Old South Church Sunday Bulletin

Thanksgiving Sunday
November 19, 2006

11:15 a.m. Services
10:55 a.m. Preludes
(Order of Worship below)

A Congregation of the United Church of Christ
The Old South Church in Boston
Gathered 1669

This Week's Calendar
OSC Home Page

A SERVICE OF

REMEMBRANCE AND THANKSGIVING

Today marks the 51st anniversary of the return of the Old South congregation to our
<>historic home, the Old South Meeting House. The congregation left this Meeting House in 1872 to relocate to a more favorable location in the Back Bay. Since 1955 we have returned each November for a 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 foreparents in the faith, who are now with God and the great cloud of witnesses.

THE GATHERING

PRELUDE                   Contrapunctus #5 J.S. Bach

                    Divertimento Leonard Salzedo

                         Scherzo C.M. Widor

                         Rlcercar G.P. da Palestrina

      Bourree from the Water Music G.F. Handel

HANDBELL INTROIT           God’s Beautiful World Dan Edwards

* 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 his 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, whole-some 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 for ever purified, In thy presence to abide;

Come, with all thine angels, come, Raise the glorious harvest home. Amen.

* CALL TO WORSHIP (responsively)          Nancy S. Taylor

Leader: Grace to you and peace from God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sustainer.

People: Indeed, the grace of the Triune God be and abide with you.

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, O God, at its heart. We remember with poignancy and pain native inhabitants of this land, ranging from coast to coast, now diminished, in many cases bloodied, broken, lost—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, women, the poor, and persons of differing sexual orientations and expressions.

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, when hunger afflicts tens of millions, when whole populations live under the pall of terror and warfare—we beg you,

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.

People: Full of thanksgiving, we offer you, O God, all praise and glory.

*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              Tadd Allman-Morton

READING THE PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING     Jeff Makholm, Church Moderator

CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE

     “God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!”

ANTHEM Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal           Traditional, arr. Alice Parker

Hark, I hear the harps eternal! Ringing on the farther shore,

Hallelujah, praise the Lamb, glory to the great I AM.

And my soul, though stained with sorrow, fading as the light of day,

Passes swiftly o’er those waters to the city far away.

Souls have crossed before me, saintly, to that land of perfect rest;

And I hear them singing faintly in the mansions of the blest.

        Traditional text

THE GIFT OF THE WORD

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS           Quinn G. Caldwell and the children of the congregation

THE WORDS OF JOHN WYCLIFFE         Meghan O’Brien

SCRIPTURE                                 Judges 21: 25

*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; he forgets not his 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!

SERMON          Nancy S. Taylor

UNISON PRAYER (by Henry Sloane Coffin, 1877-1954, adapted)

Sovereign of Saints, who has through all the ages fulfilled Thy plans through faithful souls, loyal to truth, steadfast in conviction, brave for conscience sake and lovers of all people, grant that, as we recall that glorious succession, unknown and well-known, to whose toil and courage we owe our faith, our freedom and our ideals, we may drink of their cup of devotion to Thy will, and be baptized with their consecration to human life; and in our day inspire our generation with trust in Thee, with passion for Thy loving justice, and with enthusiasm for Thy realm, through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

*HYMN (page 6)          Great is Your Faithfulness                Faithfulness

OFFERING OURSELVES, OUR PRAYERS, OUR GIFTS

*CALL TO PRAYER                   Quinn G. Caldwell

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.)

PASTORAL PRAYER

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

THE MORNING OFFERING

OFFERING ANTHEM              Make Ye A Joyful Noise            Erik Gustafson
<>
Make ye a joyful noise unto Jehovah all the earth:
Serve ye Jehovah with gladness: before him come with mirth.

Know, that Jehovah he is God, not we ourselves, but he

hath made us: his people, and sheep of his pasture are we.
<>

O Enter ye into his gates with praise, and thankfulness
into his Courts: confess to him, and his Name do ye bless.
<>

Because Jehovah he is good, his bounteous mercy
is everlasting: and his truth is to eternity.

        Psalm 100, from the Bay Psalm Book (1640)

Please Note: The Offering Anthem moves directly into the Doxology without a pause; the congregation is invited to stand at a signal from the Director of Music and join in singing with the choir and instrumentalists.

* DOXOLOGY                                                                          Old Hundredth
<> Be-cause Je-ho-vah he-is-good, (pause)

his boun-teous mer-cy and his love (pause)

is ev-er-last-ing and his truth (pause)
is to--e--ter-ni-ty. (pause) A-men!

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION              Tadd Allman-Morton

*HYMN (page 9)              We Plough the Fields and Scatter                 Wir pflűgen

* BIDDING TO MISSION                                                            Nancy S. Taylor

One: We go forth from this place in the company of the great cloud of witnesses whose presence gives us courage to live deeply and well today.

Many: May God grant us eyes to see God’s vision of mercy and justice. May God grant us hearts to do God’s will in this broken world.

One: May God’s Spirit fall upon us anew, kindling in us steely determination, dancing laughter and infectious awe at God’s bounteous love.

Many: For in Christ, God has made us whole, giving us new life, new hope and new joy.

One: Thanks be to you, O God.

Many: Thanks and praise, indeed, be to you, O God.

* BENEDICTION

POSTLUDE          Praise the Lord With Drums and Cymbal      Sigfrid Karg-Elert

TODAY’S READINGS

The Gettysburg Address, by Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

John Wycliffe, from his Prologue to the first translation of the entire Bible, 1380

“This Bible is for the government of the people, by the people and for the people.”

