In They Will See His Face, Richard Eyer discusses the Sanctus as something far more than what we see.

At this point in the Divine Service the curtain separating this life from the next is drawn back and we sing with those who have gone before us the glory of Christ’s victory over sin and death. Here, in the Divine Service, as nowhere else on earth, we are together as one, saints above and saints on earth. Here, more than anywhere else in this life, we are near to those who have died in Christ. No memories or private devotions can rival the reality that all the community of heaven worships with us when we worship together in the Divine Service on a Sunday morning. What better place to find healing and reunion with loved ones than in the gathering of God’s people before the altar? (Eyer quoted in Wieting, The Blessings of Weekly Communion, page 202)

One of the great joys I have as an organist is leading this earthly and heavenly host in song. This is the time in the service when all the stops on our 7-rank pipe organ get pulled out and I would use the zimblestern (if I had one).  Today, on All Saints Day, I hauled out the handbells and had several ringers be the zimblestern.  It is both a humbling and exhilarating experience to lead this host.

The next time your pastor says the Proper Preface and you sing the Sanctus, remember you are being joined by all the heavenly hosts.  I don’t think you’ll ever look at it the same way again.

Thanks for reading Singing With All the Saints.

And he is direct. Rule #11 of Elementary Rules of Liturgical Usage – “Churches are not carpeted.”

Dr. Arthur Just presented a paper at the 2008 Good Shepherd Institute – Confident Liturgy: Presiding with Hospitality and Grace that referenced Kavanagh’s “An Approach to Liturgical Style”. While Kavanagh comes from the Roman Catholic tradition and is looking at the role of the presider in the liturgy, I think portions of his list can serve equally well for church musicians.

1. Place yourself in the background.
2. Do things naturally.
3. Know the assembly’s liturgical tradition thoroughly.
4. Do the liturgy with directness and vigor.
5. Beware of particularizing the liturgy.
6. Beware of liturgical fundamentalism.
7. Do not over-ceremonialize.
8. Do not affect a loose informality.
9. Do not explain too much.
10. Strive for simplicity.
11. Do not get too relevant.
12. Learn to live with symbol.
13. Adapt culture to the liturgy rather than liturgy to culture.

For example, church musicians (and architects!) should take item #1 into account. How does the placement of the musicians serve (or distract) from the proclamation of the Word? Does a particular location put more emphasis on the musician rather than the message?

Or take item #3: I would expect a Lutheran musician to make different musical choices than a Baptist or Pentecostal musician. An introit, gradual, or psalm chanting/singing/saying might be foreign to a Baptist (and some Lutherans), but they offer an important insight and reflection on other parts of the Divine Service.

I don’t want to give the impression that this list is a LAW, but I do offer it as an opportunity to reflect on how we provide musical leadership in the worship service. Our actions and choices do make a difference.

Thanks for reading Elements of Liturgical Style.

Thanks for reading Children & Worship.

What a blessing it is to be in the Divine Service when heaven meets earth. Literally.

Thanks for reading Heaven on Earth.

“The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of with the least surprises . . . Today it is a liturgical fruit basket upset.” — David Scaer from the Advantage of Liturgical Ruts (Logia 6:2 pg 53-54)

At one time a typical American Lutheran church would be using the Lutheran Hymnal or Service Book and Hymnal depending on which acronym of Lutheranism it was affiliated with.  The worship service each week was familiar (which to some meant repetitious).  The young children learned the liturgy and hymns next to their siblings, from their parents and grandparents.  New members to the church or the Lutheran faith learned from being immersed each week in the Divine Service and catechesis.

Now you have to contend with the likes of traditional, contemporary, blended, emergent, progressive, multi-generational and try to determine what it all means. Liturgical innovation is the name of the game.  As a liturgical Forest Gump might have said, “Worship is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’ll get.”

