12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

20 June 2010

Entrance	Lord Jesus Christ (Appleford)
Penitential Rite	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Gloria	Jeanne Jugan Gloria (Christopher Walker)
Psalm 62	For you my soul is thirsting (mtgf)
Gospel Acclamation	Alleluia (Murray)
Preparation of Gifts	Ours were the griefs (Stephen Dean)
Eucharistic Acclamations	No Greater Love (Michael Joncas)
Lamb of God	St Gabriel (mtgf)
Communion	Christ our peace (Marty Haugen)
Final	At the name of Jesus (Noel/Brierley)

A little hommage to the 20th Century Light Music Group this morning. Their 'manifesto' was:

These hymn tunes have been written for congregational worship by 20th century congregations. The styles vary, but they all seek to express in the musical idion of light music - music which is common to almost everyone - the common worship of the People of God. They offered in the belief that not only the great and lasting music of the past but also the ordinary and transient music of today - which is the background to the lives of so many - has a rightful place in our worship.

I appreciate that they recognised that much Church music is transient, and of its time. Like any such collection, and like much today, a few things have lasted. The opening and closing hymns were chosen not just for their appropriateness but also because they have strong melodies which would work unaccompanied and I would expect visitors to know. Both hymns make the connection between recognising Jesus as Christ, the Son of God and that he is destined to suffer. Lord Jesus Christ occasioned a primary school memory — we always omitted verse 3 something I never understood. Hymns were written out in best primary school teacher calligraphy on flip chart sheets. As a 3rd verse would have gone onto a second sheet it cannot have been a question of space.
As noted there are two aspects to today's Gospel - Peter's acclamation of faith and the prophecy of the passion. The first reading emphasised the latter — and so at the Preparation of Gifts we sang Stephen Dean's setting of the canticle from 1 Peter — I am not wholly sure how the psalm was supposed to be understood in this context.
Christ our peace is one of Marty Haugen's 'simpler' songs and I suspect better for it. It was chosen to pick up the idea of equality in Christ as found in Galatians.