Christmas has stumbled upon the Advent Lessons and Carols information in the back of Carols for Choirs 2 (CfC2) from Oxford University Press.

I've always assumed that the order in CfC2 to be somehow connected to the service in use at King's College, Cambridge. After all, one of the editors of CfC2 was David Willcocks. But information about any of the "Procession for Advent" services, past or present, in that place have not been forthcoming online. (Add to the list of things to research when I take a sabbatical to Cambridge in 2022).

The Bidding Prayer of the CfC2 Advent Carol Service, at least, is substantially better than the one found in BOS. It actually speaks to Advent itself, and is not just a warmed-over Christmas prayer.

Beloved in Christ, as we await the great festival of Christmas let us prepare ourselves so that we may be shown its true meaning. Let us hear, in lessons from Holy Scripture, how the prophets of Israel foretold that God would visit and redeem his waiting people. Let us rejoice, in our carols and hymns, that the good purpose of God is being mightily fulfilled. Let us celebrate the promise that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will bring all people and all things into the glory of God's eternal kingdom. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them.

But first, let us pray for the world which God so loves, for those who have not heard the good news of God, or who do not believe it; for those who walk in darkness and the shadow of death; and for the Church in this place and everywhere, that it may be freed from all evil and fear, and may in pure joy lift up the light and love of God. These prayers and praises let us humbly offer to God, in the words which Christ himself taught us:

Our Father...

And at this point I thought that I had found a Bidding Prayer and lessons that worked well for the season of Advent.

And then, stupidly, I got in the car at the end of Thanksgiving weekend (the trip from Richmond took about four hours) and attended the Procession with Advent Lessons and Carols at St. Paul's, K Street in Washington, D.C.

This service was transformative. It was exquisite. And it didn't come from BOS or CfC2. It spoke authentically to the season and left nothing out. Furthermore, it incorporated the idea of a Procession (note that the service at King's to this day is called a "Procession for Advent").

Video: The national Episcopal Church very wisely decided to record a video of this service last year which provides a very good documentation of that service, but, like any recording of liturgy, it is truly no substitute for being present and taking part. If you ever have the opportunity to attend, I strongly encourage you to do so!

So I had to go back to the drawing board. I went through every single resource I could find and lay everything out on the table at once. Every possible lesson was examined and considered. Different structures were weighed.

Ultimately I thought that the notion of a Procession was too compelling to discard. If the Lessons and Carols is a "low church" idea (reading, music, repeat) adding the teleology of a liturgical Procession into the proceedings seemed to incorporate some "high church" gravitas without otherwise compromising what is compelling about Lessons and Carols.

It was about this same time that I attended the American Sarum conference in Bronxville, N.Y. which helped clarify my thinking about liturgical processions. Naturally, Salisbury Cathedral figured prominently into the conversation, and that place has their own wonderful Advent Carol Service.

For the new "Advent Procession" service at St. Paul's, Richmond the following year, I wrote the following:

For hundreds of years liturgical processions have marked boundaries – the physical boundaries of the parish, the church – and in so doing invoke the very boundaries between heaven and earth. Such a procession is particularly resonant in the Advent season when we look expectantly toward the celebration of God’s crossing of this very boundary through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

For the pattern of the service I tried to read the Greek Revival architecture of St. Paul's, Richmond and determine what route in the building would best tell the Advent story. The service at the English Gothic St. Paul's, K Street with it's divided choir stalls simply wouldn't work in the spacious, 800-seat church in Richmond, with it's Gallery Organ.

Here was the order of service at St. Paul's, Richmond in 2011:

