Sunday, 2011-12-04: TPC

Posted on 2011 Dec 04 by Kat

As some of you know, I wear several freelance hats. One of those is my “God gig”—soloist/section leader at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY. Normally, I post the service music list with my commentary on my music blog. Since that blog is still undergoing renovation, I’m posting it here.

First, the road map: Regular text is what appeared in the bulletin; stuff in italics are my additions, including personal comments and opening/closing quotations from one of the day’s music texts.

“Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving”

  • PRELUDE:
    Partita on “Freu dich sehr” – Georg Böhm
  • LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT CANDLES
    A responsive reading, led by several of the youth, followed by congregational singing of the Taize song “Wait for the Lord, whose day is near. Wait for the lord; be strong, take heart!” It replaces the Doxology, normally sung at the beginning of the Presbyterian service.
  • OPENING HYMN:
    “I Lord, how shall I meet you” – Tune: Valet will ich dir geben
  • UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION
  • SILENT PRAYER
  • KYRIE (sung by choir and congregation): Peter Dubois, 2004
  • ASSURANCE OF PARDON
  • CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE (sung): Peter Dubois, 2007
    “Glory be to God: Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: World without end. Amen! Amen!”
  • CHILDREN’S MESSAGE: Omitted this week
  • WORDS OF WELCOME
  • OLD TESTAMENT LESSON Isaiah 40:1-11
  • ANTHEM:
    “Mercy and Truth are met together” – Ned Rorem
  • GOSPEL LESSON: Mark 1:1-8
  • SERMON:
    “Advent Preparation”
    – John Wilkinson, Sr. Pastor/Head of Staff
  • HYMN: “Now to your table spread” – Tune: Love Unknown
  • AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
    This is different each week, sometimes the Apostles or Nicene Creed, but usually a section of a statement of faith from one of the reform theological traditions. This week, it was a portion of the “Statement of Faith” from the United Church of Christ.
    God calls the worlds into being, creates humankind in the divine image, and sets before us the ways of life and death. God seeks in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and sin. God judges all humanity and all nations by that will of righteousness declared through prophets and apostles. God calls us into the church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be servants in the service of the whole human family, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory. God promises to all who trust in the gospel forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, the presence of the Holy Spirit in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in that kingdom which has no end. Amen.
  • PRESENTATION OF OFFERINGS
  • ANTHEM:
    “And the glory of the Lord” – Georg Friedrich Handel
    (from Messiah)
  • CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE
    “Faithful Lord of all things living, by whose bounty all are blest; bread to hungry bodies giving, justice to the long-oppressed. For the strength of our salvation, light and life and length of days, praise the God of all creation, set your souls to sing God’s praise!”
    Text from the hymn “Praise the God of Our Salvation” by Timothy Dudley-Smith; Tune: Meigs St. by Peter DuBois, 2004
  • THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
    SANCTUS – William Matthias
    THE LORD’S PRAYER
    BELL ANTHEM “Joseph and Mary” – Kevin McChesney
    Third Church Ringers
    COMMUNION ANTHEM “Of the Father’s love begotten” chant
    Chancel Choir (adults) with bells
  • PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
  • HYMN:
    “Prepare the way, O Zion” – Tune: Bereden väg för herran
  • CHARGE & BENEDICTION
  • CHORAL BENEDICTION RESPONSE:
    “Prayer of Peace” David Haas
    Junior Choir
    30+ talented, enthusiastic kids making a joyful noise unto the Lord
  • POSTLUDE:
    “March on a Theme by Handel” – Felix-Alexandre Guilmant

“Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert ring
Evermore and evermore!”

Posted in Music | Comments Off on Sunday, 2011-12-04: TPC

Testing new comment-spam controls

Posted on 2011 Dec 04 by Kat

Since I’ve started posting more regularly, I’m getting over a hundred spam comments a day on each post, which kinda drowns out the few real comments I get. Yes, I hold first comments from new visitors for moderation, but I’ve missed several real comments that got deleted when I bulk-deleted the spam. (Thank you, friends, for being persistent and picking up the phone when your comments didn’t appear!)