I find a calmness in the predictability of the Divine Services in Lutheran Service Book.  They all follow the same outline, granted with different musical settings and different texts, and offer opportunities for variety  — elaboration and simplification during the rhythm of the church year.  Some might lament five settings of the Divine Service in LSB, but I tend to like an intentional and planned use of the settings throughout the year.  At first, learning a new service setting or hymn might be challenging, but soon the challenge fades away.  It becomes like breathing — it just happens and is natural.

Ultimately, I think careful and deliberate worship planning comes down to a respect and reverence for the worship patterns that we have as Lutherans.  Not that we “idolize” these forms, but we ask ourselves why we may want to deviate from them.

Just as Dr. Scaer provided the introduction to this blog post, I will also let him end it.

“We don’t notice a good shoe, which is often an old one.” (Logia 6:2 pg 53-54)

Thanks for reading The Liturgical Fruit Basket.

In today’s reading, Wieting discusses the singing of the Sanctus in the Communion liturgy by referencing a selection from They Will See His Face by Richard Eyer.

At this point in the Divine Service the curtain separating this life from the next is drawn back and we sing with those who have gone before us the glory of Christ’s victory over sin and death. Here, in the Divine Service, as nowhere else on earth, we are together as one, saints above and saints on earth. Here, more than anywhere else in this life, we are near to those who have died in Christ. No memories or private devotions can rival the reality that all the community of heaven worships with us when we worship together in the Divine Service on a Sunday morning. What better place to find healing and reunion with loved ones than in the gathering of God’s people before the altar? (Eyer quoted in Wieting, page 202)

One of the great joys I have as an organist is leading this earthly and heavenly host in song. This is the time in the service when all the stops on our 7-rank pipe organ get pulled out and I would use the zimblestern (if I had one). It is both a humbling and exhilarating experience.

I’d be interested to know how others interpret the Sanctus. Do you and/or your congregation see it as singing with all the saints?

Thanks for reading Sanctus: Singing With All the Saints.

Awhile back I came across the following quote in a book entitled Conduct of the Service by Rev. Dr. Arthur Carl Piepkorn which sparked my thinking.

The primary function of the Choir is to lead the Congregation in the singing of the Liturgy and the Hymns, and to sing the Propers when they are beyond the capacity of the Congregation. The singing of optional anthems and other compositions apart from the Ordinary, the Propers and Hymns is at best a secondary function of the Choir and should not be allowed to become its primary function or reason for existing.

How many of us have this understanding of the choir? The Lutheran choir is a Liturgical choir. I have a dear friend who reminds me several times each year that when she sang in the choir many years ago, they would chant the introit and gradual each Sunday (and that they sang lots of Bach chorales).

For the last month, my church’s choir has been learning Divine Service Setting Four from Lutheran Service Book and several new hymns. They have been teaching the congregation by example and supporting the singing in a way that I cannot do on the organ by myself. I can lead on the organ by my articulation, phrasing, tempo, and registrations, but the addition of the choir lends another helpful dimension.

There are a number of resources available to help the average choir director, with an average choir, and an average accompanist/organist to sing and lead the Propers.

• Acclamation is a new weekly resource from Concordia Publishing House which contains settings of the Introit, Psalm of the Day, Gradual, Gospel Acclamation, and Hymn of the Day. It is available to match the historic one-year lectionary or the three-year lectionary from Lutheran Service Book.
• Liturgy Solutions offers a number of helpful resources for the weekly singing of the Propers based on the one-year and three-year lectionaries.
• Concordia Publishing House will also be releasing Lutheran Service Book: Propers of the Day in January 2008. This resource will contain the Propers from the LSB Altar Book for each Sunday and festival in a convenient form for chanting and worship preparation/study. After some practice it becomes quite easy to learn how to chant with a LSB or similar chant tone.

Learning to sing the Propers, the Ordinary, and the hymns can be a rewarding way for the choir to proclaim the Word and the theme of the day to the congregation. Why not devote a portion of your choral time to practicing what may be the most important role of the Choir?

Thanks for reading The Lutheran Choir.