tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-257540162011-07-07T23:38:27.550-04:00Thoughts about hymns, ancient and modern, with some general music and liturgy thoughts thrown in.Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.comBlogger731100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-74102504192742572012010-03-04T14:23:00.001-05:002010-03-04T14:23:14.922-05:00

Entering the Cloisters Originally uploaded by lapeeler. This is one of the chapels at the Cloisters art museum in New York. I other news, I have a dissertation defense coming up on March 29—Monday of Holy Week. You should see more things here once that is all done with.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-29145580455869730852009-10-30T15:52:00.003-04:002009-10-30T15:56:12.191-04:00

I had the privilege of presenting a paper at a recent conference at Baylor University. You can read it here, along with several of the other papers. My paper, "More Than Half a Fool," used some dissertation research, as well as some additional research regarding Anglican chants in Baptist hymnals. It was a good conference, in which most of the major scholars who are currently doing Baptist

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-7400023580029801572009-07-10T10:57:00.003-04:002009-07-10T11:36:31.842-04:00

In my dissertation work, I've come across a hymn that has been missing from Baptist hymnals since the New Baptist Hymnal of 1926, to our detriment. It's a hymn by George Washington Doane, who was the Episcopal bishop of New Jersey in the early nineteenth century (there's a memorial to him at St. Peter's Morristown, although he's buried in Burlington, NJ).It's still a well-known hymn in Anglican

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-18983744615479944402009-03-18T13:34:00.001-04:002009-03-18T13:34:01.050-04:00

God has ascended with a shout, the Lord, with the sound of a Trumpet! Originally uploaded by lapeeler.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-6079454235251687362009-02-25T13:12:00.006-05:002009-02-26T22:49:35.197-05:00

While working on my dissertation (which, by the way, is why you don't see many posts at kirchenlieder these days), I've come across this statement about music. Read it, and I'll put some comments afterward.'"How sweetly the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear!"In a prayer meeting not long since, a great longing came over my old-fashioned heart to hear one of these familiar strains of the

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-79139772827818092008-07-15T09:38:00.004-04:002008-07-15T14:06:37.112-04:00

This past Sunday, I was happy to hear a sermon on Hebrews 1 and 2 from Amy (located here if you'd like to listen to its Sunday evening form). Hebrews has long been my favorite book of the Bible, largely for its theological depth, as well as all its temple and covenant imagery. For this sermon, which focused on God speaking to and through the Son, the Son becoming human, and the Son's subsequent

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-19115499108123450782008-06-14T20:56:00.002-04:002008-06-14T22:08:10.285-04:00

Having a baby has made me very reflective, just as I imagined it would. We found out she was coming on Maundy Thursday, and she was born just ten days before Christmas, which gave me such a new appreciation for both Mary's experience and to the pasch itself.It's also, of course, caused me to think about my own parents. I was especially thinking about my father recently when I was playing a

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-66138685335762107832008-04-08T22:45:00.002-04:002008-04-08T22:49:45.202-04:00

This Saturday at Woodside, we're having a hymn festival with hymns based on psalm texts. We'll be singing "O God, Our Help in Ages Past," "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need," Vaughan Williams' setting of the Old 100th, and many others, as well as hearing a couple of organ pieces from me and a piece from the choir. All are welcome to come join us! Here's directions from Google maps.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-20437389046969565062008-02-20T09:47:00.000-05:002008-02-20T09:48:40.125-05:00

All for just $2.99!

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-56722238894194168292008-01-23T09:06:00.000-05:002008-01-23T09:28:43.393-05:00

When I sing our new baby to sleep, I often turn to hymns, probably because I know them best. It has been eye-opening to me to see how many hymns I know most of. That aside, I've discovered that some hymns are more lullaby-like than others. For example, "Disposer Supreme" hardly seems appropriate.Conversely, many American melodies from the late 18th and early 19th centuries are very easily sung at

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-6066818668155937992008-01-01T09:41:00.000-05:002008-01-01T09:50:43.320-05:00

Besides the New Year, the eighth day of Christmas, and my mother's birthday (the first baby boomer—1/1/1946), there's more reason to celebrate. There's a new blog in town, a joint project with millinerd. We'll be exploring architectural developments in North American churches, with accompanying pictures.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-8502752159505759422007-12-24T21:08:00.001-05:002007-12-24T21:17:30.732-05:00

