Due to the seminary break, there will be no Evening Prayer until Monday, February 3. Morning Prayer continues on weekdays at 7:45 AM on Zoom (not in person). However there will be no Morning Prayer from December 24 to December 31. Zoom Morning Prayer will resume on Monday, January 3.
If you haven't tried praying the Daily Office, our Zoom services are a wonderful way to try it out. Join us to find out how much it can add to your walk with Jesus.
The Diocese of New Jersey has set up a new website focused on formation for all ages. If you'd like to check out their resources, see https://www.growinfaithnj.org. It's truly wonderful to see the work that Canon Susanna Cates and her team have done to make formation resources available to congregations.
Through January 6th, 2025, the documentary about the Philadelphia Eleven — the first women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church in 1974 — will be available for personal screening. Get e-tickets here: https://kinema.com/events/the-philadelphia-eleven-ielwpc.
Dear Beloved of Trinity Church,
This Sunday, we celebrate the third Sunday of Advent. “The term is derived from the Latin opening words of the introit antiphon, ‘Rejoice (Gaudete) in the Lord always.’” * On this day, it is customary to wear rose-colored vestments and light a pink or rose colored candle, hence the alternative name for the day, “Rose Sunday.”
From Philippians 4:4-6:
“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice:
let your moderation be known unto all men:
the Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing:
but in everything, by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.”
This is followed by the first verse from Psalm 85:
“Lord, thou art become gracious unto thy land:
thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob.”
The Latin text:
Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete.
Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus:
Dominus enim prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis:
sed in omni oratione et obsecratione
cum gratiarum actione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum.
Benedixisti Domine terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Jacob.
As we come ever closer to the celebration of the Nativity and our Lord’s return, may we rejoice in heart and soul, in word and deed, for Christ was and is and ever shall be our hope, our peace, our joy, our love, our light.
Advent Blessings,
Paul
* “An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians,”
Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, editors.
Platinum Club meets Dec 16th at noon!
Remember to bring your own lunch to enjoy with friends. Dessert and beverages will be provided. Plan to wear your best or worst Christmas Sweater/outfit. And, during or after lunch we can all share our happiest Christmas memory from childhood..
In church the day before we will celebrate Rose Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent on the 15th, which is known as Joy Sunday; a time for rejoicing in the anticipated arrival of the Christ Child. PEACE, HOPE, JOY, LOVE. Christmas is coming soon!
Did you notice the out-of-season hymn on Sunday? It was “All Glory, Laud and Honor,” one that we generally associate with Palm Sunday. It’s even prescribed by the rubrics of the Prayer Book for that day - one of only a few instances where the Prayer Book recommends a particular hymn. As Meg noted in her article last week, Bach’s church in Leipzig included Palm Sunday music in its Advent observances. Doing so marks the parallels between the coming of Christ into Jerusalem before he was crucified, the coming of Christ in his birth that we observe at Christmas, and the coming of Christ that we expect at the end of days. It also reminds us that Christ comes to us every time we receive the Eucharist. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” we sing at the Sanctus during the Eucharistic Prayer, and in so doing we echo the song at Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Advent is a season when we try to think of past, present, and future at once - which is really hard for humans to do! But this is how God’s time works. One of my favorite illustrations of God’s time is in the TV comedy The Good Place, where Ted Danson’s character explains eternity as “Jeremy Bearimy.” He says, “Things in the afterlife don’t happen while things are happening here, because while time on Earth moves in a straight line — one thing happens, then the next, then the next — time in the afterlife moves in a ‘Jeremy Bearimy’.”
A “Jeremy Bearimy” loops and doubles back on itself, and the dot above the “i” is a pretty good representation of how Augustine describes eternity, where all time is present to God.
This is where we live, especially in this season of Advent where past, present, future, and eternity loop around, double back on themselves, and where God beckons us onward in expectation of Christ’s coming.
Come, Lord Jesus!
