On Fri, 14 Sep 2001, Karen Mercedes wrote:
>Actually the Lord's Prayer is a good choice for many reasons, including
>one not obvious to most Christians: The first lines of the prayer are
>actually taken from the Kaddish, which is the prayer that Jews recite in
>memory of the dead.
I didn't know that! How very interesting.
Well, unfortunately I was rather disappointed in how the church I work at
handled the service today. The choir had rehearsed the Star Spangled Banner
(introit) and a lovely arrangement of God Bless America (recessional) on
Thursday (they had both been discussed and approved by the church clergy
already). Then this morning we're told not to sing the Star Spangled Banner
after all because it was "overkill - too much patriotism", and we were asked
to only sing one verse of God Bless America, because otherwise the
recessional would just be "too long". As for the service itself, there
wasn't even any mention of the tragedy we've all been affected by until
mid-way through the service when there was brief mention in a prayer.
Finally, about 1/4 of the way through the sermon the subject was brought up
once more. It was almost as if the minister had already written her sermon,
and then when everything happened on Tuesday she had to find a way to weave
it in to the already existing sermon.
I'm not much of a church-going person myself. Unless I'm being paid to be
there, I generally have no emotional need for it. But today I did! And
neither I, nor a number of other people there today, got the uplifting,
spiritual experience we were looking for.
The one thing that does make me feel good is that I was told by a number of
people after the service that they really appreciated my offertory solo and
that they really enjoyed hearing The Lord's Prayer sung to a melody they
weren't familiar with - and that they really enjoyed the music itself.
Anyhow, I thank all of you for your suggestions, and comments. I'm always
impressed and awed by the fount of information that can be found on this
list, and with the support community I find here as a musician.
All the best,
Laura
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