Setting Nine from ELW

Last Sunday, we began using Setting Nine of the Service of Holy Communion from the ELW for the first time. This first effort went well, despite the heat (we didn't have air conditioning for one week while the new system is being put in place). Portions of this setting are familiar to the congregation because they are similar to music that appeared in the provisional setting we sampled several years ago as part of the Renewing Worship project. Also, members of the Chancel Choir gathered with Ginger prior to the service to read through the music so that they could help lead the congregation by singing confidently.

We'll be using Setting Nine for a little while so that people can learn it. In mid-autum, we'll continue our practice of seasonally rotating the settings that we know. The congregation will then be familiar with Settings Three, Four, Five and Nine from ELW, and V from WOV. The goal is to change periodically so that there is variety, but not so often that people feel unsettled. For example, we'll switch to another setting in the autum for the "festival season" which ends on the Festival of Christ the King, then use another setting during Advent.

Question Regarding Evangelical Lutheran Worship

One of our members said to me yesterday: "I thought we were going to use the new hymnals for everything, but we're using a communion setting from the LBW."

The setting that we are currently using at the 10:30 a.m. Sunday service is Setting Four from Evangelical Lutheran Worship. This setting previously appeared in the Lutheran Book of Worship as setting II. So yes, it's from the LBW, but it's also in ELW. Since our weekly printed bulletins contain the liturgy, it would be easy to not realize that the setting is in ELW.

Our plan is to continue to seasonally rotate the settings that we use, and to introduce one of the new settings from ELW sometime in the next year. The goal is to use a variety of settings, but to use a select number of them in such a way that the congregation can be familiar with the music for each of the settings that we use.

We'll be looking at the ELW setting by Joel Martinson, which started out as the provisional setting we used several years ago but has been modified. During Lent this year, we used ELW setting Five, which is a plain chant setting derived from Setting III in LWB and from one of the settings in the "old" red hymnal. Setting I from LBW also appears in ELW as Setting Three; and Setting V from With One Voice appears in large part in the Service of the Word in ELW.

Palm/Passion Sunday 10 :30 A.M. Service

If you are looking for a church to attend on Palm/Passion Sunday in the Dayton area and would like take part in a service with a traditional liturgy and fine music, please join us at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior. The following lists the music we will include in this service.

The congregation will gather outside (weather permitting) for the reading of Luke 19:28-40, the story of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Following the blessing of the palms, we will then process into the sanctuary while singing All Glory, Laud and Honor.

The Gospel reading for the day will be the Passion Narrative, telling the story of Holy Week through the death of Christ on the cross. The Chancel Choir ends the service with Pablo Casal's O Vos Omnes. The text of this piece is taken from Lamentations 1:12: "All you who pass along this way, behold and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow." The service will end in silence; there will be no final hymn or postlude.

We will have services during Holy Week on Maunday Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday . All of the services will use traditional liturgies from Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Details of the times are in a posting below and on the church's web site www.oursaviordayton.org. Please join us for all of these services. The Easter Service will include a festival version of ELW Setting Four (including pipe organ and brass), and the Chancel Choir, Sonshine and Joyful Noise Children's Choirs, and Bell Choir will all participate. More details of the Easter service will be posted in the next couple of days.

Palm/Passion Sunday -

Lutheran Book of Worship Setting Five

Prelude - March, by R. Spry
Processional Hymn - All Glory, Laud and Honor
Chancel Choir - No Rocks A'Cryin, by Rillo Dillworth (based on Psalm 47)
Hymn of the Day - There in God's Garden, ELW 342
Offertory - O Lamb Gottes, Unshuldig, J.S. Bach
Music During Gommunion - Chancel Choir - Ave Verum Corpus, by William Byrd (in Latin)
Hymns During Communion - Beneath the Cross of Jesus, ELW 338; Were You There, ELW 353
Chancel Choir - O Vos Omnes, by Pablo Casals

One Service on Easter Weekend; Holy Week Services

We will be gathering the entire congregation together for one service on the weekend of Easter. The service will be at 10:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 8. This will be a festival service, including brass players and special music by the choirs.

There will be no 5:30 p.m. Saturday service on April 7 and there will be no 8:15 a.m. service on Easter. If you regularly attend one of those services, please join us on Sunday at the 10:30 a.m. service.

Services during Holy Week:

Saturday, March 31 - 5:30 p.m.
Passion Sunday - Sunday, April 1 - 8:15 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
Maunday Thursday - Thursday, April 5 - 7:00 p.m.
Good Friday - Friday, April 6 - 7:00 p.m.
No service on Saturday, April 7
Easter, the Resurrection of Our Lord - Sunday, April 8 - 10:30 a.m. (no 8:15 service)

We will use traditional liturgies for Passion Sunday, Maunday Thursday, and Good Friday which appear in Evangelical Lutheran Worship. On Easter, we will use Setting Four from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, which is taken largely from Setting II in the Lutheran Book of Worship.

