epiScope

Those feet!

Why this dismal view of Jerusalem?
Richard Morrison: Commentary
The Times
April 12, 2008

O clouds unfold! The great Jerusalem controversy is rattling the pews of the Church of England again.

Perhaps it is decreed in some ancient scroll that, every five or six years, an Anglican clergyman will make a complete hassock of himself by banning the singing of England’s most inspiring hymn, William Blake’s Jerusalem, from a service in an English church. This time there is an added ecclesiastical frisson. The latest cleric to issue a red card to “And did those feet in ancient times” is one of the Church’s most senior priests.

Last week the Very Rev Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark, banned Jerusalem from a private memorial service in Southwark Cathedral. He has subsequently taken himself off to Brazil (presumably not in a chariot of fire) and is unavailable for comment. But a spokesman for the Diocese of Southwark confirmed that the dean “does not believe that Jerusalem is to the glory of God”. And this is apparently not the first time that he has forbidden its lusty rendition — to Hubert Parry’s Heaven-storming tune — within his small but perfectly formed South London cathedral.

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Blackballing Blake
The argument in the Anglican church over Blake's Jerusalem is about theology, not political correctness
Tim Footman
The Guardian
April 11, 2008

The news that the hymn Jerusalem has been banned from Southwark Cathedral has inevitably been denounced by conservative churchmen as evidence of the politically correct namby-pambyism of the Anglican establishment. But this rather misses the point. In the past, some clergymen have objected to its supposed nationalist overtones, perhaps thinking of its popularity with the braying yahoos at the Last Night of the Proms. But the objection of the Dean of Southwark, Colin Slee, is more nuanced: he argues that Jerusalem is "not in the glory of God"; essentially that, in Anglican terms at least, it isn't really a hymn.

And, you know what? He's right. Blake never wrote it as a hymn; it's the preface to his long, obscure poem Milton, and it was only when Hubert Parry set it to music in 1916, as an attempt to rally a war-weary public, that it began to be interpreted in the jingoistic terms beloved of the Daily Telegraph.

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Choir is struggling but still singing

Black Awakening Choir at VCU is in lean times and needs financial help
By ROBIN FARMER
Richmond (VA) TIMES-DISPATCH
Feb 23, 2008

Grace & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church will take up a special collection tomorrow for a Virginia Commonwealth University choir struggling to pay transportation costs after a steep budget cut.

The Black Awakening Choir at VCU, an 80-voice choir made up of VCU students and a few alumni, received $7,700 for the 2007-2008 academic year from the Student Government Association. About $18,000 was requested, said Kevin Hall, choir director.

"Each year, our budget gets smaller and smaller, and this is the biggest cut," Hall said, adding the shortage has affected payments to musicians.

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Ministries in profile

BRIGHT PROMISE
Rev. Mark Pruitt starts with paint, continues by bringing new energy and warmth in his role as leader of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
By Colette M. Jenkins
Akron (OH) Beacon Journal
Jan 19, 2008

It’s all here… sorry we can’t give you a preview, though…

All Saints Church selects new rector
By Bronislaus B. Kush
WORCESTER (MA) TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
January 19, 2008

WORCESTER— Members of All Saints Church knew they had some big shoes to fill when their rector, the Rev. Mark Beckwith, left last January to become the 10th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, N.J.

But they believe they have their man.

The church’s vestry recently voted the Rev. Kevin D. Bean, the vicar and senior associate for mission and outreach at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan, as the parish’s new spiritual leader.

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IN SEARCH OF HARMONY: SINGING, LEARNING AND RAISING EXPECTATIONS
By Nancy Shields
Asbury Park (NJ) Press
January 19, 2008

ASBURY PARK — It was raining outside the century-old Trinity Church building Thursday night, but you only noticed it when the 17 children, their backs straight and eyes watchful, finished rehearsing a song or stopped to listen to their teacher.

"What does poco rit mean?" music director Diane Caruso asked the choristers, her eyes kind, her voice professional.

"Slow down a little," they answered.

"Did you slow down a little?" she asked.

"No," they answered.

Caruso was given a mandate when Trinity, an Episcopal church, hired her as its full-time director of music in the summer of 2005.

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Teaching self-sufficiency
Friday, January 19, 2008
DENISE FORD-MITCHELL
SAGINAW (MI) NEWS

There's a big difference between lending a helping hand and taking people by the hand to lead them, a Saginaw church leader says.

''I know times are hard, but there're too many people relying on others for their survival,'' said Grady Holmes Jr., 51, outreach ministry director for St. Paul Episcopal Church at 720 Tuscola in Saginaw.

''I don't think anyone grows up saying, 'I'm going to live on welfare and let someone else take care of me while I sit around and do nothing,' and yet, there's a growing number of folks who aren't trying to help themselves,'' he said.

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ZAP!

Critic's Corner: Lightning plays a dissonant chord on church organ
By Andrew Druckenbrod
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
October 23, 2007

The next time I crawl among the pipes of a church organ, I am going to check the forecast for thunderstorms.

It was a beautiful, although hot, August afternoon when I took up an offer by the chair of the Organ Artists Series of Pittsburgh, Jon Danzak, to get an inside look at the impressive Reuter organ housed in Heinz Memorial Chapel on the Pitt campus.

The experience was priceless and also informative. For one, I had never realized that the typically straight organ pipes could be twisted around like bendable straws and still produce the same notes. Nor was I aware of just how much electronic circuitry is needed to connect the keyboard console to the many pipes. Some older organs did this mechanically, but most church organs today are connected by cables and computers.

