We celebrate the role and spiritual nourishment of music in worship this Sunday and offer a thankful farewell to Blair Carpenter for her four-year tenure as Plymouth's Staff Singer.

At 9:00 a.m., an eclectic blend of music from the jazz, Celtic, and pop/rock idioms featuring the Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine" will be presented. Blair Carpenter sings Hall Johnson's "Give Me Jesus," an artful setting of the traditional African-American spiritual. Bassist Peter Strening and guitarist Alan Skowron join us for this lovely Eastertide early morning service.

At 11:00 a.m., a reprise of the Hall Johnson work begins worship. Two  arrangements of the Charles Villiers Stanford composed hymn "When in Our Music God Is Glorified" follow in a choral setting by Hal Hopson for organ and handbells (and you the congregation!) and "Fughetta on 'Engelberg'" (the tune of the hymn) by Richard Proulx at the Postlude.

This Sunday also marks the end of the 2021-22 Chancel Choir season and the first complete season we were able to offer since the start of the pandemic. Here's to many more...Soli Deo Gloria.

A new creation through the resurrection vision of Eastertide.

At 9:00 a.m., a reprise of the Easter hymn "Now the Green Blade Rises" greets you this fine morning in an arrangement by yours truly. Cantor Blair Carpenter, bassist Peter Strening, and ukulelist Stuart Yoshida join us for music of the resurrection and new life.

At 11:00 a.m., two hymn settings of the Paschal season from the organ: "That Easter Day with Joy Was Bright" by 19th century Austrian composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg in a neo-Baroque style and a blistering "Toccata on Gaudeamus Pariter" by James Biery on a tune associated with the Easter text "Come, Ye Joyful, Raise the Strain."

The Chancel Choir offers the beloved "Hymn of Promise" by Natalie Sleeth.

Celtic-inspired expressions of Psalm 23 on this Fourth Sunday of Eastertide.

Harpist Alaina Bongers and flutist Rebecca Quillen return to Plymouth for both morning services with Celtic offerings celebrating the wonder of nature and the solace it gives to our being. The "Prayer of Jesus," the text based on an adaptation of The Lord's Prayer by John Philip Newell, will be sung at both services as we anticipate the Celtic scholar's visit to Plymouth on May 11. At the 11:00 service, the Chancel Choir sings a paraphrase of Psalm 23 from the Scottish Psalter (1650) in "Brother James' Air" arranged by Stan Pethel. 

Come join us this Sunday in a Celtic feast for the ears and soul.

The gift of sight bestowed upon us by the Risen Christ – lighting the Way.

The lovely "Meditation from 'Thais'" by Jules Massenet warmly greets morning worshipers at the 9:00 service with violinist Harmony Tucker joining. Songs from the Celtic and Iona traditions lead to John Lennon's classic tune of unity and new vision in "Imagine."   

The 11:00 service begins with the ringing of bells in the classic hymn of praise and light "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise" arranged by Hal Hopson. The Chancel Choir sings Will Todd's "Lighting the Way," a musical theater-inspired work subtitled by the composer as a "A Song for Pilgrims." At service's end, the great Lutheran hymn of praise "Lobe den Herren" (the tune paired with the text "Sing Praise to God, Who Has Shaped" in The New Century Hymnal) is offered in a glorious chorale prelude setting by Baroque composer Johann Gottfried Walther.

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain.
Wheat that in dark earth for many days has lain.
Love lives again, that with the dead has been.
Love is come again like wheat that rises green.
-John Crum, alt.

The resurrection imagery of new life emerging from the earth in the Easter hymn "Now the Green Blade Rises" applies beautifully to this Sunday's Earth Day celebration. Songs of nature and beauty also remind us that we also are the soil of God nurturing seeds to become better stewards of God's creation and its people.

A light-hearted kid-friendly Easter 2 service at 9:00 a.m. begins with a message of environmental stewardship in "Colors of the Wind" from Disney's Pocohontas. An eclectic mix of folk, jazz, and even a spot from the organ in a quirky Emma Lou Diemer setting of the hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful" takes us to the Sending Song "A Place in the Choir" by Bill Staines. You'll be invited to join us on the refrain of this ode to "all God's critters"! Bassist Peter Strening and vocalist/banjoist Lucas Jackson join us.

At 11:00 a.m., two selections from Flor Peeters' nature-inspired Lied (German for "song") Symphony for Organ will be offered. "Lied to the Flowers" is a variation on an original theme presented in a cascade of timbres from the organ much like the beautiful variances of flowers in nature. "Lied to the Mountains" is a stately majestic work of nobility and strength with a hint of mysteriousness in the unsettled middle section.    

The Chancel Choir sings the praises of rebirth on a fresh new day in Mark Hayes' anthem "In the Morning, Joy."  

Music of Passiontide and the Paschal season as we journey through the Triduum and, at long last, arrive at Easter Sunday.

The Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service begins with a mystical ode to the mysteries of the Eucharist in Olivier Messaien's "Le Banquet Céleste" (the celestial banquet). The Chancel Choir offers "What Wondrous Love Is This" in a contemplative setting by Peter Stearns. Lenten chants from the Taizé tradition will be beautifully embellished with vocal and instrumental descants by members of the Chancel Choir and violinist Harmony Tucker and cellist Aaron Dunigan-Atlee.

On Good Friday, we reflect on the ministry of Jesus and the crucifixion in a time of readings, scripture, prayer, and music of Passiontide from the organ. Works by Jehan Alain, J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, Pamela Decker, Jeanne Demessieux, and Ludwig Lenel will be prayerfully offered.

On Easter Sunday we celebrate the resurrection with a joyful musical potpourri featuring the Plymouth Brass, Plymouth Ringers, Chancel Choir, and the roar of the organ! Easter carols will be aplenty including two settings of the Palestrina tune "Victory" (most associated with the text "The Strife Is O'er, the Battle Done") for brass quintet and organ and my own arrangement for handbells at communion — a gentle fanfare expressing Easter's accompanying quiet joy and assurance. The Chancel Choir offers the simple message of "Christ Jesus Is Arisen" in a Renaissance-inspired arrangement by Michael Burkhardt. Finally, the Easter celebration closes with the ecstatic expression of exhilarating joy in Jean Langlais' "Acclamations," the final movement of his "Suite Médiévale" based on the two-note motif of the Gregorian Chant "Christus Vincit" (Christ victorious.)  

Ride on, ride on, God's love demands. Justice and peace lie in your hands.
Evil and angel voices rhyme: you are the man and this the time.
-John Bell

On this Palm Sunday morning, the time is right for God's plan of salvation to take hold in our lives as it was in the events that unfolded several millennia ago. Join us this Sunday as we begin our own entrance into the solemn and introspective time of Holy Week.

At the 9:00 service, the inspired texts and music of John Bell and the Iona Community are shared with cellist and cantor Lucas Jackson, guitarist Alan Skowron, and bassist Peter Strening. Our Lenten pilgrimage theme song "Full to the Brim" by Paul Demer is also offered at service's end.

At the 11:00 service, the stately splendor of entrance and exit (even if only in the perception of bystanders...) is explored in two pieces at the Prelude and Postlude: "Processional in D" by David Johnson and "Recessional" by Robert Hughes. The Chancel Choir offers exclamations of "Hosanna" in a setting by Alfred Fedak—and you are invited to join in!

Join us at the 9:00 a.m. service for chants of inner peace connecting with the Divine—a sanctuary within. Cantor Blair Carpenter, bassist Peter Strening, guitarist/vocalist Bill DeMarco and I lead you in songs of strength and beauty.

At the 11:00 a.m. service, two selections from the organ illuminate the importance of the sabbath within. Brahms' chorale prelude "Mein Jesu, der du mich zum Lustspiel ewiglich" ("My Jesus, you who have chosen me for eternal delight") begins the service in a serious yet sublime tone. Charles Callahan's setting of the hymn "O Day of Peace" closes the service in a stately dignified manner based on the tune "Jerusalem" by British composer C.H.H. Parry.

The Chancel Choir offers the exquisite "I Believe" by Mark Miller during communion. The text is based on writing found on a basement wall in a Jewish ghetto during World War Two expressing a profound faith in times of hardship and terror. 

The folk hymn "Wondrous Love" was first published in 1836 from a melody most likely based on the 1701 English secular tune, "The Ballad of Captain Kidd." Originating in the American South, the hymn was included in the venerable 1845 Southern Harmony and now appears in songbooks across Christendom. The text praises the inconceivable love and grace of God in our lives, especially poignant as we continue our spiritual journey together towards Holy Week. Three settings of this beloved hymn will be offered this Fourth Sunday in Lent.

At 9:00, a contemporary arrangement by Carol Wiggins for piano and violin closes the service. The free treatment of this iconic melody and the numerous harmonic surprise turns of the accompaniment create an inspired fresh interpretation of this treasured tune. Violinist Harmony Tucker joins us.

At 11:00, the Plymouth Ringers sound a call to worship with a lovely arrangement of the melody by Martha Thompson. At the Postlude, the organ offers a rousing majestic version of the tune in the closing meditation from "Five Meditations on 'Wondrous Love'" by Ronald Perera.

Also at 11:00, the Chancel Choir offers a setting of the Horatious Bonar text "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" in an intimate arrangement by John Helgen.