1. Matin Responsory - Palestrina (sung from the Narthex)
2. Hymn: "Come, thou redeemer of the earth" (during this hymn the Choir moved into the back pews of the Nave, while the rest of the procession proceeded to their places in the Chancel)
3. Bidding Prayer
4. Carol: "Come, thou long-expected Jesus" - Steven Rickards
5. Isa. 25:6-9 (read by a Chorister)
6. Motet: E'en so, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come - Paul Manz
7. Hymn: "O come, O come, Emmanuel" (during this hymn the Choir moved to the Chancel steps)
8. Isaiah 35:1-10 (read by a parishioner)
9. Anthem: A New Song - James MacMillan (during the thrilling conclusion to this anthem, the Choir moved to the Baptismal Font at the head of the Liturgical North aisle)
10. Malachi 3:1-6 (read by a warden)
11. Choral Hymn: "On Jordan's bank" - arr. Malcolm Archer sung near the Baptismal Font
12. Hymn: "Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding" (during this hymn the Choir moved in procession to the Gallery to their customary place near the organ)
13. I Corinthians 15:42-50 (read by a church musician from the Diocese)
14. Carol: "Remember, O thou man" - Thomas Ravenscroft
15. Hag. 2:6-9 (read by the director of a local ministry)
16. Carol: "Zion at thy shining gates" - George Guest
17. Hymn: "Lord Christ, when first thou cam'st to earth" (words by a former rector of the parish sung to the Herbert Howells tune NEWNHAM)
18. Luke 1:26-38 (read by the Very Rev. the Dean of the Region in the Diocese)
19. Carol: Nova! Nova! Ave fit ex eva (Hymn 266, with congregation joining on the burden) sung, with handbells and percussion, from the Annunciation window by Louis Comfort Tiffany
20. Revelation 21:5-7, 22:12-13, 20 (read by the Rev. the Rector)
21. Hymn 61: "'Sleepers, wake!' a voice astounds us" (with the Choir behind the pews at the back of the Nave)
22. Collect
23. Vesper Responsory
24. Blessing
25. Hymn 57: "Lo! he comes with clouds descending" (with the Choir surrounding the congregation in the side aisles)

I liked this service, and I think it was the right fit for St. Paul's at the right time. St. Paul's seemed to be a place on the cusp. It had been steadily moving away from it's "low church" heritage and more in line with the liturgical practice put forth in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Eucharistic vestments had appeared a decade or so before, Morning Prayer had greatly lessened in prominence, and I understand at the present time incense and a sung Sursum Corda (both rarities in the Diocese of Virginia!) are regular features.

For the next few years the St. Paul's Choir and I were able to explore this order a bit and make it our own.

Now I find myself in a different parish, and I feel the need to "crack this nut" once again. For reasons of space and churchmanship I do not think that another "Procession" is the right answer. So it was back to the drawing board – again.

Continued in "Carol Service - exploring the Advent, part 2"

Labels: Advent, American Sarum, King's College (Cambridge), Lessons and Carols, Salisbury Cathedral, St John's (Cambridge), St Paul's (Richmond), Willcocks

American composer Samuel Barber was born on this date in 1910. One of my favorite pieces of his is Knoxville: Summer of 1915, which, in a way, celebrated a kind of centennial last summer (even more so if you happened to be in Knoxville then).

Here's a (slightly revised) excerpt of a piece I wrote for the St. Paul's, Richmond June/July 2015 edition of The Epistle, the parish newsletter.

Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op. 24 by American composer Samuel Barber isn’t a piece of sacred music, and you won’t hear it in church any time soon (at least, not that we have planned!), but there is a deep sense of sacredness within.

The piece, scored for voice (usually sung by soprano) and full orchestra, sets an excerpt of prose by James Agee. What I love about how this all comes together—the words, the voice, the orchestra—is that Barber creates the summer in Tennessee 100 years ago. You can hear the passing cars: the “loud auto” and “a quiet auto.” You sense the still, humid summer air. You feel the presence of many people lingering, on their stoops, on their porches, on their lawns at “that time of evening”—all of them trying to escape the heat.

Halfway through the piece, it draws inward. The soprano, who sings from the perspective of a small boy, tells of the people in his life, lying on quilts in their backyard: “All my people are larger bodies than mine.” And these people talk “of nothing in particular.” I am chagrinned to note that among the people in this gathering “one is an artist” and “one is a musician” both of whom are “living at home.” But then the bottom drops out of the music for a moment of great emotional intensity, as the soloist declaims with great love “one is my mother, who is good to me.” And the music contracts again to give the inevitable resolution to this melody as the soprano affirms “one is my father, who is good to me.” And then Barber pivots the music, this time with unsettled harmonies, and the boy realizes the cosmic implications of human existence itself.

“By some chance, here they are, all on this earth; and who shall ever tell the sorrow of being on this earth, lying, on quilts, on the grass, in a summer evening, among the sounds of night.”

There is, to my ear, a deep kind of sacredness that I don’t think we often encounter in our typical church music.

