Epiphany
means “manifestation.” This festival of
the church celebrates the revealing of Christ to the Gentiles. Light is a big image for this service,
recalling the star that the magi followed until they found the house where
Jesus was with his mother. The gifts
they offered are heavy with meaning: gold fit for a king, myrrh for anointing,
and richly perfumed incense.
This
year’s Epiphany service at St. Mark’s has an underlying musical theme: Epiphany from the Americas.
The
Americas are the combined land masses of North America and South America, along
with the outlying islands – what early explorers named “the new world.” The Americas are blessed with a rich
diversity of cultures, so it’s not surprising that native (or nearly native)
music is filled with tantalizing rhythms, poignant texts, and ethnic melodies.
Here
are a few of the musical highlights from the service:
Kyrie and Glory to God from setting six of Evangelical Lutheran Worship (African-American
inspired)
Santo, Santo,
Santo
and O Lamb of God from setting seven
of ELW (Latin-American inspired)
Halle, Halle,
Hallelujah from
the Caribbean as the gospel acclamation
Rise Up,
Shepherd, and Follow,
an African-American spiritual
Many and Great,
O God,
a hymn of the Lakota Native-Americans
‘Twas in the
Moon of Wintertime, a
hymn from Native-Americans in Canada
Epiphany Carol, sung to the
tune Beach Spring which is named for
a church in Georgia, USA
.
. .and more!
I
am sure you will be surprised at how much of this music you already know.
Epiphany
is the last day of the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany arc of stories and readings
from our Christian tradition. We have
waited through four weeks of Advent. We are still celebrating twelve days of
Christmas. For this final festival, the Holy Spirit gathers us to bear witness
to the light of Christ and sends us out to carry that light into the world –
not just the new world, but the whole world.
Tuesday
Evening, January 6th at 7:00 p.m.
top photo: by David Nunley, used with permission
middle photo: Lakota art work via Wikipedia
bottom photo: photo by Andre Cruz, used with permission
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