On this Christmas Eve, I find the immortal words of Charles Wesley appropriate (since it still is his 300th anniversary). Further, what carol presents the gospel more, and what is more grounded in scriptural language? The first 3 verses are the most familiar, but the latter two are very good as well.Hark, the herald-angels singglory to the new-born King,peace on earth, and mercy mild,God and

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-45848676466120017522007-12-16T22:09:00.000-05:002007-12-16T22:42:38.286-05:00

Amy gave birth to Katherine Elaine Saturday morning, December 15, at 4:18 a.m. She was in a hurry to see the world, because we only checked into the hospital at 3:00! All went well, and she and Amy are both doing fabulously. You can't see it through her hat here, but she has lots of hair! She was six pounds, nine ounces, and 19 1/2 inches long. We'll be home tomorrow morning. To quote Amy, "Labor

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-35963051665245227522007-12-07T09:46:00.000-05:002007-12-07T10:35:19.639-05:00

Today is the feast of St. Ambrose (340-397), one of the early Doctors of the Church. Ambrose was a governor in northern Italy, and became bishop of Milan on December 7 after he made peace with the Arians (who denied the deity of Christ) and Athanasians (who affirmed the Trinity) when they were fighting over who would be the next bishop. Through his subsequent preaching, most of that district was

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-47144539580844297152007-12-04T10:01:00.000-05:002007-12-04T10:36:34.032-05:00

The church year began again this past Sunday (year A, for all you Matthew fans). At church I was glad to sing Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, one of my favorites to sing and play. This Advent is special, however, for it also contains the 300th birthday of Charles Wesley. Born December 18, 1707, Wesley has left us with a corpus of some of the most wonderful English hymn texts in existence, both

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-18026125193956188802007-11-28T19:05:00.000-05:002007-11-28T19:54:55.690-05:00

Weekend before last was the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, this year in San Diego. Since Amy is a member of SBL and I am a member of AAR, it's always a fun time to get away for a weekend and hear some interesting papers.While SBL often has some solid biblical scholarship, AAR can be a hit or miss affair. For example, last year in

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-78853474903966155042007-11-06T13:37:00.000-05:002007-11-06T13:58:01.837-05:00

On Sunday, besides singing "For All the Saints," our choir sang an easy arrangement of "Come, Labor On" (arranged by myself) for its anthem, the congregation joining in on the final verse. It was a nice bookend to the pre-communion service, with "For all the saints who from their labors rest" beginning and then, the call to "Come, labor on" to conclude it.It is a hymn that is not as well-known in

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-22212303516632048502007-11-02T10:16:00.000-04:002007-11-02T10:32:07.125-04:00

Yesterday, being All Saints Day, is a good day in the church's calendar because of the obvious usage of the hymn "For All the Saints," by William How, an Anglican rector and bishop. At a time when we are called upon to remember the "cloud of witnesses" who have stood strong in the faith, this hymn is useful for more than just its title. It is a lengthy one, with many hymnals including five or six

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-70310058559892835452007-10-19T16:20:00.001-04:002007-10-19T16:28:07.198-04:00

As I promised a couple of weeks ago, here are the ideas I hold to about music in worship. Well, these are them as they stood when I wrote this at Westminster about four years ago, before I actually took many courses and read many things about worship itself. I was going to rework them because I think some of these points definitely should be, but I decided to present them and see what comments

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-51638308901812821332007-10-11T15:15:00.000-04:002007-10-11T15:33:21.095-04:00

Now that there's not a 70 to be found in the ten day forecast, I think I'm safe in saying that Fall has finally arrived in New Jersey. It is the best season of the year, for not only is it time for school (yes, I'm a nerd), it's cool out, and that brings out the beautiful leaves, as well as good, warm things to eat and drink. That's probably the greatest reason I like Fall—because it's time to

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-11177916659680086712007-10-02T09:54:00.000-04:002007-10-02T11:02:39.753-04:00

