Notes on the Notes

Notes on the Notes – May 11, 2014

This week’s scripture reading: John 10:1-10 This week’s music: “All Things Bright and Beautiful” (VU #291) The text, from Cecil Frances Alexander’s Hymns for Little Children (1846), is based on the phrase “Maker of heaven and earth” in the Apostles’ Creed.  The new words for verse four are particularly apt in the Canadian context.  The […]

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Notes on the Notes – May 4, 2014

This week’s theme: Where is God in the World? This week’s scriptures: Acts 2:14a, 36-41, Luke 24:13-35 This week’s music: “As We Walked Home at Close of Day” (VU #184) “As we walked home at close of day, a stranger joined us on our way.  He heard us speak of one who’d gone, and when we […]

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Notes on the Notes – April 27, 2014

This week’s music: “This is the Day” (MV #122) “This is the day that God has made; we will rejoice and be glad!  Singing hallelu, we will rejoice and be glad!” This praise chorus by Bruce Harding (2003) is based on Psalm 118:24.   The word “Alleluia,” “Hallelujah” or any of it’s variations comes to us from […]

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Notes on the Notes – Easter Sunday – April 20, 2014

Easter Sunday 2014 This week’s scripture:  Adapted from John 20:1-11a, John 20:14-16, Luke 24:5-6 This week’s music: “He is Risen” – Our service will open with the Easter Musical Drama – “He is Risen” by LLoyd Larson (2001).   The work is inspired by the Gospel of John, chapter 20.  Including original music,  narration, instrumental elements […]

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Notes on the Notes – Good Friday – April 18, 2014

Good Friday Scripture Readings:  John 18: 1-12, 19-23, 28-38, 19: 5-27, 31-34 Good Friday Music: “My Song is Love Unknown” (VU #143) “My song is love unknown, my Saviour’s love to me,  love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.  O who am I that for my sake my Lord should take frail […]

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Notes on the Notes – April 13, 2014

Lent 6 – Palm Sunday – Jerusalem Cross This week’s theme: This week’s readings:  Matthew 21:1-11, Philippians 2:5-11 This week’s music: “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” (VU #357) “Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear, things I would ask him to tell me if he were here:  scenes by the wayside, […]

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Notes on the Notes – April 6, 2014

Lent 5 – The Cross – Symbol of God’s Defiant Love   Communion – Russian/Ukrainian Orthodox Cross This week’s reading: Romans 8: 6-11 This week’s music:  “Glory in the Cross” “Let us stand together at the cross of Christ where we see God’s boundless love.  We are saints and sinners who are joined by faith here […]

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Notes on the Notes – March 30, 2014

Lent 4 – The Coptic Orthodox Cross Theme – “Christi-anachy” This week’s scripture reading: John 9:1-41 This week’s music:   “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” (VU #149) “When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid […]

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Notes on the Notes – March 3, 2013

  This Sunday is the third Sunday of our Lenten journey. Theme:  Reaffirming the covenant. Readings: Isaiah 55:1-9, 1 Corinthians 10: 1-5, 11-13 Todays music: “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” (VU #220) – Joachim Neander rebelled against his family’s piety, but was converted at age twenty at St. Martin’s Church in his native city […]

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Notes on the Notes – February 24, 2013

Lent 2 – Theme:  Taking the hard way can be the right way! Readings:  Philippians 3:17-4:1, Luke 13:31-35 This week’s music: “O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee” (VU #560) –  The author, Washington Gladden, was an American Congregational minister and a leader of the social gospel movement.  This text, from a devotional poem entitled […]

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Notes on the Notes – February 17, 2013

Lent 2013  began on Wednesday, February 13 and ends on Saturday, March 30 Lent 1 – Theme:  What does it mean to have it all?  Have nothing? Readings:  Psalm 91, Romans 10:8b-13, Luke 4:1-13 This week’s music: “Throughout These Lenten Days and Nights” (VU #108) – Despite its penitential tone, this hymn evokes faith and […]

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Notes on the Notes – February 10, 2013

Transfiguration Sunday Readings: Exodus 34:29-35 and 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Shine, Jesus, Shine – This week’s anthem, “Shine, Jesus, Shine” (also known by its first line, “Lord, the Light of Your Love”) is a Christian praise song written in 1987 by Graham Kendrick. In the book Behind The Songs which Kendrick wrote with Clive Price, the singer/songwriter […]

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Notes on the Notes – February 3, 2013

Readings:  Jeremiah 1:4-10,  Luke 4:21-30 This week’s music: “The Greatest of These”  – This song, by Canadian composer Linnea Good, quotes from 1 Corinthians 13:1-12.   The song was used at the Burnaby Centennial Interfaith Celebration in 1992.   When speaking about this gathering, Linnea says, “Through a glass darkly; through a mirror dimly…Whether we are looking at the convolutions […]

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Notes on the Notes – January 27, 2013

Theme: Keeping Sabbath in a non-Christian country Readings:  Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10/Luke 4:14-21  This week’s music: “Take Time to be Holy” (VU #672) – William D. Longstaff, an English businessman, wrote this hymn at an annual Keswick Convention in response to an account of the work of Griffith Jones, a missionary in China who was reported to have been […]

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Notes on the Notes – January 20, 2013

Theme: The faithfulness of God and the gifts of the Spirit/Celebration of our Pastoral Care Ministry Readings: Psalm 36:5-10, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 Today’s Music: “Great is Thy Faithfulness” – (VU #288) – Thomas O. Chisholm, a Methodist minister,  wrote the poem in 1923 about God’s faithfulness over his lifetime.  William Runyan set the poem to […]

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