Labels: Barber, church music, St Paul's (Richmond)

Really the word "hymn" refers to the words. But for most people the music comes to mind just as quickly, if not more so.

Of course, a congregation needs both words and music to sing a hymn. Otherwise I guess they could just mumble some poetry together, or, alternatively, hum something for a while.

Note to self: write some intentionally wordless hymns. Approach publishers.

But sometimes a melody is written for words that so encapsulates their sentiment that the result is stirring, compelling, and nothing short of miraculous: a triumph of the great symbiotic art of hymnody.

Words

Walter Russell Bowie's two hymn texts are provocative and "have been judged as among the finest by an American author written in the first half of this century" (Hymnal 1982 Companion). They are "Lord Christ, when first thou cam'st to earth", and "O holy city, seen of John".

Walter Russell Bowie was a Social Gospel progressive who was baptized at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia in 1883 (just 21 years after Jefferson Davis was baptized there). He would serve as rector of the parish from 1911-1923. Just prior to assuming this rectorship, Bowie was asked for a hymn based on Revelation 21 by Henry Sloane Coffin for the collection Hymns of the Kingdom of God (1910). The result is "O holy city, seen of John".

One of Bowie's stanzas, however, seems not to have been handed down in most versions of the hymn. It appears in the original hymn text as stanza 2:

Hark, how from men whose lives are held
more cheap than merchandise;
from women struggling sore for bread,
from little children's cries,
there swells the sobbing human plaint
that bids thy walls arise!

Music

I'm particularly fascinated with the connection between Howells and the marvelous words of Bowie because Howells is, quite simply, my favorite composer of twentieth century church music, and I was the organist of St. Paul's, Richmond for five years (2010-2015). It was a delight to relish this tune (and sing it often) in a parish so closely linked with Bowie.

I have written before about the two Herbert Howells hymn tunes for the both of the published hymn texts of Walter Russell Bowie (Bowie, Walter Russell - connection to Herbert Howells). Mostly, I wrote of my perplexity that the tune in the Hymnal 1982 for Bowie's "Lord Christ" is in a major key (Hymn 598)! But today, on Howells's birthday, no less, I want to turn to the other tune, SANCTA CIVITAS.

Howells's tune, written in 1962, is extraordinary. In fact, Erik Routley, the prolific church music scholar, names it one of "Six Great Moments in Twentieth-century Hymn Music"

1. Vaughan Williams's KING'S WESTON, found at Hymn 435 (this article refers to hymns in the Hymnal 1982)
2. Cyril Vincint Taylor's ABBOT'S LEIGH, found at Hymn 523
3. A tune by Jean Langlais: DIEU NOUS AVONS VU TO GLOIRE (um, does anyone know this one?)
4. Herbert Howells's SANCTA CIVITAS, found at Hymn 582 (but not completely)
5. Michael Dawney's FELINFOEL (yeah, no idea about this one either)
6. And Richard Dirksen's VINEYARD HAVEN, found at Hymns 392 and 557

Tangent: Routley's work on hymns is always provocative. Of the six he names three are "bestsellers", one is mostly hiding in plain sight (Howells), and two of them I've never heard, nor can I find. There's more here to research, as always!

Howells's name for the tune, SANCTA CIVITAS, is Latin for "Holy City," making the text-tune connection clear. But more than that, the name is surely a reference to the large choral work by Vaughan Williams with that name. It was, after all, a close encounter with Vaughan Williams himself at the 1910 Three Choirs Festival that set Howells firmly on the path of being a composer.

Howells manages the melodic modality masterfully, with the music meandering from D minor to an F Major finish. The intervening notes between stanzas (they are in the original hymn but, most unfortunately, edited out of the Hymnal 1982) raise the Tonic to the Mediant so that the successive stanza can fall into place without a hitch.

There is what I believe to be an intentional seamlessness to the hymn accompaniment that arises when these inter-stanza passing tones are used (as in the wonderful recording from St. Clement embedded above). This is up to interpretation, to some degree. I can find another recording that does not treat the accompaniment this way.

