We survived!

Holy week seems a distant memory now, and it appears we did survive it! We attended a "symbolic" seder at St. Mary's on Thursday. Being symbolic, it wasn't a real dinner, and even though we had been advised of that many times, a good number of people hadn't eaten ahead of time. There was just enough food on the plate to get the juices flowing, and we ended up hungrier at the end of it than we had been when we sat down, despite having had our dinner. Funny how those pavlovian responses work...

The dinner segued directly into the Maundy Thursday service. We sang Tchaikovsky's "Crown of Roses" a cappella. It was a bit of a surprise, as we had never actually practiced it without accompaniment. Still, it went reasonably well, and the service was lovely. No washing of the feet at our church, but they do strip the altar and wash it at the end of the service.

On Friday we picked up my daughter from Berkeley and then participated in the Tenebrae service on Good Friday at Bethlehem Lutheran. We just barely made it because of the traffic, and did not have a chance to eat. We picked up a pizza on the way, and managed to scarf it down between rehearsal and the service. The choir offering was a lovely little anthem called "And No Bird Sang." I have to say I was taken aback when the pastor commented on the line "his blood be on us and on our children" from Matthew. He opined that it was one of the most "honest" moments in the Bible when the Jews admitted their responsibility for killing Jesus. That is certainly not my theology, and I don't believe it is the theology of any of the mainline Christian churches. It ruined the service for me.

Saturday was the Easter Vigil at St. Mary's. I read the Abraham/Isaac lesson, which is always a fun one. The service was very long, as we performed a musical tableau under the Creation reading, and there was a baptism as well. The service was nice, but 2 hours is a lot, especially with everything else that happens that week.

For Easter morning we were at Bethlehem. The choir sang 4 pieces, starting the whole service with a choral acclamation from Handel's "Israel in Egypt" ("Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously!) to which I wrote an appropriate contrafactum, followed directly by the "Gloria Patri" from the Magnificat Quinti Toni by Hieronymus Praetorius.

We also sang a choral version of "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" and the anthem "Christ is now arisen" which is set to the tune Personent Hodie. My daughter played flute, and we had a clarinet and a piccolo trumpet as well. The only downside was an organ cipher which occasionally intruded into the silences, but it was very festive and the offerings were well received.