Holy Nativity, Panama City, celebrates Musician’s Sunday

By Marqua Brunette, Director of Choirs
Holy Nativity, Panama City
June 20, 2010

Music has historically been a vital part of the worship of God since the early days of the Church. While not the most important element of the worship service, it serves to work with the other elements of the liturgy in harmony. Because the importance of music in our worship is recognized, our Diocese designated June 20, 2010 as a Sunday to pray for church musicians. For that reason it was decided to make this a special celebration of music in the lives of all who worship at Holy Nativity.

The opening hymn was # 420, When in Our Music God is Glorified, with lyrics by F. Pratt Green and musical tune Engelberg by Charles Villiers Stanford. This hymn was originally titled When in Man’s Music God is Glorified, and may be the only hymn text in Christendom that explains the reasons for church music while simultaneously offering “alleluias” to God. The various verses deal with our humility in performance. They include the aesthetics of musical worship, the history of church music, a biblical model  and a quotation from Psalm 150. On a personal note – it has always been one of my favorites because it expresses so clearly my feelings about music and worship.

Our final hymn was Hymn #556, Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart! Rejoice, Give Thanks and Sing!, with lyrics by Edward Hayes Plumptre and musical tune Marion by Arthur Henry Messiter. It is located in the section of our hymnal titled “Christian Vocation and Pilgrimage” and clearly expresses the life long journey of faith with a resounding ‘rejoice, give thanks and sing’ at the end of each stanza.

At the 10:30 service the Children’s Choir and all other children gathered to sing the upbeat round, I’m Gonna Sing to the Lord and Make Music by Mary Kay Beall. This song has always been one of their favorites. Given the current styles of music our children are subjected to, I am pleased that these lyrics focus on making music for the Lord. It is so important for children to sing within the church. They are the future choir members for the next generations. The prior Sunday we recognized Jack Thompson with a trophy for being the first Children’s Choir member to sing for five years. Due to soccer camp conflict, he was unable to attend on June 20^th but his twin brothers represented his family well. Congratulations, Jack! Following the children’s musical offering, the Director of Christian Education announced that they had an ‘encore’ and offered a rousing rendition of “Happy Musician’s Day to You” sung to the tune of Happy Birthday. They proudly extended their hands to the choir, the organist and pianist/director of choirs with each line in the song.

Our Chancel Choir anthems included I Will Joyfully Sing by Mary McDonald. The refrain offers the text, “I will joyfully sing in the morning. I will joyfully sing all the day. I’ll sing praises to Thee in the morning, for the Lord is the strength of my day” and based on Psalm 59:16. What a wonderful testament as a way to live one’s life! This anthem was sung as an offertory by the 8:00 Choir and as a Post-Communion Anthem at the 10:30 service by the full Chancel Choir. It proved to be a perfect way to summarize the entire Sunday and was extremely well received.

The Offertory Anthem O Sing Unto the Lord by Peter Aston and published by The Royal School of Church Music, England is based on Psalm 96:1-4. The lyrics continue to say, “O sing unto the Lord, sing a new song, sing. O sing, sing unto the Lord all the earth. O sing unto the Lord bless his name.” The accompaniment is quite exciting and filled with wonderful harmonic changes and sounds almost ‘rubbing together’ prior to being harmonically resolved. This piece was quite a challenge for the choir and their efforts were well appreciated.

June 20th offered us an opportunity to give thanks for the many voices who have shared their music in our choir. Some continue to sing for special liturgical seasons and we welcome them and some have retired, like Sarah Austin who sang with the choir for more than 30 years. Sarah was presented with a bouquet of flowers and was surrounded by her family as we surprised her. Following the service, we all shared a delicious cake is Sarah’s honor.

After honoring Sarah during the service, Rev. Steve Bates surprised Marqua Brunette, Director of Choirs, with a bouquet of roses from The Chancel Choir.

It would be impossible to name all those who have been in the choir over the years but they are all appreciated and we give thanks to each of them for their service. Special thanks went to our current Chancel Choir voices who are so dedicated and come week after week to sing and rehearse because their music is part of their ministry within the church. God bless them!

Holy Nativity has also been blessed with volunteers who have come to serve when needed. Ray Wishart built a wonderful music and bookcase that is mounted above the piano in the choir room. Prior to that, Paul Johnson designed and lovingly built our ‘choir cubby’ that houses each choir members’ music. Official plaques have been placed on these beautiful gifts in our music room.

We have had two music librarians who have served us over the past two years and they have been of immense help. Anne Harris was our first librarian and Gayle Ahrens is now taking over. We give thanks for their assistance and time.

And last, but not least, we offered thanks for the beautiful organ music given by John Durgan. His talents far exceed mere musical work ‘on the bench’ but his work on the ‘work bench’ in building our fine organ along with our numerous volunteers.

It is easy to see that a music department within a church is more than an organist or choir director or choir. Many hands are involved in all of the effort it takes. The Music Ministry is alive and well within Holy Nativity and we welcomed the opportunity on June 20^th to ‘rejoice, give thanks and sing’ for the music within our church. We are blessed with a congregation who is always supportive of our efforts. It was our hope that our Musician’s Sunday would offer everyone a moment to reflect on the importance of music within the service of worship for them. Perhaps other churches will follow the Diocesan prayer cycle next year and celebrate the special day to recognize and honor their musicians and the importance of music in their lives.