Tag: Good Friday

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GOOD FRIDAY WORSHIP MUSIC

   🎵🎼🎺Were you there when they crucified my Lord? 🎼🎷🎵

On  Good Friday   we commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. This Good Friday service features a special performance by our Virtual Handbell choir performing A. Sherman’s “What Wondrous Love Is This.” Because the Cross represents the way Jesus died, we also sing these three hymns, “Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross,” “Beneath The Cross Of Jesus,” and “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross.” On this day, as we enter more deeply into the passion of Jesus, we allow Jesus’ passionate love for us to enter our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls more deeply as well. May our music inspire us to hold firm to our faith and rejoice that Jesus’ death paid the price for our sin. 

Video: “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross”

Isaac Watts, a Christian minister, and hymn writer, wrote the hymn “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross” in 1707 based on the Crucifixion. Watts is credited with some 750 hymns. Sung to the tune ‘Rockingham,’ it is used for many years by the BBC to introduce its 7am broadcast on Good Friday. 

Video: “Jesus Keeps Me Near The Cross”

 Fanny Crosby wrote the hymn “Jesus Keeps Me Near The Cross, published in 1869.  William Howard Doane composed the tune before Crosby wrote the lyrics. The hymn is based on Galatians 6:14. This is one of Crosby’s best-known hymns and has been translated into several languages, including Russian, German, Spanish, and Haitian Creole.

Click here to join us in this Tenebrae worship service based on the Seven Last Words from the Cross and share in songs and music.

[Videos credit: YouTube] [Image credit: Google Images]  [Photo credit: PUMC Library]

Written by Isabella Dougan

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Hearing and Singing on Good Friday

photo by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications

This year, as on every Good Friday in the last decades, Hyosang Park, Princeton UMC’s music director, planned to observe the day by presenting a requiem, a musical    composition in honor of the agony and death of Jesus Christ. Choir members enthusiastically responded to a question about what this concert means to them. Just to participate in the celebration of Holy Week was important for Edwin Francisco. “It is always moving and exciting,” according to Bill Suits.

“It’s meaningful that some of our concerts were dedicated to members who had passed on,” said Karen Hoagland.

The lyrics of a requiem, said Christine Wong, “encompass major themes of the Bible: the covenant of salvation from Abraham to his descendants; God’s wrath and judgment; and man’s fear and suffocation for deliverance from sins and death. It abundantly praises God’s holiness and highness.”

Plans for the Good Friday have changed (Princeton UMC will have a virtual service at 6 p.m.) and choir rehearsals are now virtual, but – singers — here’s an innovative way to get the Holy Week music experience.’ Choose your favorite score, find the youtube video, and – sing along!

Joan Nuse would likely pick the requiem by living British composer Bob Chilcott. “It was an amazing experience. The songs were uplifting!”

Lori Pantaleo’s favorites include the one requiem by John Rutter. The most difficult, she said, came from France, by Maurice Durufle (1947) and Luigi Cherubini, who wrote his Requiem in c minor in 1816 to honor Louis XVI.  Other works in the Good Friday series were the “Seven Last Words” by Theodore Dubois in 1867, Faure’s Requiem (1890), Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantata 21, Anton Bruckner’s Requiem in d minor, Handel’s Messiah, and the 1837 Requiem in C minor by Michael Haydn.

Here is one video of the Seven Last Words, by Dubois and here is a version that is part of a Good Friday service from Katy, Texas.

The Faure Requiem

The Chilcott

The Bruckner

The Michael Haydn

The Cherubini

This video of Bach’s Cantata 21 and this one of the Cherubini  even come with sheet music!

This beautiful version of the John Rutter Requiem was dedicated to  the tragedy at Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.  

No matter what is on the program, or whether worshippers are present or online, Jenni Collins says she will look forward to “the intimate nature and the powerful emotion of a Good Friday service.”

 

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From Pastor Jenny, April 2, 2020

Greetings Beloved PUMC Community!

“It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.”  ~Leviticus 25:10b

(We wrap up our Poverty: Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope series this Sunday with scripture about Jubilee from Leviticus 25)

Here’s my video update for you for this week!

And below is a summary with details!

Holy Week – Watch your mail for a Worship Packet!

  • Starts on Sunday, April 5 – Palm Sunday

    • Live Worship at 10am on Facebook or by Phone (929-436-2866 | Meeting ID: 249 876 072 | # after next prompt)

    • Communion! – gather bread and juice, wine, or water ahead of time (along with your candle, cross, or bible to create your sacred space)

    • Virtual Palm Parade – take a horizontal photo or video of you with your palm branch – we’ll be mailing you a palm branch and a paper one you can cut out and decorate or you can find any kind of branch from your yard or your walk outdoors. Send your photos or videos to Evangeline, upload it directly here, or respond to the post on our Facebook Page. Submit them by noon on Sunday! Be sure it’s horizontal!

    • Children’s Time – Ms. Hyosang will be teaching us how to make a cross out of a palm frond or a strip of paper. Have one ready!