The Hebrew Bible, the Book of Judges 21:25

"There was no king in Israel and all the people did what was right in their own eyes."

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.

Our scripture reader this morning is Meghan O’Brien. Meghan is a senior in High School and a member of the Old South Youth Group.

The flowers today are given by Mt. Vernon Church in memory of Charlotte Holmes.

Today more than twenty volunteers are extending hospitality to visitors and parishioners. In addition, some thirty volunteers sing in the choir, while others are teaching in the Church School. If you’re interested in volunteering for hospitality tasks, please call Betty Smith at 781/721-7777; to get involved with the choir, call Brian Jones at 617/425-5146; or to find out more about the church school, call Tricia Hazeltine at 617/536-1970. Thank you!

CD recordings of today’s service may be obtained by calling Rhoda Harding at 617/5361970 or emailing <reception@oldsouth.org>. Sunday sermons are also available on the Web and as podcasts at <www.oldsouth.org>.

Thank you for turning the volume off on all cell phones, pagers and beepers!

›››››››››

For information or to join the Old South E-mail Forum, send an e-mail message to

<oldsouth-approval@world.std.com>.

NOTES ON TODAY’S MUSIC

The Prelude this morning includes a wide variety of music by several composers. Best known is Handel’s Water Music. The Scherzo by Charles-Marie Widor will remind some of the famous organ toccata which is often played at Easter. Widor was an eminent French organist who played at St. Sulpice in Paris. Salzedo was a prolific English composer of Spanish descent who lived from 1921—2000, and is often mistaken for the famous harpist of the same surname. Palestrina is better-known for his choral works, but also wrote a considerable body of music for instruments. J. S. Bach wrote his numerous “contrapuncti” to demonstrate aspects of counterpoint, which is polyphony, where one voice is stated at the beginning and then brought in the various voices (today: brass instruments) and which modulate into many keys. In true counterpoint, every part is of equal value much or most of the time.

The sturdy old American hymn tune Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal is arranged here by Alice Parker, a wonderful woman of great energy, accomplishment and with a vast output of arrangements. Starting with the famous choral conductor, Robert Shaw, in the 1950’s, she has produced an enormous quantity of original music as well as many arrangements of folk songs, hymns and spirituals. An interesting confluence this morning is that Erik Gustafson recently attended a workshop Parker taught for composers and arrangers. Now in her 80’s, Alice Parker’s star shines as brightly as ever, and Erik reports that it was an inspiring week.

Erik Gustafson sings in the Old South Choir, and wrote this setting of Make Ye A Joyful Noise for this morning’s service. It takes its text from the Bay Psalm Book, which is as important a part of American church history as any volume, and which has close associations with Old South Church. Old South owns several copies of it, which are kept in the Boston Public Library. The earliest editions had no music, and the psalms were “lined out” in services, that is to say one person sang a line, and the congregation then echoed the soloist. The anthem today concludes with the congregation joining in the well-known tune Old Hundredth, which is most commonly sung to the words of the doxology, which today are from the Bay Psalm Book. The anthem uses all the musical forces available in the service: choir, bells, brass, piano, and percussion, and Erik is playing the piano this morning as well. The piece opens with a brass fanfare later echoed in the choir, and features an extensive fugue in the middle. The bells then herald the upcoming Old Hundredth hymn tune, when the congregation will rise and join with the musicians in singing. We give thanks for Erik’s manifold gifts to us, especially in this wonderful new anthem.

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.

The Rev. Jacob M. Manning

Served Old South 1857-1872 (15 years)

“He never had dark days, but always seemed to live in the sunshine, never doubting his Lord and never wavering in his devotion … he was quite willing to circumnavigate the whole globe of truth, and was not afraid of anything he might discover, for his first meridian always passed through Calvary, and everything was rated by its relation to that.”

From History of The Old South Church, Boston, by Hamilton Hill, vol. II, pps. 509-510.

The Rev. Dr. George W. Blagden

Served Old South from 1836-1872 (36 years)

“Mr. Blagden was very attractive in his personal appearance and address, scholarly in his attainments, and highly acceptable as a writer and speaker … Always reverent, always fervent, never impassioned, he made a profound impression on his hearers by his entire sermon and service …”

From History of the Old South Church, Boston, by Hamilton A. Hill, Vol. II. pps 500-501.

OLD SOUTH CHURCH IN BOSTON
MINISTERS, OFFICERS AND STAFF

Nancy S. Taylor, Senior Minister
Quinn G. Caldwell, Associate Minister
Brian Jones, Interim Director of Music and Organist
Patricia Hazeltine, Church School Director
Tadd Allman-Morton, Ministerial Intern v Rolanda Ward, Youth Worker
George Sargeant, Assistant Organist v Willie Sordillo, Jazz Service Music Director
Peter Coulombe, Interim Director, Old South Ringers
Calvin Genzel, Wedding Outreach Minister v James W. Crawford, Minister Emeritus

Jeff Makholm, Moderator v David Clark, Clerk
James Monsma, Treasurer v Dwight Crane, Chair, Board of Trustees
Betty Smith, Senior Deacon v Susan T. Campbell, Historian
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 and Robert Blenman, Sextons
Rhoda Harding, Rubia Reyes and Jim McDonnel, Receptionists
Carolyn Davis, Director, Old South Preschool

www.oldsouth.org - 617/536-1970