[Magdalen] End of an Era.

[Allan Carr]

The big ELCA church in town was built sideways to their old church, which
was kept as an oveflow addition. This gave space for a huge organ and choir
on one side for traditional services, and a praise band on the other side
for contemporary services.

This also gave space on one side to project hymns, creeds, and other bits
of the service, but not the readings.

Of the three pastors, only the senior pastor sung the litergy, which was
never sung at the local Episcopal church. He had such a wonderful voice
that it was also easy to sing that difficult Lutheran service music.

If he's still there, maybe I'll check it out again.

On Friday, April 3, 2015, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:

> Literacy is one of the crowning achievements of the modern era.
>> It pleases me to know most of us *can* follow by reading along.
>>
>
> (why bells are unnecessary and merely an a local affectation <g>]
>
> I for one, learned to read at a much higher than Kindergarten/1st grade
> level by the time I was  years old because I **did** follow along the the
> BCP.
>
> It should be noted that the popularity of hymnbooks came along because it
> was not only imperative for children  to learn to read, but music became
> necessary so children could follow and sing the hymns and chants. A
> wonderful book titled "Abide With Me" -- a history of hymns -- the author
> points out that the anticipation of a new hymnal might mean a line outside
> the bookstore in the middle of the night.
>
> Nowadays, that's for Steven King and Harry Potter, and schools and
> churches don't bother to teach music because it's a "frill." Especially in
> the couch-potato evangelical churches where aside from Just As I Am at the
> Altar Call and maybe Amazing Grace now and then, music is something that
> entertains and requires no audience participation.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim Guthrie
>


-- 
Allan Carr