  • Thursday, April 9 – Maundy Thursday

    • Live Worship at 6pm on Facebook or by Phone (929-436-2866 | Meeting ID: 249 876 072 | # after next prompt)

    • Communion – gather bread and juice, wine, or water ahead of time (along with your candle, cross, or bible to create your sacred space)

    • Foot or Hand Washing – gather a pitcher of water, a basin or bowl, towel(s)

  • Friday, April 10 – Good Friday

    • Live Worship at 6pm on Facebook or by Phone (929-436-2866 | Meeting ID: 249 876 072 | # after next prompt)

    • Tenebrae – gather 7 candles or other types of light. You’ll extinguish each one at different points in the service

  • Saturday, April 11 – Holy Saturday

    • Prayer Service (~20 min) at 10am on Facebook

  • Sunday, April 12 – Easter Sunday

    • Sunrise Service Live Worship at 6:30am on Facebook or by Phone (929-436-2866 | Meeting ID: 249 876 072 | # after next prompt)

    • Sunrise Service Communion – gather bread and juice, wine, or water ahead of time (along with your candle, cross, or bible to create your sacred space)

    • Live Worship at 10am on Facebook or by Phone (929-436-2866 | Meeting ID: 249 876 072 | # after next prompt)

  • Throughout Holy Week

    • Daily Prayer Stations – will be in your mailed worship packet and on our Website and Facebook.

  • Prayer Requests

    • Send prayer requests to be named in worship to Pastor Skitch by 9am on Sundays or respond to the weekly Facebook post

    • In Search Of. . .

Do you have a working knowledge of technologies, such as Zoom, Facebook, Google, basic video creation? (or a willingness to learn?) Do you have some time to offer?

Help us deepen our PUMC community and strengthen our tools for sharing God’s love with others by sharing your time and talents! So many great ideas have been shared to help us through this time of physical distancing and sheltering at home, and we need more people to help put them in action!  Contact the office if you’re ready to help.

Office Update

Tuesday, March 31, was our secretary’s last day in the office as a result of our planned office ministry reorganization. Due to the COVID-19 crisis and some other delays, we have not yet hired people for either of our open positions. So we have an interim plan:

  • Jasmine Cianflone will continue to produce our weekly Happenings and monthly Newsletter as our virtual communications assistant until we hire for the Administrative and Communications Associate position.

  • Hyosang Park, our Music Director, will be caring for our virtual bulletins and other worship support.

  • We’re in the process of contracting with a virtual assistant firm for short-term, part-time help until we are able to hire. This schedule is still being set.

  • At a minimum, you should expect that phone messages left on our office phone (609-924-2613) and emails sent to our office address will be responded to within one business day. And your postal mail will be received and cared for appropriately.

  • We’ll share more as this plan develops.

  • Remember that the church building is closed to non-staff at this time.

Let Us Know!

As our time of physical distancing, staying at home, remote learning, and virtual worship continues, as we start to find a new normal amidst an ever changing and uncertain landscape, as the end of this season looms only vaguely in the distance, the challenge and difficulty only grows. We are not wired for this. We are as ill-prepared to live in social isolation as the hospitals are to treat the whole population at once. While video technology is a wonderful gift, it’s simply not the same as seeing one another face to face and embracing one another with a hug or handshake.

This will continue to take a toll on us, and we will all respond to it differently, with varying emotions and abilities to cope.

Worship and reaching out through various ways to be in touch with others are two healing acts (of many) we can do to help ourselves and one another through this time.

Please invite others who aren’t currently connected with a church (including those who used to be part of PUMC, but perhaps have moved away) to join in our worship and other ministries. Pay attention to people you are in conversation with who are struggling, and invite them to join us.

And if YOU are struggling with anxiety, fear, isolation, loneliness, financial stress, obtaining your basic necessities, grief, etc., please let a pastor or our Circle of Care know. If you need a listening ear or if you would like someone to pray with you, do not hesitate to reach out. Someone will respond!

I miss you all dearly, and I long for the time when we will gather again.

Peace and love,
Pastor Jenny

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Good Friday Service & Concert: April 19, 2019

 

On Good Friday, April 19 at noon, we will gather in the Sanctuary for a service. 

Then at 7:30 pm, we will have our Good Friday concert with the Chancel Choir and Chamber orchestra performing Luigi Cherubini’s Requiem.  Join us for this meaningful remembrance of Jesus’s sacrifice for us.

The Requiem in C minor for the mixed chorus was composed in Paris by Luigi Cherubini in 1816.  It premiered on January 21, 1817, at a commemoration service for Louis XVI of France on the twenty-third anniversary of his beheading during the French Revolution. Musicians such as Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms admired Cherubini’s great work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Isabella Dougan

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Bach on Good Friday

REllis headshot

Rochelle Ellis will be the soprano soloist for the Good Friday concert on April 3, 7:30 p.m., Hyosang Park directs the Chancel Choir in Bach Cantata 21 “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis” (I had much affliction in my heart). 

Solo oboe and violin open the cantata, picturing suffering and pain. “A  sighing motif, the picture of a storm of tears, and the flood image conjured by the upwelling music characterizes the dark and oppressive feeling,” according to a Wikipedia entry. But the  changes in the second part, which shows “the trust of sinners in the grace of God, the mood transforms into “curls” of joy, with the final movement forming a strong hymn of praise.”

Instrumentalists include Joshua Im and Ileana Ciumac, violin;  Paul Manulik, viola; Mimi Morris-Kim, cello;  Melissa Bohl, oboe; Loren Stata, bassoon; and Christopher Williams, continuo. The tenor role will be sung by Kyle Masson, and David Kellett will sing bass. This concert honors the late Sally Ross, a faithful choir member.

Also on Good Friday, at noon,  there will be a worship service in the sanctuary, Rev. Anna Gillette preaching.