If the "seamless" approach is what Howells had in mind, this is by no means a new technique, though it is an innovation on it. Think of the hymn tune ENGELBERG, written by Stanford, Howells's mentor, in 1904. The single, solitary "thump" allows the hymn accompaniment to be continuous, which has the affect of somewhat blurring the line between the strophic hymn form and something through-composed. And this is, in fact, the common modern-day performance practice with this tune. Howells's innovation is to simply expand that pedal thump into a treble "doo-doo" — which, incidentally, builds more time into the "join" between the stanzas for a breath but without making the interlude needlessly fussy.

Still with me? Good, because we haven't even brought up the final stanza yet. Howells gives this text the full treatment with a slightly altered harmonization and supremely musical descant. Not a single note is wasted, and the sopranos' expertise is fully demanded — this is not a trivial sing! But the result, to my ear, is so completely and utterly thrilling.

A melody of great sweep and dignity, with a descant for the final verse [sic] which gives the impression of having been conceived along with the tune and of being a natural efflorescence of it.

English Church Music, Royal School of Church Music, 1965

Consider the final stanza and the city that rises "in the mind of God". It is of divine imagination. And this inspired descant catches our souls and flings them heavenward where we chance to dream of things eschatological and that poorly-understood sentiment in the Lord's Prayer "thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven".

The unchurched Howells finds a way to join what we would call Bowie's Anglo-Catholic Socialism if he weren't in fact a Southern Churchman Social Gospelist.

Another thing that is lost in our modern hymnals is editorial direction. Howells, who never fails to give descriptive language, here gives "With warmth, but moving easily". I can't quibble at all with the St. Clement recording above, but I do want to note that it is a choral recording. I think that for a full congregation, the organ will want to provide a bit more "fire" for the warmth. The word "ardente" from the anthem "Like as the hart" comes to mind.

I suspect that, for many parishes, this tune is hiding in plain sight. If we did a survey I think we would find that the American tune on 583 is sung for these words more than 582. And there is precdent for a Howells tune having a slow start. MICHAEL first appeared in The Clarendon Hymnal in 1936 and was neglected for over thirty years. Though it doesn't appear in Routley's "Six Great Moments", it doesn't need to. It exploded in popularity, and it now has a Triple Platinum Hymnal hanging in its living room.

But perhaps SANCTA CIVITAS tends to be overlooked because the Hymnal 1982 doesn't present the hymn tune as Howells intended.

We can fix this.

I implore you in choirs and on organ benches: buy this hymn from Novello, or play it out of Hymns Ancient and Modern.

Your congregations will allow you two little extra notes, I promise.

And Howells wants it that way.

Labels: Dirksen, Engelberg, Henry Sloane Coffin, Howells, hymn, Hymn 392, Hymn 523, Hymn 557, Hymn 582, Hymn 598, Hymnal 1982, Langlais, Routley, St Paul's (Richmond), Stanford, Walter Russell Bowie

Many have offered touching remembrances of Phyllis Tickle, and I have a brief one to offer as well.

I was honored to be in Phyllis's presence at St. Paul's, Richmond when she was a part of the Lenten Preaching Series. I recall her conveying a deep sense of love for this world and God's creation -- for God's incarnate reality in this place and in the Church. It was made abundantly clear in the ending to her sermon one day when she stood in the center of the chancel of the church, opened James Weldon Johnson's poem The Creation, and read it in its entirety. I had never heard it before. I thought the words, and her abundantly loving reading of those words, was perfect. That moment was perfect.

Thank you for that moment, Phyllis.

AND God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
“I’m lonely—
I’ll make me a world.”

"The Creation." James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)

Labels: James Weldon Johnson, Phyllis Tickle, St Paul's (Richmond)

8 Apr 1865 - Funeral of Robert Damell held at St. Paul's, Richmond. Damell's fellow African-Americans sat downstairs, white mourners sat upstairs, and black minister Junius Taylor of St. Phillip's Episcopal Church assisted rector Beverly Danbridge Tucker in the service. These "firsts" occurred in honor of Damell's 18 years of service as St. Paul's sexton. Damell had been a "buffalo soldier" (Ninth Regiment, U.S. Calvary) in the Southwest and was later a first sergeant in the Tenth Regiment, U. S. Calvary, in Cuba.

Labels: Civil War, funeral, St Paul's (Richmond)

The following telegram was sent by Robert E. Lee (who worshipped at St. Paul's, Richmond when he was able) to Jefferson Davis (who was confirmed in the church in 1862):

"I advise that all preparation be made for leaving Richmond tonight."

