Twenty-fifth Sunday
after Pentecost
Consecration Sunday
9:00 a.m. (Order of Worship) at Old South Church Chapel
&
11:15 a.m. Service at the Old South Meeting House (Washington & Milk Sts.)
(Order of Worship below)
A Congregation of the United Church of Christ
The Old South Church in Boston
Gathered 1669
A WORD ABOUT TODAY’S
SERVICE
Today marks the 52nd anniversary of the return of the Old South congregation to our
historic home, Old South Meeting House. The congregation left the Meeting
House in 1872 to relocate to a more favorable location in the Back Bay.
Since 1955 we have returned here each Thanksgiving Sunday for an annual
service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving. We give thanks for the gifts and
graces of God, for an abundant earth and for the varied joys of human life.
We also pause to remember and honor those who have gone before us, our
foremothers and forefathers in the faith, who are now with God and the great cloud of witnesses.
Preludes begin at 10:50 am and the Service of Worship begins at 11:15 am
Today marks the 52nd anniversary of the return of the Old South congregation to our
historic home, Old South Meeting House. The congregation left the Meeting
House in 1872 to relocate to a more favorable location in the Back Bay.
Since 1955 we have returned here each Thanksgiving Sunday for an annual
service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving. We give thanks for the gifts and
graces of God, for an abundant earth and for the varied joys of human life.
We also pause to remember and honor those who have gone before us, our
foremothers and forefathers in the faith, who are now with God and the great cloud of witnesses.
Preludes begin at 10:50 am and the Service of Worship begins at 11:15 am
THE GATHERING
PRELUDE FOR BRASS Canzona per Sonare No. 4 Giovanni Gabrieli
Ricercar del Primo Tuono Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Simple Gifts Aaron Copland
Scherzo Charles-Marie Widor
My Spirit Be Joyful J.S. Bach
Sonata from Die Bankelsangerlieder Anonymous
INTROIT FOR HANDBELLS AND BRASS J.S. Bach
Now Thank We All Our God from Cantata No. 79
arr. Janet Linker and Jane McFadden
CALL TO WORSHIP (responsively) Quinn G. Caldwell
by Arnold Kenseth, adapted
Leader: O, thou, our God, by whose mystery fields bring forth and by whose
purposes the earth turns to its sun and by whose mercies men and women
dare to rise to the new day, incline to our prayers, our songs, and our
worship and by thy grace inform them
People: So that what we do and think and say and sing and pray,
praises and pleases thy majesty.
Leader: Flood the drought in us.
People: Shake our drowsy spirits.
Leader: Fashion us for the uses of love.
People: Come, O Creator, O Immensity of love, O Eternity of mercy.
Leader: Come, and be with us and in us and beside us and over us.
People: Be as hands upon us and fashion us for shining.
Leader: Be as words within us that we might sing our great thanksgiving.
* HYMN Come, Ye Thankful People, Come St. George’s Windsor
Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide for our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.
All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto God’s praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown, unto joy or sorrow grown;
First the blade, and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.
For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take the harvest home;
From our field shall in that day, all offenses purge away,
Give the angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast,
But the fruitful ears to store, in God’s garner ever more.
Even so, Lord, quickly come to thy final harvest home;
Gather thou thy people in, free from sorrow free from sin;
There forever purified, in thy presence to abide;
Come, with all thine angels, come, raise the glorious harvest home.
Amen.
*A SIGN OF OUR UNITY AND RECONCILIATION
We invite you to greet those around you,
wishing them “Peace” or “the peace of Christ”
WORDS OF WELCOME
A MESSAGE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE Robert W. Brown
READING THE PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING Jeff Makholm
CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE
“God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!”
ANTHEM On God, and Not on Human Trust Johann Pachelbel
On God, and not on human trust,
My earthly stand I’ve taken;
On Him who made me out of dust
I build with faith unshaken;
I trust His hands who understands;
For all that He bestowesth
Is good, as He best knoweth.
-C.F. Gellert, tr. W. G. Polack
THE GIFT OF THE WORD
SCRIPTURE Isaiah 65:17-25 Laura and Marisa Bulkeley
The prophet Isaiah proclaims God’s glorious new creation.
The scripture text is found on page 10 in the bulletin.
*HYMN We Plow the Fields and Scatter Wir pflügen
(see facing page)
SERMON God Save the Commonwealth Nancy S. Taylor
*HYMN We Gather Together Kremser
We gather together to ask for God’s blessing,
Who chastens and hastens God’s will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to God’s name; she forgets not her own.
Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining the kingdom divine,
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, wast at our side, all glory be thine.
We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
And pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation.
Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!
OFFERING OURSELVES, OUR PRAYERS, OUR GIFTS
*CALL TO PRAYER Abigail G. Henderson
Leader: The God of Jesus Christ be with you.
People: And also with you!
Leader: Let us give thanks to God, the Creator of all things visible and
invisible, powerful beyond measure, good beyond all understanding.
People: God’s steadfast love endures forever.
Leader: Let us pray. (The congregation may be seated.)
LITANY OF CONFESSION AND THANKSGIVING
Leader: We gather this Sabbath day to worship God and to celebrate divine gifts
granted to us and to this earth … gifts that are greater than we can ask
or think.
People: We praise you, O God.
Leader: On this Sabbath we remember those coming to these shores seeking freedom
to worship and to build a community with you at its heart. With sorrow
and regret we remember native inhabitants of this land, ranging from coast
to coast, now diminished—victims of those claiming to “build a city on a hill.”
People: Have mercy on us, O God.
Leader: In this season of national thanksgiving, we, nonetheless, sorrowfully
recall lawful, constitutional oppression experienced over the centuries by
African Americans, immigrants, non-Protestants, women, the poor, persons
with disabilities and persons of differing sexual orientations and gender
identities and expressions.
People: Have mercy on us, O God.
Leader: As our nation is engaged in warfare and young men and women have met
their deaths in battle, we who have not learned the art of
peace-making beg you,
People: Have mercy on us, O God.
Leader: In an era of both religious pluralism and explosive tensions between
Muslim, Christian and Jew, we ask your forgiveness for all the times and
ways religion has been the cause of violence and intolerance.
People: Have mercy on us, O God.
Leader: In a time when the chasm widens and deepens between haves and have-nots;
when an AIDS pandemic stalks the world and when hunger afflicts tens of
millions—we beg you, O God,
People: Have mercy on us, O God.
Leader: God of grace and God of glory, we ask your forgiveness and pray we may
recast our priorities to more nearly coincide with those of your Son:
healer of the ill, feeder of the hungry, lover of the outcast, Prince of Peace.
People: Have mercy on us, O God, and hear our earnest desire to serve you
and your realm all the days of our lives.
Leader: The God of grace bestows forgiveness on those who seek it and who
express a readiness and willingness to repent and radically
change their ways.
People: Thanks be to you, O God.
Leader: Thanks indeed, be to you, O God, forgiver of our sins and provider
of all the good gifts of the earth.
A period of silence is observed as we each offer
our own prayers of thanksgiving and petition.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into
temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory forever. Amen.
PRAYER RESPONSE We Limit Not the Truth of God Anglo-Genevan Psalter, 1556
O Father, Son and Spirit, send us increase from above;
Enlarge, expand all Christian souls to comprehend Thy love,
And make us to go on, to know with nobler powers conferred:
The Lord hath yet more light and truth to break forth from His word.
—Based on the parting words
of Pastor John Robinson to the Pilgrim Fathers, 1620
CALL TO THE OFFERING
OFFERING ANTHEM Hymn to the New Age Lee Hoiby
*DOXOLOGY (The congregation joins in singing) Old Hundredth
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Christ the Word in flesh born low;
Praise Holy Spirit evermore;
One God, Triune, whom we adore. Amen.
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION Robert. W. Brown
*HYMN Now Thank We All Our God Nun Danket
Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices,
Who, from our parents’ arms, has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us,
And keep us still in grace, and guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all ills in this world and the next.
All praise and thanks to God our Maker now be given,
To Christ, and Spirit, too, our help in highest heaven,
The one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore,
For thus it was, is now, and shall be ever more.
* BIDDING TO MISSION AND BENEDICTION Nancy S. Taylor
POSTLUDE FOR BRASS Praise the Lord with Drums and Cymbals Sigfried Karg-Elert
TODAY AT OLD SOUTH
Today’s Festival Thanksgiving Service is sponsored by Old South Church in
Boston. Our faith is over 2000 years old, but our thinking is not! Old South
opens its doors to the city, to tourists from near and far, to the needy, to
an array of building users, and to a congregation (of members, friends, and
family—both the curious and the committed) who call this their church home.
Join us for fellowship and refreshments following worship, and next Sunday
at our regular home at the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston Streets.