But had I taken a similar tour a few days later at the mighty Casavant organ in Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside, I might not have made it through. Not because of how expansive it is, but because, on Aug. 9, a summer thunderstorm unleashed a bolt of lightning near the church, destroying the organ's circuitry.

"There was no damage to the building, but the ambient static charge in the air fried the electronics of the organ," says Alan Lewis, director of music and organist at Calvary. The surge knocked out one of the most prized and extensive pipe organs in Western Pennsylvania -- 7,426 pipes and 137 ranks worth -- and scuttled a host of musical events.

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More changes and chances

Christ Episcopal Church welcomes a new rector
By Robyn Fontes Taylor
Winchester (VA) Star
Friday, August 24, 2007

Winchester — If anyone might have known what he wanted to do with his life, it would be the new rector of Christ Episcopal Church.

The Rev. Webster Gibson’s father was an Episcopalian minister, as were his grandfather, three uncles, and several cousins. Two of his great-grandfathers were bishops.

One of the great-grandfathers, the Rt. Rev. Robert Atkinson Gibson, was the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, of which Christ Episcopal is part.

Established in 1738 in a log cabin, it was the first Episcopal parish organized west of the Blue Ridge. The tomb of Thomas, the Sixth Lord Fairfax is on the grounds. The original structure survived the Civil War with little more than smashed windows. The church now occupies several several brick buildings along Boscawen and Washington streets.

A typical Sunday attracts 250 to 300 worshippers for both services, Gibson said, although more than 1,000 members are on the rolls.

He plans to work to build up youth programs while attending to the spiritual needs of older members.

"I don’t expect this place to be everything for everybody," he said, but he would like Christ Episcopal to be a place people can come to give thanks or be healed.

The man who took his time answering the call to serve is now very clear about his mission here.

"I hope I can be an instrument of God’s grace to make this a place where people can live out their service to God."

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Choirmaster directed to new church post
ANDREW BROPHY
Connecticut Post Online
08/26/2007

FAIRFIELD — Alan Murchie, Trinity Episcopal Church's new choirmaster and organist, first set eyes on the landmark church in an unusual way.

Murchie, 44, was driving from New Haven to Manhattan on Interstate 95 about three years ago when his tire blew out by exit 21.

A passing motorist, described by Murchie as "a gentle, kind soul," stopped to help him put on a spare and told him where he could get a new tire for his car.

After dropping off his car in Southport, Murchie and a friend decided to kill time by walking around. "We ended up walking down Center Street, right smack into Trinity," Murchie said.

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Reverend found place at church
Grace Episcopal's Glidden dies suddenly
By MEG HECKMAN
Concord Monitor Online
August 27, 2007

Whether he was cracking jokes in the classroom, pulling into church on his motorcycle or strolling toward a parishioner's house with a loaf of fresh-baked bread in hand, the Rev. Scott Glidden usually made people smile.

Glidden, 57, had led East Concord's cozy Grace Episcopal Church for just over a year when he died suddenly last Sunday at his Nashua home. Despite his short tenure, he'd already formed close bonds with the congregation and the community. In April, the church asked Glidden to stay for good, ending Grace's search for a new vicar and satisfying his desire to return to the pulpit full time.

"After waiting for the right time and the right place, he really found it with the people of Grace Church and was really rejoicing with that opportunity," said the Rev. Canon Tim Rich, who works for the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. "It's just sad that it was so short-lived."

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A history of "Hallelujah"

Unsettling History of That Joyous ‘Hallelujah’
By MICHAEL MARISSEN
Published: April 8, 2007

IN New York and elsewhere a “Messiah Sing-In” — a performance of Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” with the audience joining in the choruses — is a musical highlight of the Christmas season. Christians, Jews and others come together to delight in one of the consummate masterpieces of Western music.

His work was an influence on the librettist Charles Jennens, bottom, who collaborated on “Messiah” with Handel, top.

The high point, inevitably, is the “Hallelujah” chorus, all too familiar from its use in strange surroundings, from Mel Brooks’s “History of the World, Part 1,” where it signified the origins of music among cavemen, to television advertising for behemoth all-terrain vehicles.

So “Messiah” lovers may be surprised to learn that the work was meant not for Christmas but for Lent, and that the “Hallelujah” chorus was designed not to honor the birth or resurrection of Jesus but to celebrate the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in A.D. 70. For most Christians in Handel’s day, this horrible event was construed as divine retribution on Judaism for its failure to accept Jesus as God’s promised Messiah.

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Gimme that old-time organ

Ranks of church organists dwindling
11:50 PM PST on Tuesday, February 27, 2007
By BETTYE WELLS MILLER
The Press-Enterprise (Inland Southern California)

When the organist at Murrieta United Methodist Church moved away in the summer of 2005, no one expected that finding a replacement would take 18 months.

Church members advertised on the Internet and with the American Guild of Organists. They posted fliers at regional colleges and called every music store, music teacher and organ seller they could find, said Karen Ramos, a church member who led the hiring search.

No one responded.

Finally, a Loma Linda University pharmacy student applied, a woman with 17 years of piano experience and more than seven years on the pipe organ. She got the part-time position and started earlier this month.

"We were very lucky" to find an experienced organist, Ramos said. "Almost nobody out there is playing the organ."

The Murrieta church is not alone.

Low pay, fewer organ students and the growing popularity of praise bands accompanied by electronic keyboards, guitars and drums contribute to the shortage, Inland organists and experts said.

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