The telegram was received by Davis as he worshipped in St. Paul's Church on Sunday, April 2, 1865.

Labels: Civil War, St Paul's (Richmond), war

Each day the General Assembly is in session, Capitol Police screener Larry Toomer climbs the steps of the bell tower in Capitol Square and waits to hear the chimes from another bell tower across the street at St. Paul's Episcopal Church

"One they start ringing, we ring right in between. When they ring, we ring. We ring. When they ring again we ring again."

Capitol historian Mark Greenough says the tradition dates back to the 1840s

Pope, Michael. "Rallying the Lawmakers". WVTF. 22 February 2015.

Labels: St Paul's (Richmond)

One hundred and fifty years ago today Gen. John Pegram was buried from St. Paul's, Richmond having been killed February 6 at Hatcher's Run.

His death came less than three weeks after his wedding.

Labels: Civil War, St Paul's (Richmond), war

Sometimes when I hear a choir singing Christmas music I put on funny robes and wave my arms a little.

Labels: Christmas, church music, Richmond, St Paul's (Richmond), Willcocks

60 years ago today: 9 May 1954

President Dwight D. Eisenhower worshiped at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Capitol Square, in Richmond, Virginia at the invitation of his West Point classmate Maj. Gen. William Tompkins.

He is the only sitting president to visit the church.

Labels: St Paul's (Richmond)

This week I am excited and honored to be taking part in the Yale Congregations Project in New Haven, Connecticut 21-26 June along with my colleague Melanie and my friend Brian. We comprise the team from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia. I'm tweeting, too, using the hashtag #YaleCP

The morning began by boarding a bus with many people I did not know, and traveling to First Presbyterian Church, New Haven. By the end of the day, I, and everyone else on the bus, had many new acquaintances and insight into the lives of seven other congregations.

We began with prayer, seated at our round tables, singing an Indonesian Psalm refrain "Haleluya! Pujilah tuhan" with hand clapping. The clapping ostinato would continue after the sung refrain ended, and various people spoke verses of Psalm 95.

We received a warm welcome from Martin Jean, the director of the institute.

Then Dorothy Bass, who will also serve as facilitator for our plenary session Monday, introduced the theme for the week: "Hark, the glad sound: welcoming new and returning Christians to worship". She focused on three central threads she saw running through the various projects: Hospitality, Testimony, and Ritual Engagement (St. Paul's, Richmond was mentioned in connection to this last area).

Then followed introductions of all the congregations taking part in the seminar this week:

• Colbert Presbyterian Church, Spokane, Wa. - a relatively young church that focuses on servant leadership, a focused ministry model they referred to as "intentional downsizing", and a worship style that is liturgical Presbyterian "but with soft edges".
• St. Olaf College Student Congregation - a church in a very high traffic area: 1,000 people walk through their narthex (a hallway on the campus) daily.
• Tyson House - the Episcopal & Lutheran campus ministry at the University of Tennessee. An impressively mature and active student congregation with leaders seeking to form a network of like-minded "liturgy labs" like theirs.
• Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church, UCC, New Haven - The oldest African-American church in the known world. We'll actually be at this church later in the week.
• First United Church of Christ, Northfield, Minn. - began introduction by singing "Come, let us worship God" a song that makes everyone in their community smile. They want to bring more art into their worship: to "infuse" it with art.
• First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple - a remarkable space in a remarkable skyscraper in downtown Chicago. This project seemed to have the most in common with our own at first blush. Here, 60,000 people walk past the church's front doors daily, and the vast majority are totally unaware that the church is there. They also have a lot of new downtown neighbors: new residents in downtown Chicago where there where none before. Impressive place; unique situation.
• Holy Family Catholic Community, Fond du Lac, Wisc. - a massive community with four churches. Ethnic division.
• Robertson-Wesley United Church, Edmonton, Alberta - this was by far the most creative and cohesive presentation of the day, marked by dance, live music, and art that was created during the presentation, which was itself structured around the church's statement of faith.
• Then it was our turn - we painted, as best we could, a picture of our geography, demographics, history, membership, culture, behavior, and theology. We'll see if it made any sense.

