Easter and spring are approaching and there is a lot happening. Our friend Rui Li the trumpet player is coming to play for us on Easter Sunday.
Another thing to be excited about is that the organ is due for a scheduled tuning. (And I'm hoping to get to meet the organ technician this time!)
An area we are working on is creating a choir anthem database. I've talked with Richard Thomas about this project, and we are hoping to be getting underway real soon. We have most of the choir music organized alphabetically by title. We will also categorize it by season, scripture, composer and lyricist. Since we will be using a computer, it will be easy to update this database when we add new music to our collection. Isn't life just wonderful?
I'm also planning on selecting service music based on composer's birthdays. I was thinking it would be a nice way to show appreciation for some of the people who have really made the world a better place through their music.
Here are some of my favorites from which I will choose:
Antonio Vivaldi: March 4, 1678
Georg Phillip Telemann: March 14, 1681
Johann Sebastian Bach: March 21, 1685
Franz Joseph Haydn: March 31, 1732
Johann Caspar Kerll: April 3, 1627
Jan Adam Reincken: April 23, 1623
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: May 7, 1840
Gabriel Fauré: May 12, 1845
As always, if you are interested in joining the choir, please come on a Thursday night and give us a "test drive."
Looking forward to the coming Sunday mornings. Thanks so much.
Pastor Tom Travels
On Monday, March 24, the day after Easter, Pastor Tom flies to Brazil to spend 10 days with friends in Campanis. Upon his return he will attend a two day seminar (April 4 and 5) titled “New Testament and Roman Empire: Resistance and Reimagination” at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. On April 25 and 26 he plans to attend a conference titled “In Search of a Homeland: The Quest for Place and Peace in Israel and Palestine” sponsored by Friends of Sabeel, North America. Sabeel (Arabic for “The Way”) is a Palestinian liberation theology center in Jerusalem. Pastor Tom is a member of Sabeel and attended one of their conferences in Boston last fall.
On June 6,7 and 8 our pastor will be attending his 50th college reunion at Macalester college in St. Paul, Minnesota (he tells us he and classmates whom he has not seen in 50 years will perform a couple of skits they wrote at that time!) Then on June 30 through July 4 he will attend the International Campus Ministers Conference in Tampere Finland. Immediately after the conference he hopes to tour St. Petersburg, Russia.
Then Looking Ahead: Pastor Tom has been invited to participate in a seminar offered by the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. The theme will be “How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Proclaiming the Gospel in a secular society. This will take place from April 27 to May 8, 2009.
Well, he should get some good sermon material from all those experiences!!