Today I’ve added two new-to-me plug-ins that several of my WP expert friends recommend:

  • Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin
  • Simple Trackback Validation

Between them, these two should prevent the real junk from hitting my moderation queue, allowing me to move legitimate comments online more quickly.

Posted in Life | 2 Comments

All I want for Christmas is…

Posted on 2011 Dec 03 by Kat

Last week, my husband asked me what I want for Christmas. I told him I’d have to think about it.

Oh, I have plenty of things I could put on a gift list: world peace, for example, and a visit to our friends in Colorado, and registrations for next year’s STC Summit and Gilbane Boston. A week in Bruges during the early music festival would be lovely, as would remodeled bathrooms and a landscaping service to take care of the yard, now that both of us are getting creaky. I’d love to be 40 pounds thinner. The wall over the head of our bed has space for a dramatic painting by a local artist (and I know just the one…). Tickets to the rest of the Metropolitan Opera in HD season. A new car. And books, of course. My Amazon and nook wish lists are now spilling over into double-digit pages. But all that is useless for answering his question.

You see, what he was really asking was, what:

  1. can he get for me that
  2. we can afford that
  3. will make me happy?

And that’s the problem.

Most things on my list, we just can’t afford. Several items are things he can’t get for me, even if we could afford them. You can’t pick up a carton of world peace at Wal-Mart, and I will have to lose those 40 pounds all by myself, thankyouverymuch. And the things he can get for me, that we can afford…will they really make me happy? Maybe. For a little while. Until I finish the book, or the concert is over.

So, how am I going to answer his question?

I’ll ask for three things.

First, I’ll ask him to stick to his diet for a whole year. I want him to get healthy enough to live at least as long as I do. Yeah, we’ve both done dozens of diets, and they worked for a while, and then we stopped. But, he recently started a stringent diet program modeled on the 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous. Sticking to the diet should be possible this time, thanks to the built-in support group. And, since he’s the primary cook in the family, I should lose some weight, too, even if I only follow the program for dinners.

Next, I’ll ask him for time and company. At least once a week, I’d like to do something together for fun during the day: walk in one of the many local and regional parks, visit a museum we haven’t been to in a while, go to an afternoon recital at the Eastman School of Music, even something silly like window shopping at the outlet mall.

My third request is already being fulfilled. We can’t afford a long out-of-town vacation, but we’re starting to schedule short trips together. He’s accompanying me to NYC when I deliver a presentation to a professional organization on a Thursday evening in January. We’ll stay with friends Thursday and Friday night, spending one whole day enjoying the city together before returning home on Saturday. And we’ve already made arrangements to attend a friend’s wedding in Ohio at the end of April—an easy drive for us, and we can see at least one other set of friends on the way.

Oh, and if he wants to get me one book from my nook wishlist, that’s OK, too.

 

Posted in Life | 2 Comments

Disappointing Gifts

Posted on 2011 Dec 02 by Kat

I don’t think I was ever disappointed by a gift I received as a child. No, I didn’t always get exactly what I thought I wanted, but I always enjoyed the gifts I got: toys, clothes, books. Always books. Lots of books. Wonderful books!

I do, however, remember being often disappointed in the reactions to gifts I gave. I was always picking up stuff—shiny things, pretty things, interesting things—and giving them to family and friends. Small things, at first: shiny stones, dried leaves, a crow feather, a wheel from a toy truck, a piece of broken glass. My mother OOOHed and AHed, and thanked me before she threw them out, but they always wound up in the trash. My other relatives, and the parents of my friends, weren’t so polite. My treasures still got tossed in the trash, but the action was accompanied by loud words like “dirty” and “ugly” and “smelly,” and louder admonitions to NEVER do anything like that again.

Disappointing.

My friends weren’t much more receptive. I’d hand a worm to Karen, and she’d squeal and run to her grandma. I’d give Phyllis a grasshopper, and she’d put her hands behind her back and cry.