We had a very fine panel on our theme for the week. Narrative emerged as an important strand in all this. Craig Mueller, an ELCA pastor from Chicago was outstanding.

Our time at the church ended with Evening Prayer, in the church itself, with Martin Jean leading the hymns from the organ.

Two personal connections: my wife and her early music ensemble met the musician at the Chicago Temple when they performed there recently. And the organist from Robertson-Wesley coordinated the McGill Summer Organ Academy the year I attended, about 10 years ago. I sat next to her at this evening's very fine performance of the Rachmaninoff Vespers, after which I made more personal connections, including one with Glenn Miller, the super-profundo organist & choirmaster at Kirk of the Hills, Bloomfield, Michigan.

This conference is filled with remarkable people and stories. It is a real blessing to be here.

Labels: church music, liturgy, St Paul's (Richmond), Yale Congregations Project

1 May 1863 - Jefferson Davis's s 5-year-old son Joseph E. Davis was buried from St. Paul's, Richmond. Joseph fell from the stairs of the White House of the Confederacy and died, just a few blocks from the church.

Labels: St Paul's (Richmond), war

And now, a humorous anecdote on its sesquicentennial:

During Divine service at St. Paul's Church on Sunday morning, one of the Christmas wreaths decorating the church fell from one of the pillars, and encircled the neck of a young lady sitting beneath. The young lady shrieked, thinking a gentleman's arm was around her, and the congregation turned and stared. The wreath was speedily removed[,] the young lady recovered from her embarrassment, the officiating minister from his surprise, and the congregation from their mirth, and devotional exercises were resumed."

from the Daily Richmond Examiner, 6 Jan 1863

Labels: St Paul's (Richmond)

One hundred and forty years ago today (that's in 1872, for those of you keeping score), the vestry of St. Paul's, Richmond unanimously passed the following resolution:

"Whereas the talking and other disorders of boys, and others, in the Galleries and Vestibule of this Church, having become so marked, Resolved, that the Rector be requested to give notice, that if such interruptions continue in the future it will become the duty of the vestry to cause a police officer to be stationed in each Gallery during the service, for the purpose of preserving order, whose duty it shall be also to prevent loitering in the Vestibule and on the steps in front of the Church.

from the Vestry Book of St. Paul's, Richmond, 1870-1873, p. 26.

Labels: St Paul's (Richmond)

The earliest beginnings of what became St. Paul's, Richmond can be traced to an event two hundred years ago today.

It was on 26 December 1811 that a theater fire in which 72 people died that led to the founding of Monumental Church. As the church grew, they looked for another location in which to build a much larger church. The result is St. Paul's.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has this remembrance in today's paper.

Labels: Monumental Church, St Paul's (Richmond)

The following appeared in the Richmond Enquirer 9 December 1845.

A large number of ladies and gentlemen collected, yesterday afternoon, in the new and magnificent Church of St. Paul's, to hear the fine Organ recently erected by Mr. Erben, the finest manufacturer in New York. Mr. Erben attended, to supervise the performance. Messrs. Dunderdale and Daniels, successively, took charge of the instrument. The former has been selected as the organist of the new Church. Fond as we are of this noble instrument, so susceptible of the most powerful and varied expression, we were delighted with its rich tones, at one moment swelling into notes of thunder, and then fading away like the ‘Sweet South’ breeze. The gentle quality of my delicate ears, contended that it was impossible to appreciate the softer stops—as the beaux would whisper to their fair companions, and the little children would tune their treble pipes. But on approaching very near the performance we heard all the stops perfectly.—We were particularly struck with the brilliant effect of the ‘Night Horn,’ ‘Clarionet’ and ‘Trumpet’ solo stops. We have already fully described the mechanical arrangement of this splendid instrument, which was pronounced in New york to be one of the best works of the manufacturer. We shall not therefore repeat this description. As soon as the organist shall form a complete acquaintance with its various parts, details, and the powers of the instrument, it will be a great pleasure to hear its eloquent breathings.—This organ will cost $4000

Quoted in Weddell, Elizabeth Wright. St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia: Its Histoic Years and Memorials. Richmond: The William Byrd Press, Inc., 1931. Vol I, p. 23-24

Labels: Erben, St Paul's (Richmond)

On October 10, 1843 the cornerstone of St. Paul's Church, Richmond was laid. The church would not open for services until 1845.