I've mentioned before that this is my favorite hymn, but I've been reflecting on why that is. Last Sunday we sang this in church in the morning, and I got to play it again that evening in the Princeton Seminary Koinonia opening worship (that's the doctoral student fellowship). I also then, on Friday, had my class analyze it on their music theory quizzes, so I had a week to reflect.Firstly, we

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-31180946088604353692007-09-16T23:03:00.000-04:002007-09-16T23:04:35.427-04:00

Obviously, I've written nothing for three months. Well, nothing online. Here's a quick rundown of my summer, and the things that have occupied me:My dissertation. I'm happy to say I've gotten one chapter done, and am well on my way in a second. Besides that, Amy came with me on an extensive and helpful research trip in July to Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.Amy studying for comprehensive

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-81545214440956768732007-05-25T09:35:00.000-04:002007-05-25T10:05:28.767-04:00

I decided today would be a good day to break my internet silence. My semester grades are in, I'm done playing operas for now, and my dissertation prospectus is (finally) in the mail. On such an auspicious day in which I'm done with all my projects (and am ready to actually start writing), I'm happy that it is also the Feast of the Venerable Bede.Bede (673-735), called "Venerable" because of his

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-74758077811280205662007-04-21T11:12:00.000-04:002007-04-21T11:14:09.948-04:00

This is a praying mantis for my more charismatic friends (I didn't take it).

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-68198860557478949892007-04-08T00:00:00.000-04:002007-04-08T00:06:18.076-04:00

After the 40 days of Lent, I'm so glad we've finally reached the feast of the resurrection! As the high point of the Christian year, and the most important for our faith, Easter also has some of the best hymns. Besides the hymn I started this blog with one year ago, there are so many other wonderful expressions of joy from the 2,000 years of the Christian tradition.This text, Aurora lucis

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-89439268567103563272007-04-04T09:35:00.000-04:002007-04-04T10:20:32.887-04:00

I really love the Princeton Theological Seminary book sale. Since Amy's a student, we can go in for the Sunday night preview, and, since I'm surrounded by mostly systematic theologians and biblical scholars, I usually do very well in the music and liturgy departments. Besides a first edition Bushnell, and a couple of volumes from the series Twenty Centuries of Christian Worship, I was happy to

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-11153385675138824562007-04-03T09:07:00.000-04:002007-04-03T09:25:22.998-04:00

Thanks to Ron for pointing this out:Chintzy Chasubles. If you come across any good ones, I think the blogger would appreciate pictures!

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-16924629716330326082007-04-02T15:27:00.000-04:002007-04-02T16:09:02.741-04:00

We've come to perhaps my favorite time of the Christian year, which is Holy Week. Besides the final week of Lent and the anticipation for Easter, the services of Holy Week are wonderful times of reflection and praise—Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (although many churches, my own among them, have no vigil, which decimates the Easter triduum—a topic for another time).

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-84512656199064990862007-03-19T09:45:00.000-04:002007-03-19T09:53:25.253-04:00

If you're in the Princeton area, there's a forum next Monday night, March 26, in which I'll be responding to a paper, "Baptism: The Recognition of Christ's Spirit." It should be interesting. The paper itself is by a theology student, and there's myself, a New Testament scholar, and a student from Duke responding.It's the Koinonia Annual Forum, "Is Baptism a Sacrament?" and it starts at 7:00

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-68665192273585504302007-03-15T12:43:00.000-04:002007-03-15T14:01:50.808-04:00

Besides teaching and getting a dissertation prospectus turned in, I of course am still a church organist. This past week we sang "If You Will Only Let God Guide You," yet another hymn that is often sung during Lent, solely because it's in a minor key. The three verses in our hymnal, Hymns for the Family of God, really have little to do with Lent at all. Here's all the verses, as Catherine

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-16651801469210910372007-02-25T21:45:00.000-05:002007-02-25T22:03:04.574-05:00

I was asked last weekend what my favorite hymns were. After naming "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty," which is definitely my favorite, there's a large group of hymns that I like fairly equally well. I started naming them—"O Sacred Head, Now Wounded," "Jesus, Priceless Treasure," and several others immediately came to my mind. I quickly realized there's a big pattern in my favorites,

