Reference
Worship at Home – Easter Sunday!
Worship at 10:30 am this morning one of two ways:
(1) Watch our Easter service – Easter Sunday Service
April 12, 2020 @ 10:30am :
(2) Share worship together through Zoom:
As for the last few Sundays, gather ahead of 10:30am when we will share the service so we all view it together. This will be followed by a time for conversation and sharing wishes for a happy Easter. Gather 9:45-10am to take part in the half hour children’s program before the service (or use this all ages activity). Check your email for the Zoom links and phone in numbers.
Feel free to bring your own Easter flowers and plants so they are visible on our screens.
Easter Sunday Communion
Bring your own bread and juice or wine for a United Church Livestream Communion Service at 3 pm EDT, led by our Moderator Richard Bott. Just go to the United Church YouTube channel shortly before 3 and look for the Easter Communion service “Live Now.” Together we celebrate the sacred promise that hope is stronger than fear, love stronger than hate, and life stronger than death. God is with us. Hallelujah! – Emily, Matt, and Natalie (Worship Planning Team)
WORSHIP AT HOME
To hear the music, prayers and readings included in this service order please watch our Easter service.
Prelude – Trumpet Tune in D Henry Purcell
Call to Worship and Opening Prayer
Hallelujah! Christ is Risen!Christ is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah!Consider making a special Easter offering today, using either your credit card or paypal account by following the link at the bottom of this email, or the Donate button on our website.
Choral Introit – Rise Up My Love Healy Willan
Learning Together and Wish for Peace You are invited to take part in the all ages activity with Natalie and Mary if you wish.
Opening Hymn – This Easter Celebration
Scripture Reading John 20:1-16
Anthem – Who is There on this Easter Morn? Peter Bull
ReflectionPrayer
If you are using this service on your own, you are invited to add the prayers that arise in your heart on this day.
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn – Jesus Christ Is Risen Today (VU 155)
Blessing
Postlude – Ave Verum Corpus Stephanie Martin
Music Notes for Easter
Prelude – Trumpet Tune in D by H. Purcell
This trumpet tune was written by Henry Purcell. This 17th century English composer incorporated both Italian and French stylistic elements in his Baroque works. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers. This Easter service begins with this prelude to set the triumphant joy of Jesus’ Resurrection. This trumpet tune is generally used in festivities and celebrations. This recording was done on May 18, 2018 at St. Clements Anglican Church, Toronto.
Choral Introit – Rise Up My Love by Willan
This motet was composed by the dean of Canadian composers, Healey Willan. A Toronto church musician who has left a legacy at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto. The text of this motet derives itself from the Book of Song of Songs in which the “rising up” has often been an allegory to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This motet was recorded on February 9, 2020 (Choral Evensong) by the Leaside Chancel Choir.
Opening Hymn – This Easter Celebration Hymn
This familiar hymn tune, Aurelia was written by Samuel Sebastian Wesley. Wesley was an English organist and composer born in London, and sang in the choir of the Chapel Royal as a boy. The text is written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette in 2020 to reflect the impact of COVID-19 and how we are celebrating our Easter services. This is a generous offering from Gillette for church communities to explore singing this hymn on Easter morning. This hymn was pre-recorded by soprano, Courtney Dakers specifically for this service.
Choir Anthem – Who is there on this Easter Morn? By Peter Bull
The text of this anthem is written by Timothy Dudley-Smith (b.1926). Dudley-Smith has served the Church of England since his ordination in 1950. The choral arrangement of this anthem was composed by our very own bass lead in the Leaside Chancel Choir, Peter Bull. This anthem was pre-recorded by the Leaside Chancel Choir for the Easter service in 2019.
Hymn – Jesus Christ is Risen Today VU 155
A five stanza Easter carol, which first appeared in German and Bohemian manuscripts of the 14th century was translated in Lyra Davidica, but in John Arnold’s 1749 The Complete Psalmodist only the first stanza was retained and others substituted for the original. In the same meter as Wesley’s “Christ the Lord is risen today,” it is made up of a series of short one-liners which are easy to remember, and with added Alleluias it is a favourite Easter hymn. This hymn was pre-recorded by the Leaside Chancel Choir specifically for this service. In doing so, the choir recorded their parts at home, which were then compiled and mixed together by our bass lead, Peter Bull.
Postlude – Ave Verum Corpus by Stephanie Martin
This beautiful a cappella motet rose to the top of the Cypress publishing list in 2009. The sweet vocal registers and intuitive voice leading makes this compelling composition accessible for church choirs. The Latin text is a short Eucharistic chant that has been used to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is often sung during the liturgy of Communion. The motet was composed by Toronto composer, educator and church musician, Stephanie Martin (b. 1962). Stephanie Martin was the director of music at Leaside United Church in Toronto. This motet was pre-recorded by the leads of the Leaside Chancel Choir specifically for this service. In doing so, the leads recorded their parts at home, which were then compiled and mixed together by our bass lead, Peter Bull.