Kara+
P.S. I’m writing this from London, where I just saw part of a Roman wall that was built about 80 years after Jesus was raised from the dead. I also got to touch John Wesley’s pulpit at the church he founded. It reminded me in a very tangible way of the beautiful story we are caught up in, the story of God’s action for us in Jesus Christ.
We need some elves to help with the following tasks for the Advent Brunch:
Saturday, December 21st from 12 to 4
· Kitchen help to prep casseroles and other food.
· Set-up and decorating of Pierce Hall.
Sunday, December 22nd
· 9:30 to 11:30 Cook and set out food.
· 11:30 to 12:30 Help with serving.
· 12:30 to 1:30 Cleanup
Please use the Signup Genius below to let us know if you can help. The more the merrier since many hands make light work.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0E4CACAE23A1F58-46589298-trinity
This Sunday, we will experience some extraordinary music to celebrate the first Sunday of Advent. I thought it might be useful to explain a few of the selections so that they can be more fully enjoyed.
At the 10:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist this Sunday, Trinity's staff singers, alongside musicians from the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, will present Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata on the hymn "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" ("Come now, savior of the nations"). This hymn was typically sung on the first Sunday of Advent in Baroque German Lutheran churches (Bach's context), and as a result, there is a wealth of deeply meaningful musical settings of it written through the succeeding centuries. We will intersperse the various movements of this throughout the service, with each verse in a context in which its text pairs well with the readings and prayers of the day.
The opening choral movement, set in the style of a French overture, bids Jesus come and reminds us that his coming has been prophesied. These words will be the formal opening of our season of Advent, and remind us all of the focus of these weeks.
The processional hymn may surprise some: "All glory, laud and honor." In my research of Bach's musical selections for the first Sunday of Advent at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, I found a fascinating pattern. Bach often selected musical settings of the text "Hosanna to the Son of David" for the offertory motet for this day. This is a text traditionally associated with Palm Sunday. By using it for the first Sunday of Advent, Bach drew a liturgical line between the various entries of Christ into the world. This, of course, pairs very effectively with the text of "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland," a hymn he programmed for that day and on which he wrote several cantatas for the same occasion. To emphasize this connection, we will sing "All glory, laud, and honor," which we typically sing as the processional hymn on Palm Sunday.
At the offertory on Sunday, we will hear a recitativo and aria from Bach's cantata that explore Christ's suffering and once again invite him to us. The communion music will be the recitativo "Siehe, ich stehe vor de Tür und klopfe an" ("Look, I stand before the door and knock"). This is a fascinating piece of music, where pizzicato strings create the effect of Christ knocking on the door of the church. The aria "Öffne dich, mein ganzes Herze" ("Open yourself, my whole heart") follows with sweeping melodic lines, speaking of God's graciousness to us.
We will close the 10:30 service by singing the hymn on which the cantata was based as the recessional hymn. The prelude and postlude will also be organ settings by Bach of the same hymn melody. My hope is that this will be an enthusiastic and deeply meaningful way to contemplate Christ's coming into our midst!
I hope you will also consider joining us on Sunday evening for our service of Advent Lessons & Carols at 5:00 p.m. This annual service presents hymns and choral offerings interspersed with readings that prophecy about the coming of Jesus. This year's musical selections include some perennial favorites (Paul Manz's "E'en so, Lord Jesus," Charles Wood's "O thou the central orb," and more). But we will also feature music with a close connection to Trinity Church. Richard Webster, who for years directed the brass ensemble at our annual service of Christmas Lessons & Carols and has a long relationship with this church, will be represented in his setting of "Adam lay ybounden." And we will have music by several living women composers: a setting of "A tender shoot" by Kerensa Briggs and "Earth grown old" by Ghislaine Reece-Trapp. This service is a great opportunity to invite friends who don't already attend Trinity Church to come, enjoy some great music, and participate in a meaningful introduction to the season of Advent!
All my best,
Meg