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-6164786655664160992007-02-14T23:29:00.000-05:002007-02-15T01:01:18.883-05:00

While digging through book reviews from 1883 for dissertation research, I discovered that one book published that year (which was apparently fairly popular, since I saw several different reviews) was all about the symbolism of various flowers you might give and receive. This was a popular pastime in the Victorian era, with many books and pamphlets produced to be sure that you could say or

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-9728371298769867262007-01-31T23:50:00.000-05:002007-02-01T00:10:38.316-05:00

Amy is writing a paper for her Romans class. Namely, a paper on Romans 3, which, as I keep reminding her, is the first stop on the Romans Road. As she often does, she asked me for a hymn to start her paper, but with these specifications—that it describe telling about the gospel as plain and simple to understand, but that it also discusses the complexity of the same. My instant thought was of

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-88661308898734957882007-01-15T11:02:00.000-05:002007-01-15T11:10:18.259-05:00

For even more on the church millinerd featured for us, see these comments from the prior Sunday School post. The pastor of Central Westside has chimed in with some more history of the church and its architecture. Many thanks to Pastor David!

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-87423594300786455752007-01-10T21:14:00.000-05:002007-01-10T21:36:06.875-05:00

You might remember this post, in which I discussed churches built on the Akron plan. For more on it, there's some good diagrams of Akron-style churches on this page, as well as some more discussion of the plan itself.Millinerd, wonderful person that he is, took it upon himself to follow my prior request, and took some pictures over the holidays of the Central Westside United Church of Canada in

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-80989258350393875112007-01-08T18:42:00.000-05:002007-01-08T19:08:20.674-05:00

The week of New Year's Day, I went with my brother's family and Amy's family to Colorado to spend the week skiing in Winter Park. Unfortunately, we were detoured through New Mexico due to a second major blizzard that hit Colorado and Kansas, closing I-70. When we left Oklahoma City I-40 was open, but we arrived in Amarillo to discover it had been closed in the interim. We detoured onto US60

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-40349653648155970462006-12-20T09:24:00.000-05:002006-12-20T10:19:45.359-05:00

It's almost Christmas, and, therefore, the past month or more has seen the annual deluge of diamond store commercials. Zales, Gordons, Kay, and any number of local stores, in seeking to up their holiday sales, seemingly spend most of their advertising budget between December and February (a wise decision, I'm sure, especially this year with such movies coming out).I myself considered purchasing

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-85279948152923937682006-12-16T11:22:00.000-05:002006-12-16T11:43:34.874-05:00

I was saddened to read this week of the death of John W. Peterson on September 20 ( I was living in another world during September). I was instantly taken back to my childhood growing up at Sunnyside Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Some of my favorite songs to sing in church were "Drinking at the Springs of Living Water," "Jesus is Coming Again," "Surely Goodness and Mercy," and, what was my

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1165266065428660672006-12-06T08:49:00.000-05:002006-12-06T09:47:37.353-05:00

I love Advent for several reasons! They include getting ready for Christmas, the excellent advent hymns and carols that we get to sing (we of course sang Let All Mortal Flesh this past Sunday, even though I didn't choose it—it brought tears to my eyes), my anniversary falls during Advent, and I am always reminded by the beginning and ending of the church year of the sonata-allegro form.The

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1164576772769500642006-11-26T16:31:00.000-05:002006-11-26T16:32:52.783-05:00

I received a phone call on Tuesday while in Oklahoma, with the news that I passed all four of my comps. Celebration ensued.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1162837840350456802006-11-06T13:06:00.000-05:002006-11-06T13:46:13.040-05:00

My final comp over the Sunday school movement is complete! I think I did fine on it, as well. There were some good questions, and I find the Sunday school to be incredibly intriguing.I'm especially interested in the architectural results of Sunday schools. After the 'Akron' style was passing, many churches began building classrooms directly off the main sanctuary (or, more properly, adjoining

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1161804685402863922006-10-25T15:27:00.000-04:002006-10-25T15:31:25.416-04:00

In my love of maps and demographically-oriented things, the CommonCensus Map Project is pretty neat, if not entirely scientific. It allows you to enter your address and determine the major city which influences you, as well as local neighborhoods. It is partially a protest against gerrymandering, but it's also just fun to examine!And, after next Thursday, I'll blog more, I promise! I have 3-4