The following is a list of the deposits in the Corner Stone. The Holy Scriptures, Book of Common Prayer, American Almanac for 1843, Journal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Virginia, held in the Monumental Church 17th, May 1843. Journal of the General Convention of the PRotestant Episcopal Church in the United States, for the year 1841, Sword's Pocket Almanac for 1843. Constitution and Canons of the Prot. Epis. Church, in the U.S., and in the Diocese of Virginia, printed for the Convention of Va., in 1840. The 30th, annual report of the Bible Society of Va., at the annual meeting held 4th, April 1843. Names of the contributors to the funds for the erection of the Church, with the amount of their contributions inscribed on parchment. Specimens of the gold, silver, and copper coin of the U. S. Religious and Political newspapers of the day.

Weddell, Elizabeth Wright. St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia: Its Histoic Years and Memorials. Richmond: The William Byrd Press, Inc., 1931. Vol I, p. 16-17.

Labels: St Paul's (Richmond)

There's a wonderful connection between St. Paul's, Richmond, and the English composer Herbert Howells.

The priest, author, editor, educator, hymn writer, and lecturer (thanks Wikipedia!) Walter Russell Bowie was born in Richmond, baptized at St. Paul's and was rector of the church from 1911-1923.

Among Bowie's best known hymns are "O holy city seen of John" and "Lord Christ when first thou cam'st to men". Both hymn texts were set to music by Herbert Howells.

"O holy city seen of John" appears in the Hymnal 1982 at Hymn 582 to Howells's SANCTA CIVITAS (though it is probably more often sung to MORNING SONG, the tune for that text at Hymn 583).

"Lord Christ when first thou cam'st to men" is often rendered as "Lord Christ when first thou cam'st to earth" in modern hymnals, including Rejoice in the Lord, a hymnal edited by edited by Erik Routley.

Routley pairs this with NEWNHAM a wonderful hymn tune that I have never heard nor seen anywhere before this week.

Fittingly, Howells's tune is in minor.

And only Howells could write a tune that begins on III (G-flat Major) and moves to i (E-flat minor). Actually, I could go on about this tune at some length, but maybe that's another article for another time.

The text is clearly wildly successful -- and paired with this beautiful tune, even more so.

Having now studied the text more closely and in conjunction with this E-flat minor sound world, the sprightly D Major strains of MIT FREUDEN ZART (Hymn 598) are more than a little cloying and antithetical to the seriousness of what we're singing about.

• "upon a cross they bound thee" (this is our answer to Christ's coming!)
• "mocked thy saving kingship"
• thorns
• new thorns
• "robe of sorrow"
• "doomed to death"
• crucified
• dust
• refuse
• "night of hate and war"
• perish
• lose
• wounded hands
• dust (again! Is this a Lenten hymn?!)
• loss

Which of these things suggests a major key, exactly?

I suggest that we all take up the Howells tune, with appropriate copyright permissions cleared with Novello, of course, and hasten to teach this text-tune pairing to our congregations.

By the way, Bowie was born on this date in 1882. He lived until 1969, so I hope that he heard the Howells tunes for his two texts, which were written in 1962 (Groves Dictionary) or 1964 (Rejoice in the Lord).

I wonder what he thought about them?

Labels: Howells, Routley, St Paul's (Richmond), Walter Russell Bowie

On women in church choirs wearing surplices:

'Aside from the grave impropriety of the matter, a growing evil we fear, in certain places—there arises the practical objection of the illegality of the practice, even in the eye of the civil law. Our opinion most decidedly is, that girls and women doing this would readily be liable to arrest and fine, before the civil magistrate; and any objector to this costume could easily so move, were he minded, and stir up the largest sort of an ecclesiastical rumpus. [...] Our judgment therefore would be, that females appearing in this acknowledged male attire in our public worship, are liable to arrest, and could be arrested. They might just as well, and just as lawfully, appear in pantaloons, cutaways and plug hats—parading on the public streets.' (October 1894)

Isaac Lea Nicholson (1844-1906), Bishop of Milwaukee, quoted by Anglicans Online

It's interesting to note that at St. Paul's, Richmond, a vested choir (presumably of men & women, as a mixed quartet had existed for years) appeared the following Easter.

Labels: St Paul's (Richmond), vestments