I bet you can name the ten commandments right? No? How about where they are located in the old testament? No? Well, let Chuck explain about the ten commandments.
Monthly Archives: August 2023
Pender Handbells
Handbells are not just for children and teens! We have adult handbell groups for beginner to advanced ringers. The difficulty level of handbell music is rated from Level 1 (easy) to Level 6 (most difficult). Each of the groups rings 6-8 times in worship between September and June and participates in the annual Christmas handbell concert.
The groups also like to participate in the various festivals that are held by the regional handbell guild (Handbell Musicians of America – Area 3). Our rehearsals are full of laughing and ringing (sometimes more laughing than ringing!) You do not have to know how to read music to learn how to ring handbells!
Carillon Ringers group is for ringers who ring Level 2 and Level 3 music.
Carillon Ringers rehearse at 6:45 Tuesday. The handbells will play during the Traditional Service about once every four to six weeks. Brian will make out the usual schedule at the beginning of rehearsals starting on September 5th
Joy Ringers group is for advanced ringers who ring Level 4 and Level 5 music
Joy Ringers rehearse at 7:30 Tuesday. The handbells will play during the Traditional Service about once every four to six weeks. Brian will make out the usual schedule at the beginning of rehearsals starting on September 5th
Interested? Contact Pender
Let’s Go Fishing!
SIGN OF THE FISH. Ever wonder why the symbol of a fish is inside many church sanctuaries?
Smile and learn with Chuck as he explains the meaning and history of the fish symbol in the Christian church.
Hymn History: All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
“All hail the power of Jesus’ name!
Let angels prostrate fall,
bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all.”
“All Hail the Power of Jesus Name” was the opening hymn at Pender’s 9:00 am Traditional Service on July 30, 2023 It was sung by Pender’s congregation, accompanied on piano by Heidi Jacobs and violin by Sean Wittmer.
The Pender UMC Traditional Service Opening Hymn “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” on Sunday July 3, 2022 was played by Liz Sellers on piano and sung by the Pender Congregation.
The popularity of this late-18th-century hymn may be attested by the fact it appears in hymnals with as many as three different tunes: CORONATION, DIADEM and MILES’ LANE. Each tune reflects a different cultural and denominational context in which this text is sung.
Another unusual aspect of “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” is the number of modifications that have been made from the original text.
The original hymn text dates from 1779 and 1780, and was first printed in November 1779 in the Gospel Magazine, a publication by “Rock of Ages” composer Augustus M. Toplady. An eight-stanza version appeared just a year later in the same magazine titled, “On the Resurrection. The Lord is King.”
Massive alterations began as early as 1787 when the text was included in John Rippon’s Selection of Hymns with the title “The Spiritual Coronation, Canticles 3:11”—a reference to the Song of Songs: “Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.”
British hymnologist and literary scholar J.R. Watson notes, “By applying Solomon’s crowning to this hymn, the Old Testament reference is seen as Solomon’s prefiguring of Christ.”
Among the most notable changes made by Rippon was the final stanza. Perronet originally wrote:
“Let every tribe and every tongue
That bound creation’s call,
Now shout in universal song
The crowned Lord of all.”
Rippon’s version, which took hold in the early 19th century and remains in constant use today, is:
“O that with yonder sacred throng
We at his feet may fall,
We’ll join the everlasting song,
And crown him Lord of all.”
Perronet (1726-1792) was born in Sundridge, England, and died in Canterbury. His family came from the Huguenots of Switzerland, and according to The UM Hymnal editor Carlton Young, “was closely associated with and esteemed by the Wesleys.”
Against the desires of John Wesley, Perronet promoted the idea that Methodist preachers should be able to administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. In another controversial act, Perronet published a satire on the Church of England, The Mitre, angering the Countess of Huntingdon in whose chapel he served. As a result, he left to become a minister in the independent chapel in Canterbury.
Working together for a time, Wesley encouraged Perronet to preach, but Perronet preferred to defer to Wesley. The Methodism founder persisted, however, and announced that, “Brother Perronet will now speak.” Perronet stood before a large crowd and declared, “I will now deliver the greatest sermon ever preached on earth.” He then read the Sermon on the Mount and promptly sat down.
The tunes commonly associated with this famous text reveal much about this joyful expression of the 18th-century evangelical revival movement. CORONATION is a tune by American Oliver Holden (1792) and was first published in Boston in 1793. A stately tune in duple meter, it has the character of a coronation march.
