If you are unable to worship in person this Sunday, please visit our Facebook page www.facebook.com/stmarksasheville for a live stream at 11:00 am. You do not need to have an account in order to watch our videos. Click here for the bulletin: Ordinary 1100 2021
Please note that we have moved back to seasonal bulletins for our worship services. The liturgy is on pages 2-10, and the readings and psalms for each Sunday are at the back, on pages 11-15. We also heartily encourage you to join us in singing the hymns! If you don’t have a hymnal at home, please click here: Hymns for 7.4
Service music notes
Prelude: We All Are One in Mission, arranged by Sally Knapp
This tune is named for the Kuortane region in west-central Finland. Because the texts and tunes of hymns are so often exchanged, each tune is given a separate name — you’ll find these on the bottom of the hymnal page printed in all caps. Paul Westermeyer notes that “[scholar] Armin Haeussler made valiant efforts to trace its origins, but came up empty.” (ELW Hymnal Companion 101). It is likely a 19th century Finnish folk tune from Kuortane, and first printed in 1909 in the appendix to “Suomen Evankelis Luterilaisen Kirken Koraalikirja” (take that, spell-check).
Voluntary: How Firm a Foundation, arranged by Timothy Shaw
This hymn was first published in John Rippon’s “A Selection of Hymns” in 1787. The only attribution given there was an enigmatic “K”. Scholars have made many educated guesses and come up with some tantalizing clues, but no one has definitively figured out who “K” may have been. It is a text with a wealth of scriptural allusions, including 2 Peter 3:4, Isaiah 43:1b-3, and Hebrews 13:5. Rippon’s original title was “Exceeding Great and Precious Promises.”
Postlude: How Firm a Foundation, arranged by Lynette Maynard
This popular hymn is sung to a gapped pentatonic tune. That is, it uses only five notes of the scale. Pentatonic scales arose independently in cultures around the globe, and are a major feature of folk and traditional music. To easily hear what they sound like, simply play only the black keys of a keyboard. This tune was written in 1832 by Joseph Funk, a Mennonite farmer who lived in the charmingly-named community of Singer’s Glen, Virginia. He was also a composer, and music teacher, and compiled tune books.