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1160232429296873872006-10-07T10:44:00.000-04:002006-10-07T10:47:09.310-04:00

My third comp went pretty well. I had a lot to say, and wound up with about 9700 words! So, 9700/6 hours=1616 words/hour. At that rate, I should finish my dissertation in about 4 days, right?And, in answer to Millinerd's question, in the Anglican/Baptist faceoff, of course the Baptists won.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1159449509128114552006-09-28T09:05:00.000-04:002006-09-28T09:18:29.150-04:00

As an example of all that bugs me about the current Christian music scene, check out this that I happened to see while clicking past Nickelodeon—yes, that Nickelodeon (it was during a Spongebob episode). There's something that bothers me about children singing "O, the wonderful cross, bids me come and die and find that I might truly live" to a techno beat while playing baseball (that was on

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1157976523317080862006-09-11T07:58:00.000-04:002006-09-18T00:24:21.226-04:00

Mea culpa, mea culpa. I've been going crazy between comps and teaching, but I've been mulling over some things, even so!Last weekend on NPR's Weekend America (you can listen to it there), an Austin church was featured–the Church of Brunch. Hosted in a home, its main principle is that it is non-God based. The members meet together and participate in their liturgy of singing a song or two (by

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1156616113539213342006-08-26T14:13:00.000-04:002006-08-26T14:15:13.570-04:00

Yes, you, too can own your very own Armor of God! I guess, though, that salvation isn't as protective for girls.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1155872252639662852006-08-17T23:34:00.000-04:002006-08-17T23:37:32.656-04:00

My second comp, on Reformation Liturgies, was this morning. It went fairly well, and was a bit shorter at only 4 hours. I think I did pretty well on it, although it will be a few weeks before I hear. Thanks again to those who prayed for me—I appreciate it! My next ones will be October 6 and November 2.Tomorrow, though, I'm going to clean house (I have books everywhere!) and not think of

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1155221325375418542006-08-10T10:46:00.000-04:002006-08-11T00:14:09.110-04:00

One of the books which I read for my Eucharist comp was Graham Hughes' Worship as Meaning: A Liturgical Theology for Late Modernity. He examines the theories of the semiotician Charles Peirce and applies them to worship. I highly recommend it, even for those of you who hate semiotics or have never studied them—he explains Peirce's theories well, and the conclusions he draws regarding worship

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1155214812612607712006-08-10T08:57:00.000-04:002006-08-10T09:00:12.630-04:00

So, I've now won four times on Blingo—I've won twice, and my friends have won twice. It's really great—it searches Google, but when you search you're entered in a lottery to win prizes. And, if you use Firefox, you can integrate the search in your search bar. There's a helpful button on the right if you'd like to join as my Blingo friend. Then, if you win, I would win too! So far, I've

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1155128059383807942006-08-09T08:50:00.000-04:002006-08-09T08:54:19.396-04:00

My first comp is finished! I think the others will seem easier after spending 6 1/2 hours typing on Eucharist and Signification. After producing a 5600 word document, my brain is fried! But, it's good to have one done. I think I did pretty well, although not perfect on one question (about the development of early anaphoral families, their distinguishing characteristics, and modern liturgies

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1154813076974342092006-08-05T17:21:00.000-04:002006-08-06T16:22:22.050-04:00

Well, according to this test I am. It's not great, but it was a good, short diversion from studying! Out of the 5 options, I guess that's probably whom I would most identify with, although I don't know about the percentages I just got. Besides, what did they mean by "mere symbol?" You scored as Zwingli. You are Ulrich Zwingli. You believe that bread and wine are mere symbols of the absent

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1154456117776216962006-08-02T09:00:00.000-04:002006-08-02T12:18:31.820-04:00

Next I'm going to examine Eucharist: Symbol of Transformation by William R. Crockett. Crockett has recently retired from the Vancouver School of Theology, where he was professor of systematic theology.Crockett spends the first six chapters of his book addressing the changing understandings of the Eucharist throughout history. Rather than summarize his statements, I will later compile a