The flowers today are given by Marc and Diane Gaucher in celebration and
thanksgiving for the abundance in our lives.
Today’s scripture readers, Laura and Marisa Bulkeley—sisters of Christina
and daughters of Bill and Debra—have been active at Old South most of their
lives.
Today’s ASL Interpreter is Tracy Villinski.
More than thirty volunteers are extending hospitality to visitors and
parishioners. In addition, over twenty volunteers sing in the choir, while
others teach in the Church School. If you’re interested in volunteering for
hospitality tasks, please call Betty Smith at 781/721-7777; to sing with the
choir, call George Sargeant at 617/425-5146; to learn about the church
school, call Tricia Hazeltine at 617/536-1970.
Wearing name tags is a great way to facilitate community and make newcomers
feel welcomed. If you don’t see a tag with your name on it, let us
know—there will be one waiting for you next Sunday!
CD recordings of today’s service may be obtained by calling Jessica
Goodknight at 617/536-1970 or emailing <reception@oldsouth.org>. Sunday
sermons and worship services are also available on the Web and as podcasts
at <www.oldsouth.org>.
NOTES ON TODAY’S MUSIC
This morning’s prelude includes a wide variety of music by several
composers. Gabrieli wrote for the unique layout of St. Mark’s Church in
Venice, where he served as organist; many of his works call for multiple
vocal and instrumental choirs placed in different locations throughout the
building. Palestrina is perhaps better known for his choral works, but he
also wrote a considerable body of music for instruments. Copland is the
quintessential 20th-century American composer, and most will recognize the
Shaker song upon which Simple Gifts is based. The Scherzo by Widor will
remind some of the famous organ toccata which is often played at Easter.
Bach’s My Spirit be Joyful comes from his Easter cantata, No. 146.
Today’s introit is also adapted from a movement of one of Bach’s cantatas.
In the arrangement heard today, the choral parts are given to brass and the
instrumental parts are played by handbells.
Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) was a German Baroque composer, organist and
teacher who brought the south German organ tradition to its peak. He
composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to
the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place
among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era. The influence
of these musical forms on his motet On God, and Not on Human Trust is clear;
an unornamented hymn melody is heard in the soprano part accompanied by
intricate polyphony based on fragments of the hymn in the lower three
voices.
Lee Hoiby (b. 1926) began piano study at age 5 and studied at the University
of Wise. He also studied composition with Milhaud at Mills College, Oakland,
CA. He gave up his intentions to be a concert pianist when he received an
invitation to study composition with Gian Carlo Menotti at the Curtis
Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Hymn to the New Age is in the form of an
elaborate hymn arrangement for choir, organ, brass and percussion. It was
first performed at Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York in 1980 and later
heard on the internationally broadcast celebration of the 50th anniversary
of the United Nations at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral.
Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933) was a German composer who wrote a great deal
of organ music, much of it in the late Romantic style. His Praise the Lord
with Drums and Cymbals was originally written for organ and brass, and is
played by the brass alone this morning in the absence of an organ in the
Meetinghouse.
OLD SOUTH CHURCH IN BOSTON
MINISTERS, OFFICERS AND STAFF
Nancy S. Taylor, Senior Minister v Quinn G. Caldwell, Associate Minister
James W. Crawford, Senior Minister Emeritus
Calvin Genzel, Wedding Outreach Minister v Janet Butler, Wedding Coordinator
Ken Orth, Healing Prayer Service Minister
Robert W. Brown & Abigail G. Henderson, Interns
Mark S. Burrows, Theologian in Residence
Patricia Hazeltine, Church School Director v Rolanda Ward, Youth Worker
Carolyn Davis, Director, Old South Preschool
George Sargeant, Interim Director of Music and Organist
Willie Sordillo, Jazz Service Music Director
Peter Coulombe, Interim Director, Old South Ringers
Amy Budka & Phil Stern, Children’s Music Directors
Jeff Makholm, Moderator v David Clark, Clerk v James Monsma, Treasurer
Dwight Crane, Chair, Board of Trustees v Susan T. Campbell, Historian
Diane Gaucher, Senior Deacon v Vicki A. Newman, Pledge Secretary
Helen McCrady, Senior Church Administrator
Amy Perry, Administrative Assistant v Rosemary Clarke, Accountant
Elias Perez, Senior Sexton v Ozo Nwodo & Robert Blenman, Sextons
Jessica Goodknight, Rubia Reyes & Jim McDonnel, Receptionists
www.oldsouth.org v 617/536-1970