Please join us for all of the Holy Week services if you are able. Going to church on Passion Sunday AND Maundy Thursday AND Good Friday AND Easter seems like a lot, but these services all work together, and if you miss a piece of it, you will be missing something.

Thanks!

Thanks to everybody who stayed after the 10:30 a.m. service last Sunday and helped take out the old hymnals, put the new copies of Evangelical Lutheran Worship in place, and take down the trees. With so many helping hands, we completed a large amount of work in a short time.

Transition to Evangelical Lutheran Worship

The Worship Committee met this morning, and one of the main topics of conversation was the transition to using Evangelical Lutheran Worship.

We will be using ELW for the first time on Ash Wednesday (February 21), using the traditional liturgy (including imposition of ashes) which appears in ELW. In preparation for that, we will include a dedication of the new hymnals in the the 10:30 a.m. service on Sunday, February 18. Then, instead of a postlude, we will hold a session to preview the music from Setting Five from ELW, which is the setting we will use during the season of Lent. Please stay for this session if you are able to do so. After the session is over, we'll replace our copies of the LBW and WOV in the sanctuary with the new copies of ELW.

The music in Setting Five from ELW is based on a setting in the old "red book" that was replaced with the LBW. People who know it will be able to help support those who haven't heard it before, and we believe that those who don't know it will be able to pick it up quickly. Given this, we're only having one preview session. When it is decided in the future to use a new setting from ELW, we will hold more sessions.

The Worship Committee spent time after the meeting putting dedication plates in the new copies of ELW. We appreciate the generosity of those who have made donations. Donations will still be accepted (and dedication plates put into copies) after the copies are placed in the sanctuary. At last count, over 200 of the 450 copies we bought have been donated - please consider helping in this endeavor. Donations can be made by individuals or groups. For example, the Chancel Choir as a group donated 30 copies in honor of our Director, Ginger Minneman.

Chancel Choir

Now would be a good time for anybody who is interested in joining the Chancel Choir to come join us. You might ask: "What kind of music does your choir sing?" Our Music Director and Director of the Chancel Choir is Ginger Minneman. Ginger likes a wide range of music, and her anthem choices reflect this. Last Sunday, we sang True Light, arranged by Keith Hampton. The soloist was Jobe Jackson, a former student of Ginger's from when she taught at Stivers. Other pieces currently in our folders:

• Blessed are the Men Who Fear Him from Elijah, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
• Wondrous Love, Alice Parker & Robert Shaw
• Blessed Be the Name of the Lord, Dale Grotenhuis
• Song, Bob Chilcott
• Kyrie, from Messe G-Dur, Franz Schubert
• Walk with Me (An African Walking Song), Patrick M. Liebergen
• Beati Quorum Via from Three Motets, Charles Villiers Stanford
• Uvi caritas from Quartre Motets, Maurice Duruflé

Next week, the Chancel Choir will also start reviewing Setting Five from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, so that we'll know the setting well before we first use on Sunday, February 25 (the first Sunday in Lent).

For information, contact Ginger Minneman at the church.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship - Coming to Our Pews This Month

It's been nearly six years since we first heard about the Renewing Worship Project, and the fact that the LBW would some day be replaced. That day is quickly approaching. On Ash Wednesday, February 21, we will begin using the new worship resource Evangelical Lutheran Worship. After the service on Febuary 18, we'll remove the old copies of the LBW and WOV from the sanctuary, and replace them with new copies of ELW. (I think it's going to take most people a while to get used to talking about the "ELW" rather than the "LBW"--I'll bet that before long, many people in most congregations will be just calling it "the red book.")

During Lent, we will use at the Sunday 10:30 AM service a setting of the Communion service from the ELW that was adapted from a setting in the The Service Book and Hymnal. The Service Book and Hymnal was the red hymnal that was replaced by the LBW in 1978. People who were in congregations that used that hymal will remember the melodies of this setting, and others will be able to learn them quickly.

During the Easter season, we will at the Sunday 10:30 AM service be using a setting from ELW that uses the same music as Setting II from the old LBW.

Meanwhile, we are continuing our fund drive to pay for our copies of ELW. Of the 450 copies that we have purchased, funds have been donated for 200 of them. That leaves us with 250 to go. Please consider helping us pay for these copies. Donations can be made in honor or memory of loved ones, pastors, teachers, choir directors, or anybody else who has been a part of your faith journey.