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1154448380158127582006-08-01T11:49:00.000-04:002006-08-01T12:58:01.803-04:00

Laurence Hull Stookey, professor at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., presents a different view in Eucharist: Christ's Feast with the Church, published in 1993. His book is very accessible, and would be appropriate for a wide variety of readers, from scholars to Sunday School attendees.Writing from a Methodist perspective, Stookey calls for a restoration of prominence to the Lord's

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1154026844037912262006-08-01T09:36:00.000-04:002006-08-01T11:14:33.376-04:00

The first book I'm summarizing is The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom, by Alexander Schmemann. If you're unfamiliar with Schmemann, he was an former dean and professor of Liturgical Theology at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary. He died in 1983 before he was really finish polishing this work, but the Russian version was published the following year and this English version in 1987.Schmemann

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1154018413463703332006-07-27T12:31:00.000-04:002006-07-27T13:22:29.870-04:00

In 1982, the World Council of Church's Faith and Order Commission produced a document, Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (BEM), which was heralded as a breakthrough in Christian communion. It was the result of over 50 years of discussions, beginning in 1927, and received its final revision at Lima in 1982. The committee requested responses to the document, which many of the major denominations

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1153943499736291812006-07-27T11:15:00.000-04:002006-07-27T11:49:28.416-04:00

In an effort to study for my first comp on August 8, regarding signification and the eucharist, I'm going to summarize some of the major books I've been reading to help me understand them better. Feel free to comment on them, especially if you've read them and think I've missed something important. I'm going to especially focus on signification and signs/symbols, so it will not be a full

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1154012389220567822006-07-27T10:55:00.000-04:002006-07-28T08:45:35.710-04:00

I have two more invites to eBible, if anyone wants them.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1153390373990199342006-07-20T05:59:00.000-04:002006-07-20T06:22:58.780-04:00

Our first night in St. Andrews, we attended a concert at the Holy Trinity Church of organ and choral music. It was a beautiful venue, and the music was good, too. The organist was excellent, and he played some Vierne, along with several other pieces by lesser known composers, among them one by the choral director, David Gascoigne.It's a beautiful instrument, with amazing French-influenced stops

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1152794995272458072006-07-13T08:48:00.000-04:002006-07-13T13:18:00.083-04:00

One of my favorite hymns is "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence," taken from the 5th century Liturgy of St. James. I like it both for its text and for the French carol it's set to, PICARDY. The current, common harmony is taken from The English Hymnal, 1906 (see my post, below). Here is the text, as presented in a few hymnals, translated by Gerard Moultrie (1829-1885) (some have some verses,

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1152626480952376892006-07-11T09:58:00.000-04:002006-07-11T10:01:20.963-04:00

I have three more invites to eBible! If you want them, email me and I'll give them away. So far, it's just a helpful study tool because you can add your own tags to passages or verses. There are some older commentaries included, as well. It's still a work in progress, and it looks like it could be really excellent as it continues to develop. I do like it, so far.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1152498192923147162006-07-09T22:19:00.000-04:002006-07-09T22:23:12.936-04:00

For my new favorite web toy, check out Live Plasma. You can make interactive maps of bands and their relationships, or movies, directors, etc., based on Amazon's database. It's pretty fun, although the classical catalog doesn't seem to work too well.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1152217568608218522006-07-07T21:21:00.000-04:002006-07-07T21:50:39.176-04:00

We spent Sunday-Tuesday in one of our favorite places to be, Boston, with our friends John and Amanda. We had lots of fun, and Tuesday evening, saw the most absolutely amazing fireworks display on the famous Esplanade with the Boston Pops. As the entire sky lit up, brighter than day, with fireworks that looked like shimmering water, Amy was jumping up and down in sheer joy. She said to me, "

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1151467684657082472006-06-27T23:57:00.000-04:002006-06-28T00:11:14.066-04:00

Sorry to those of you who have been checking every 30 minutes to see if I've posted something (yeah, right). It's been quite a couple of weeks!Besides all the comp preparations, for those to whom I haven't spoken, Amy and I, after much prayer, decided that I should start applying to other churches. I did on Tuesday at 3:30, and got a call at 4:30 for an interview. After my interview on

