Arts and Music at Redeemer

We can’t get ahold of the VU Gallery curators by phone, but the WSDOT site says the way north is clear. We’re going to try this again!

Join us for a contemplative and joyous service featuring:

• Prophetic readings
• Seasonal hymns and anthems
• Solos from Handel’s “Messiah”
• New Advent art on display

Lessons and Carols

Genesis 3:1-15 (Adam and Eve rebel against God and are cast out of the Garden of Eden)

Hymn 60 - Creator of the stars of night

Isaiah 40:1-11 (God comforts his people and calls on them to prepare for redemption)

Comfort ye my people - Georg Frideric Handel

Every valley shall be exalted

• Samuel Rodarte, tenor

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (A new covenant is promised which will be written on our hearts)

Song of Ezekiel - Monte Mason

Isaiah 6:1-11 (God reveals his glory to the prophet and calls him to be his messenger)

Hymn 69 - What is the crying at Jordan?

Isaiah 11:1-9 (The Spirit of the Lord will rest on the Holy One)

The Lord will come and not be slow - Henry G. Ley

Zephaniah 3:14-18 (The Lord will be among us; we are summoned to rejoice and sing)

Hymn 71 - Hark! the glad sound!

Luke 1:5-25 (An angel announces to Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth will bear a son)

Song of Zechariah - Richard Fabian

Whoof. We may need an Advent miracle if we’re going to get all of the art up in the church on Saturday. Angela and I started to drive up to Bellingham this morning to retrieve her paintings from the VU Gallery. Just as we passed through Everett, we phoned a friend who lives nearby to ask him if he wanted to meet us for coffee on our way back. He said, “Turn around. Now.”

He told us that Bellingham was snowed in - the only people getting in or out of town were those with SUVs, and Western Washington University (our destination) was closed. While we spoke on the phone, traffic was slowing to a crawl all around us as the highway became covered with thick slush.

So we turned around and went home. I really, really hope that the way north is clear before the end of the week or we’re going to be looking at one mighty bare wall on Saturday night. Pray for us, would you?

- Wade

Prayer, loving conversation with God, is the supreme good. It is both a relationship with God and union with him. As the eyes of the body are made sharper by the sight of light, so the soul yearning for God is illumined by his ineffable light. Prayer is not the result of an external attitude; it comes from the heart. It is not limited to set hours or minutes, but, night and day, it is a continuous activity.

It is not enough to direct one’s thoughts to God when concentrating exclusively on prayer; even when absorbed in other occupations - such as, caring for the poor, or some other concern in the way of a good or useful work - it is important to combine the work with desire for an remembrance of God. For thus you will be able to offer the Lord a very pleasing food from the universe, seasoned with the salt of love for God.

…Prayer brings the soul to the heavenly fountain, satisfies the soul with this draught, and raises up in it “a fountain leaping up to provide eternal life.” Prayer gives a real assurance of the good things to come, in  faith, and makes present blessings more recognizable. Do not imagine that prayer consists only in words. It is a leap to God, an inexpressible love not of our making.

- John Chrysostom

Last Saturday, our painting crew took an enormous canvas coated with a base coat of paint and gesso and turned it into a nearly-finished altarpiece. As always, we took a few pictures of the process.

Just one more session to go! The finished piece will go up along with the other artwork at the Advent Lessons and Carols service at 7:30 PM on Saturday, December 2nd.

- Wade

Story written for the April 15, 2006 Easter Vigil liturgy at Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, WA.

“Ararat”
by Wade Rockett

I, the mountain Ararat, one of the highest upon the Earth; to the small crawling things: grace and peace be upon you, and glory and honor to our Shaper above, whose triple peaks shine like the sun, and whose slopes endure forever. Amen.

You have asked me to tell what I remember of the Great Flood. I was there, of course, although I was new then. We, the highest, were all new: formed in ancient darkness beneath the deep waters, we rose at the Shaper’s call to break the surface with a crash and a roar, sending wet spray skyward from our slopes. We became land, hills, mountains, valleys, canyons, rocks, boulders, the Shaper’s love made manifest in hard stone, glowing gems, veins of hidden gold.

We are stone and stone is strong; but water – the first-made of Creation – is stronger still. Water erodes, dissolves, cracks, breaks mountains into gravel and sweeps the pieces into the sea. It was the Shaper’s mercy that brought forth dry land from the waters of creation. It was the Shaper’s wrath that would now plunge the land, and all that lived upon it, back into the deeps.

(more…)

Faith is working on a beautiful altar cloth (called a “frontal”) to be used during this upcoming Advent season. Here’s the design, done in paper:

I also got these pics of the church kids working on the banner that will hang in the church:

Several people took pictures during Saturday’s painting party for the piece that’s going up over the altar. I’ll post those once I get them all assembled.

Speaking of photos, Redeemer has joined a brand new Flickr photo group called The Episcopal Church Welcomes You. (First post! :-)

- Wade

The church kids have started painting the banner that will hang on the wall across from the entrance to the nave. Our information on this top secret project is limited - so far, we’ve only caught a glimpse of a manger. We’re going to try to persuade the Sunday School teachers to take some photos of the work in progress.

Speakling of which, we’ve begun documenting the creation of our Advent altar piece on Flickr. The first painting party was last Saturday, where we set down a base coat of paint and gesso.

The canvas is huge. It’ll be really interesting to see what emerges. It’ll also be really interesting to see how we’re going to get it up the stairs.

Angela’s collage paintings are in Bellingham right now at the VU Gallery. When that show comes down, select pieces will go on display the nave at Redeemer for a special Advent exhibition.

What we’re saying is, the church is going to have a whole new look this season.

- Wade

Saturday, November 25th - Choral Evensong, Christ the King Eve

• 7:30 PM choral Evensong and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
• Christ’s mystical presence in the bread of Holy Communion is a focal point for evening psalms, music, readings, prayers, and a time of silent meditation