3rd Sunday of Lent

25th Jubilee of Ordination to the Priesthood

7 March 2010

Entrance	Gathered in the love (Marty Haugen)
Penitential Rite	Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Psalm 102	The Lord is compassion and love (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Lenten (mtgf)
Preparation of Gifts	Love one another (mtgf)
Eucharistic Acclamations	Mass of Creation (Marty Haugen)
Lamb of God	Mass of Remembrance (Marty Haugen)
Communion	Be still for the presence of the Lord (David Evans)
	Holy Ground (mtgf)
Final	Lord, you give the great commission (Jeffrey Rowthorn)

This Sunday we celebrated the Silver Jubilee of our Chaplain to the Priesthood with a single Mass at 4pm followed by Reception. Combining two Masses meant combining two groups of musicians which meant we had a greater richness of sound and musical possibilities. An underlying tension was celebrating a joyful occasion on a Sunday of Lent. We were faithful to the texts of the day though we looked at them through the 'lens' of ministry.

An example of the greater resources was the opening song. Marty Haugen based the song on the chords of the Pachelbel canon and provided a simplified version for the canon as an extended introduction. As we have some good instrumentalists, including 2 v g violinists, we did the original canon which was delightful. I am not always convinced by gathering music but this did, I think, provide some calm before the event. We were also able to use both piano and organ, with the other instruments, together. This seems to work find if it is clear which 'end' is leading. For Gathered in the Love the organ provided some extra bass. For the Mass of Creation, the Eucharistic Prayer was sung, organ led and the other instruments came in for the acclamations. It meant that the congregation was wrapped in sound.

With a number of visitors the local congregation, with the musicians, gave a good lead to the singing. Be still for the presence was chosen, in part, so that it would be a recognisable 'landmark'. Love one another was written for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the College in 2000 which was in the Easter Season. John's image of 'bearing fruit' echoed Luke's gospel on this Sunday. Holy Ground was new for the occasion. The refrain picked up the image of standing on holy ground from the Exodus reading and idea of giving and receiving Christ as part of communion and ministry. I had originally wondered about psalm 14 for the verses but in the end chose a text on ministry from the Scottish Church Hymnary 4. A further consideration for the piece was that needed work well with musical resources, including guitars. At one stage I was concerned that it felt like two distinct pieces (refrain and verses) that had been bound together, and though the verses could work well as a separate hymn in the event it seemed to have a unity.