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1150211021060210652006-06-13T10:41:00.000-04:002006-06-13T11:04:49.476-04:00

I was thankful this week for Trinity Sunday, because after the unfortunate torpor of Pentecost, the hymns celebrating the Trinity are some of my favorites. Since so many hymns include a trinitarian last verse (thanks to the Latin poets of the early Middle Ages, like Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, author of "Of the Father's Love Begotten"), there are many to choose from.We sang "Holy, Holy, Holy,"

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1149198784831412942006-06-01T19:05:00.000-04:002006-06-01T19:17:28.596-04:00

In choosing hymns for this coming Sunday, I've realized something. Hymns about the Holy Spirit are generally boring. There's "The Comforter Has Come," with tune by William Kirkpatrick, but, other than that, they seem fairly sedate. I truly enjoy "Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart," but a whole service of songs of that nature would be fairly monotonous.Are there ones out there to which I'm

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1148926704048828582006-05-29T14:00:00.000-04:002006-05-29T14:29:51.810-04:00

One of the high points of a class I took this past semester (Anglican poets and preachers) was reading George Herbert and John Donne. They both had great poetry, although I liked Herbert's a little more, I think, for their form, but Donne's more for content (especially the Holy Sonnets).Besides "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing," which has been set to many different tunes, a less

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1148415335399973222006-05-24T13:56:00.000-04:002006-05-24T14:45:21.913-04:00

"I don't think God will ask us how he created the earth, but he will ask us what we did with what he created." So said Richard Cizik, vice-president of the NAE in the New York Times, quoted on Speaking of Faith. Cizik has been "converted" to believing that global warming exists, and that evangelicals should do something about it, comparing the churches' relative silence to that during the civil

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1144694464264810482006-05-15T14:09:00.000-04:002006-05-15T14:17:09.156-04:00

"Jesu, meine freude." As one of my favorite hymns both for its music, its meter, and its text, it is not sung often enough! It was written in the 17th century by Johann Franck (1618-1677), whom Catherine Winkworth says "ranks second only to [Paul] Gerhardt as a hymn-writer" (thank you, PTS book sale for my $1 copy of Christian Singers of Germany). German hymnwriting history before the 20th

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1147226975284301542006-05-09T22:03:00.000-04:002006-05-15T13:58:55.526-04:00

After discussing with some of you who haven't seen this site, here's a link on American Ethnic Geography. It's a course at Valparaiso, and there are many really cool maps of ethnicities, religions, languages, etc. taken from the 2000 census. My favorite map is this one.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1146970771865362772006-05-06T22:51:00.000-04:002006-05-06T23:49:21.926-04:00

I've finally finished my first last paper! It was about William Howard Doane, which I briefly mentioned below.Doane intrigues me, as a larger-than-life person from the mid 19th century and into the Progressive Era. He was incredibly brilliant, making a huge fortune through his woodworking inventions and his business acumen. At the same time, he wrote over 2300 hymntunes, and many texts, too.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1145715723531115062006-04-22T10:07:00.000-04:002006-04-22T22:29:22.556-04:00

I was working on a paper this week about C. Hubert H. Parry, the English composer and musicologist, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of his pupils (who is now much more famous). Parry, along with Charles Stanford, was known in the early 20th century as one of the musicians involved in the "new English renaissance," who helped to move music past the Victorian age. In 1904, Parry and Stanford

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1144990763520681062006-04-14T00:51:00.000-04:002006-04-15T21:43:19.176-04:00

Enjoy the celebration of Christ's resurrection! Here is one of my favorite sixth century Easter texts by Venantius Honorius Fortunatus:RefrainHail thee, festival day!Blest day that art hallowed forever;day wherein Christ arose,breaking the kingdom of death.2. Lo, the fair beauty of earth,from the death of the winter arising,every good gift of the yearnow with its Master returns.3. He who was

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25754016.post-1144640531899056382006-04-09T23:39:00.000-04:002006-04-09T23:42:11.920-04:00

I decided to join the blogging community in order to think about hymn texts and what they mean to the Christian faith. Since there are approximately 2000 years worth to think about, that should be enough to keep me busy. Feel free to give comments as to anything you see.

Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546255819540082933noreply@blogger.com2