Good Friday Livestream and Worship at Home April 10, 2020
| Worship at 10:30 am this morning: Simply follow this link to our YouTube channel, and click on the service “Good Friday Worship” which will appear at 10:15 with “Live Now” in red underneath. Check your emails this morning for the phone in links and children’s program links. Any time after 11:30 you will be able to find the service recording on our YouTube Channel. Check your emails once again on Easter morning. In the meantime, may today hold space for reflection, emotion, and hope. – Emily, Matt, and Natalie (Worship Planning Team) WORSHIP AT HOME These are the hymn texts and scripture readings we will use in today’s service, followed by Matt’s Music Notes. Photographer: Murray Fenner Sunset on the Irrawaddy (taken from a sandbar near Bagan, Miramar) Go to dark Gethsemane,you that feel the tempter’s power; your Redeemer’s conflict see; watch with him one bitter hour; turn not from his grief away: learn from him to watch and pray. (Go to dark Gethsemane VU133) Reading: Matthew 26:36-46, 57-59, 69-75 Prayer If you are moving through this worship at home without watching the livestream or recording, take the opportunity each time to add the prayers that arise in your own heart in response to the reading. Bitter Was the Night (VU132) Bitter was the night, thought the cock would crow forever. Bitter was the night before the break of day. Saw you passing by, told them all I didn’t know you. Bitter was the night before the break of day. Told them all a lie, and I told it three times over, Bitter was the night before the break of day. Bitter was the night, thought there’d never be a morning. Bitter was the night before the break of day. Reading: Matthew 27:1-2, 11-14, 27-36 Prayer When the Son of God was Dying (VU153) When the Son of God was dying, long ago,some played dice and some knelt crying lost and low. Cynics sneered and wagged their tongues,mockers mimicked funeral songs:this, while God’s own Son was dying, long ago. Crowds which once had cried, “Hosanna!, lost their voice:hell had grinned to hear Barrabas was their choice; Judas hung himself for blame; Peter hung his head in shame,while the crowds which cried, “Hosanna!” lost their voice. Horror, hurt and pain found home in Mary’s breastwatching torture’s toll and hearing soldiers jest: where was God to hear her cry? Why should her own Jesus die? Grief and agony found home in Mary’s breast. Reading: Psalm 22:1-2, 9-11, 14-15, 22, 24-27 Prayer O God, Why Are You Silent? (MV73) O God, why are you silent? I cannot hear your voice. The proud and strong and violent all claim you and rejoice. You promised you would hold me with tenderness and care. Draw near, O Love, enfold me, and ease this pain I bear. Now lost within my grieving, I fall and lose my way,my fragile, faint believing so swiftly swept away. O God of pain and sorrow,my compass and my guide, I cannot face the morrow without you by my side. My hope lies bruised and battered, my wounded heart is torn;my spirit spent and shattered by life’s relentless storm. Will you not bend to hear me, my cries from deep within? Have you no word to cheer me when night is closing in? Through endless nights of weeping, through weary days of grief, my heart is in your keeping, my comfort, my relief. Come, share my tears and sadness, come, suffer in my pain, O bring me home to gladness, restore my hope again. Reading: Matthew 27:45-51 Prayer Were You There? (VU144) Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when the sun refused to shine? Were you there when the sun refused to shine? Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble Were you there when the sun refused to shine? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Reading: Matthew 27:55-61 Music Notes Instrumental Prelude: VU 133 Go to Dark GethsemaneThe author actually wrote two different versions of this hymn. Both used vivid language to lead us through the dark painful events of Christ’s suffering – the judgement hall, beatings, climbing Calvary’s mountain, the Crucifixion. But then we are called to hasten to the tomb on Easter to meet the risen Christ who overcame all. We too must learn how to pray, to bear the cross, to die to sin, and to rise from death in Christ. Solo VU132 Bitter Was the Night This hymn was written by Sydney Carter in 1964. Carter was a liberal Christian singer-songwriter. Some of his works were a bit too controversial for the Church of England. This song expresses the feelings of Peter after he fulfills Christ’s prophecy that Peter will deny him before the cock crows thrice. Solo VU153 When the Son of God was Dying The text of this song was written from the Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian group based on the small island of Iona off the coast of Scotland. The community began in 1938 when the rev. George MacLeaod of the Church of Scotland began a ministry among the unemployed poor who had been neglected by the church. The music is written by renowned song leader John L. Bell. Solo MV73 O God, Why Are You Silent? The author of this hymn is Marty Haugen (b.1950), who is a prolific liturgical composer with many songs included in hymnals across the liturgical spectrum of North American hymnals and beyond. The tune Herzlich tut mich verlangen, also known as the Passion Chorale by Hans Leo Hassler, harmonized by Johan Sebastian Bach. Hasler received his early education from his father in Nuremberg, then studied in Venice with Andrea Gabrielli and became friends with Giovanni Gabrielli. As a Lutheran, Hassler composed for both the Roman Catholic liturgy and for the Lutheran churches. Solo VU144 Were You There? In The Companion to the Hymnal (Methodist) (1970) Dr. Fred Gealy wrote, “The poignancy of this spiritual is most deeply felt when one remembers that the African-American, having seen lynched bodies on the ‘tree,’ easily identified himself with his crucified Lord. The spirituals generally interpret the biblical stories rather than recount them. The singer stands in the midst of the event and … finds himself at the foot of the cross.” Postlude: Innocent from Considering Matthew Shepard by Craig Hella JohnsonThis 17th movement from the major work Considering Matthew Shepard is planted right in the middle of the passion narrative. Remembering a time when life was full of promise and dreaming was an activity filled with hope, a tenor soloist sings this movement wondering where all of these promising times have gone. The phrase that is repeated in the song is “Where, O where?” but an answer doesn’t come. |
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