Very disappointing.

When I was older, and we moved to New York State, my gifts got bigger. At first, we lived in an apartment complex on the edge of a large, undeveloped field. My friends and I would wander around there after school, playing Cowboys or Cops’n’robbers or Store or School or—my favorite—Jungle Explorer.

field mouse

Field mouse

It was larger neighborhood, and I found friends who were more my style. We ALL brought home stuff like this: cute furry field mice, lively little chipmunks, and the occasional squirrel tail or dead bird.

None of the parents appreciated our gifts.

None.

We couldn’t understand that at all.

 

After all, how could anyone resist a face like THIS?

Eastern garter snake

Eastern garter snake

Eventually, I gave up.

From the time I was nine, I decided to keep my treasures to myself and give people boring gifts: pictures I drew, crocheted pot holders, or small store-bought gifts.

Boring stuff.

VERY disappointing!

~

Photo credits:
Snake: Jennifer Schlick, program director, Jamestown Audubon Society, Inc. (permission requested)

Field mouse: Photographer unknown. Found it on a site of supposedly copyright-free images, and have requested information from the site owner. If anyone knows the original source, please let me know.

Posted in Nature | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

The Chair

Posted on 2011 Dec 01 by Kat

There are a few memories rattling around in my head from the time before I could talk: the sound of my mother’s voice reading to me, the smile on my grandmother’s face, the smell of my grandfather’s pipe, my panda. And, of course, The Chair.

side view of The Chair

The Chair

It wasn’t the only chair in the house, not even the only chair that ever was mine, but it was my first chair—the first one that belonged to me, and not to my family.

I remember the day I got it. Someone set this thing down on the floor, and there it was: a ME-sized chair! I must have been barely walking, because I remember falling at least once on my way across the room to investigate this. When I got there, the seat was at exactly the right height. I could get into it myself, without someone lifting me. My feet touched the floor, and the back felt good just below my shoulders.

It lived in the kitchen, mostly. I sat in it every morning after breakfast, as soon as I was liberated from the hated high chair (so confining!). I sat in it again, later in the day, to ‘read’ (turn pages and recite memorized stories) while my mother was cooking dinner in the evening. It was my perch. My throne. I pushed it around the floor and nobody yelled at me for making a mess, or told me to put it back where I found it.

When I got a little older, I discovered a wonderful thing.

side view of the chair as a step stool

The Step Stool

The back of The Chair flipped forward, and became a step! Just four inches high, half the height of the chair seat, it was the perfect height for my first mountain-climbing expedition. I made it up to the couch cushion all by myself.

The Chair followed me everywhere. I’d grab it by the flip step, and drag it from room to room. When we went to visit relatives, I’d cry if The Chair wasn’t in the car. When I learned to brush my own teeth—I was about three—it was The Chair that made it possible to do it all by myself. (It was also the perfect height to get me to the toilet seat, although I wasn’t thrilled about that, at the time.) When I got my very own bookshelf in my bedroom, it was The Chair that let me put favorite read-to-me books like Pinocchio and The House at Pooh Corner and The Little Engine That Could on the top shelf where the adults could find them easily (ordinary books went on the lower shelves).

My mother and I moved from Illinois to New York when I was seven. The Chair and Skokie, my stuffed horse, consoled me. Both went to college with me. They followed me to my first apartment, and to every house my husband and I have lived in, since.

The Chair is a little battered, now. Many newer wood and plastic chairs and step stools have splintered and bent, but The Chair still toils on, doing what it was built to do.

front view of The Chair

I love The Chair!

Give up The Chair? Never!

Photos by Kat Nagel. Larger versions can be viewed at:
http://500px.com/katnagel 

Want a chair like this for your child? Here are a few sources:

Step Stools For Kids
My Unique Wooden Toys
Wood That’s Fun
My Bambino
Baby Select
Sherwood Creations

Posted in Life | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments