From the Worship Team: Take our 1-minute survey about Acceptance of Gifts songs
We’ve been “test driving” some different options for our offering response (Acceptance of Gifts) during summer services. Click here to take a 1-minute online survey to give your feedback on these options. Thanks for your time!
Save the date! Emma’s Revolution will be at UUCC for Ingathering on September 10th!
If you were at General Assembly in Pittsburgh this June, you might have had the chance to hear some great music from Pat Humphries and Sandy O, better known as Emma’s Revolution. If you didn’t catch them at GA, all you need to do is come to church on Sunday, September 10th, because Pat and Sandy will be right here at UUCC providing very special music before and during our Ingathering/Water Communion Service that morning. Pre-service music from Emma’s Revolution will start at 10:00 that morning and continue right through our worship service. Don’t miss this very special musical treat!
Come, Sing a Song with Me!
I’m very happy to say that the UUCC Chancel Choir will return to regular 7:00 Wednesday evening practices next week (Wednesday, August 30th)! Our choir will be singing with Emma’s Revolution during our September 10th Ingathering Service and on several other upcoming Sundays. The UUCC Chancel Choir is open to all adults and high school youth who are interested, regardless of experience level. Rehearsals are at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday evenings in the Worship Center (Room 208), and professional childcare is available for any who need it.
New and returning choir members and their families are also invited to join us for a welcome back potluck, beginning at 5:45 next Wednesday, August 30th. If you have any questions, please get in touch with UUCC Music Director Mike Carney. I hope to see you next Wednesday!
Music Notes – Sunday, August 27th:
This Sunday’s musicians are Amy Collins and UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Opening Hymn: Rising Green – McDade
Written in 1983, “Rising Green” is #1068 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook. The song was written by Carolyn McDade (b. 1935), a self-described songwriter, spiritual feminist, and social activist, who is also the composer of three other UU favorites: “Spirit of Life”, “Come, Sing a Song with Me”, and “We’ll Build a Land”. About “Rising Green”, the composer shares these words: “Earth shakes out a mantle of green—each blade of grass true to the integrity within, yet together with others is the rise of spring from winter’s urging. Our coming is with the grass—the common which persists, unexalted, but with the essence of life. Our humanness, our rhythms and dreams, the faith which nurtures our ardent love and hope for life—all this we share with earth community, of which we are natural and connected beings.” (from uua.org)
Centering Music: The Flower That Shattered the Stone – Jarvis & Henry
“The Flower That Shattered the Stone” was the title track from a lesser-known 1990 studio album by legendary country/folk musician John Denver (1943-1997). The song, with its strong message of environmentalism, was written by two professional songwriters, John Barlow Jarvis (b. 1954) and Joe Henry (b. 1960). On Sunday, “The Flower That Shattered the Stone” will be sung by Amy Collins, accompanied by Karin Tooley.
Offertory music: Simple Gifts – Brackett, arr. Copland
“Simple Gifts” is one of the most familiar and beloved American songs ever written. It was originally composed as a ‘dancing song’ in 1848 by Joseph Brackett, Jr. (1797-1882) for the Shaker Settlement of Gorham, Maine. The song remained relatively unknown outside of the Shaker community for nearly a century, but it entered the American mainstream in 1944 when Aaron Copland (1900-1990) prominently featured the melody (which Copland had discovered in a Shaker songbook borrowed from his local library) in his orchestral suite Appalachian Spring. The vocal/piano arrangement that you’ll be hearing Sunday from Amy and Karin was written by Copland and published in a 1950 collection he titled Old American Songs.
Closing Hymn: We Are Not Our Own – Hurd/Wren
“We Are Not Our Own” (#317) is one of the lesser-known hymns in Singing the Living Tradition. The words come from British poet, theologist and prolific hymn writer Brian Wren (b. 1936), who is the author of several other hymns in Singing the Living Tradition, including “Name Unnamed”, “Joyful Is the Dark”, and “Love Makes a Bridge”. The arching, hopeful tune for “We Are Not Our Own” was written by Dr. David Hurd (b. 1950), an alumnus of Oberlin College and composer, organist, and educator who currently serves as the Director of Music at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Times Square, New York City.
Postlude: On the Sunny Side of the Street – McHugh & Fields
Written in 1930, “On the Sunny Side of the Street” is an American jazz standard composed by Jimmy McHugh (1894-1969) with lyrics by Dorothy Fields (1905-1974). The song rose to popularity almost immediately, and has been recorded by a veritable who’s who of jazz musicians over the years, including Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Bennie Goodman, and Frank Sinatra.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director
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