Notes

 For many of us in the world, Choral Evensong is “a thing.” Actually, Evensong has been a thing in the Anglican tradition for centuries. Cathedrals, collegiate chapels and some parish churches in England sing Evensong daily or at least weekly, as do some Episcopal cathedrals and parishes in this country. Choral Evensong has a bit of redundancy in its name. Choirs sing Evensong, thus making it automatically choral. Sometime Evensong is sung by a worshipping community, wh... Read More

Our parish is in for another special treat this Sunday (Sept. 25) as the Rhodes Women’s Chorus returns to sing for our 10:30 a.m. service. The chorus, directed by Dr. Mona Kreitner since 2003, was founded in the 1990s by Dr. Diane Clark as the first all-women’s choir of Rhodes College. The chorus is accompanied by assistant minister of music, Dr. Jane Gamble, who also serves on the Rhodes faculty. In Apil, the choir joined the Holy Communion Choristers in anthems. The joint... Read More

The Order for Compline is a wonderfully unique liturgy in our Book of Common Prayer (p.127). The service began in the Fourth Century as the closing office (daily worship hours) of monastic communities and has often been called “night prayers.” In the Sixth Century, Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-547) gave directions in his Rule that Compline be limited to three Psalms without refrains, followed by an evening hymn, a lesson, a versicle, the Kyrie and a concluding b... Read More

Like Pearl Harbor and the Kennedy assassination, everyone remembers where they were on Sept. 11, 2001, another “day which will live in infamy,” as President Franklin Roosevelt said. Many of the victims of the World Trade Center airplane crashes were killed instantly. No warning and no preparation. Here one minute and gone the next. And more than two thousand more died  when both towers crumbled to the ground.  The same is true, of course, with those who died insta... Read More