DIADEM was composed by James Ellor in 1838 at the age of 19 for the anniversary of a Wesleyan Sunday school in his hometown of Droylsden, Manchester. This tune, in triple rhythm, has the feel of a stately minuet and suggests an anthem to be sung by a choir, especially with the independent parts of the refrain. It is indeed thrilling to hear congregations or church musicians sing this version in four parts.
The tune originally paired with this text, MILES’ LANE, does not appear in The United Methodist Hymnal. Written by William Shrubsole (1760-1806), it is less favored, in light of the other more buoyant tune options.
Regardless of the tune, the version we sing today leaves no doubt that the entire earth—from the “chosen seed of Israel’s race” and “sinners” and “martyrs” to “every kindred, every tribe on this terrestrial ball”—will sing the “everlasting song” at Jesus’ feet. Now that will be a song to hear!
Dr. Hawn is professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology.
Adapted from https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-all-hail-the-power-of-jesus-name
Hymn History: God of Grace and God of Glory
“God of Grace and God of Glory”
Harry Emerson Fosdick
The United Methodist Hymnal, No. 577
God of grace and God of glory,
on thy people pour thy power;
crown thine ancient church’s story;
bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the facing of this hour.
“God of Grace and God of Glory” was the opening hymn at Pender’s 9:00 am Traditional Service on Pentecost, May 28, 2023.
It was sung by Pender’s congregation, accompanied on piano by Heidi Jacobs and guitar by Brian Stevenson.
Pender Opening Hymn “God of Grace and God of Glory” May 22, 2022 accompanied by flute and cello.
“God of grace and God of glory” was written in 1930 by Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) for the dedication of the famous Riverside Church in New York City.
Fosdick was granted degrees from Colgate University and Union Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1903 to ministry in the Baptist Church and became pastor of First Baptist Church, Montclair, N.J.
Fosdick served as a chaplain during World War I and then was pastor of First Presbyterian Church in New York City. From this congregation he was called to pastor Park Avenue Baptist Church, which was renamed Riverside Church.
As we sing this hymn, perhaps it is helpful to remind ourselves of the events that shaped the “hour” and the “days” that provide the context for this great hymn.
“God of grace and God of glory” was written while the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression between the two World Wars. Fosdick was a champion of the social gospel, a movement that recognized the plight of the poor, especially in the urban Northeast during the Industrial Revolution.
UM Hymnal editor Carlton Young has noted: “Fosdick’s stirring radio sermons, books, and public pronouncements established Riverside as a forum for the critique of the same wealth and privilege whose gifts had made possible the building of the church.
“Under his leadership Riverside Church was interdenominational, interracial, without a creed, and, astonishingly for Baptists, required no specific mode of baptism. At the center of Fosdick’s ministry was urban social ministry.”
Fosdick was perhaps the most vocal proponent of the social gospel of his time—a position that brought both wide acclaim and broad disdain.
The congregation moved to a $5 million edifice made possible by a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr. The new building overlooked the Hudson River in what Fosdick called “a less swank district” than Park Avenue, where the congregation had been located near Harlem.
The hymn was written in the summer of 1930. It took shape as he reflected on the construction of the new building, and was first sung as the processional hymn at the opening service on Oct. 5, 1930, and again at the dedication on Feb. 8, 1931.
The language of the hymn is ultimately that of petition. “Grant us wisdom, grant us courage” concludes each stanza with the effect of a refrain. A petition begins stanza three with “Cure thy children’s warring madness,/ bend our pride to thy control.” The final stanza, equally prophetic, begins with “Save us from weak resignation/ to the evils we deplore.”
Fosdick wrote the text to be sung to the stately REGENT SQUARE (usually sung to “Angels from the realms of glory”). Methodist hymnologist and hymnal editor Robert G. McCuthan, however, first paired it with the Welsh tune CWM RHONDDA for the 1935 Methodist Hymnal. It was an immediate success and the new coupling has been almost universally adopted.
Hymnologist William Reynolds says Fosdick disapproved strongly of the new pairing. When Dr. Young asked the poet why he continued to oppose the use of CWM RHONDDA with his text, Fosdick replied, “My views are well known—you Methodists have always been a bunch of wise guys.”
That discussion notwithstanding, I object to the tempo played by many organists who take the hymn much too fast at the beginning, forcing the congregation to race through the prophetic petitions that conclude each stanza. The Welsh tune demands an appropriately stately tempo (think “processional,” not “horse race”) that gives the congregation time to absorb the challenges offered by the poet.
Adapted from https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-god-of-grace-and-god-of-glory
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