May 14, 2020

  

cross
 
The Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 17, 2020 at 10 a.m.

Join us on Facebook at 10 a.m. to watch a live service of Morning Prayer in the Chapel You can watch on our website as well.

Zoom Coffee Hour to follow. Details below.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to troubleshoot and fine tune 
our broadcasts.


Missed last Sunday's sermon, or just want to hear it again?   
You can by  clicking here
.
         

COLLECT FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen Please  click here  for this  week's readings.

Table
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Please click the link below to jump to the section.

Organ Notes  - Music is next to Godliness, even when it isn't

       
summersong
SUMMER CHOOSE-A-HYMN

piano_keyboard.jpg Do you have a favorite hymn you would love to hear played during service?  Now is your chance, and you can also support our need for a summer accompanist with a donation in any amount you choose.  We need a total of $100 per week.

Please click here to sign up, and enter your requested hymn.  Please mail a check to Christ Church (made payable to Christ Church and note "summer music" in the memo line).  We will recognize donors in the weekly bulletin.  Please sign up by Monday, June 8.

Please email Ali or Pam with questions!


camera
CALLING FOR WEB CAMS

camera.jpg We are seeking to borrow a good quality dedicated HDWebCam to use to broadcast our Sunday services. These cameras are on back order into the indefinite future.  Using an iPhone does not provide us with the reliability we need.  If you or someone you know would be willing to lend the church a WebCam until we can purchase one, we would be most grateful. Please contact Nick directly.  Many thanks.


donate
SUPPORTING OUR NEIGHBORS AND COMMUNITY

Christ Church has deep ties to these organizations that continue to offer services and support to those in need during the pandemic. Donations  in any amount are truly appreciated. It is one way to keep loving our neighbor as Jesus teaches.

MANNA has expanded their  mission to be a place of solace, peace, and nourishment for those who have nowhere else to go just now, and the new costs are significant; current food expenses are running $3000/week. Donate online  here . Scroll down on the options drop-down menu to Monday Lunch.

The Needham Community Council is keeping the Food Pantry open and will continue to provide food supplies to Needham residents. Click here to learn how you can donate.

Circle of Hope is offering contactless emergency deliveries to partner shelters. C lick here to  link  directly Emergency Response Wish List.

B-Safe continues to offer virtual and financial support to the young people it serves and their communities.  Donate to the SSYP Pandemic Relief fund here.


VirtualCHTopic
VIRTUAL COFFEE HOUR THIS SUNDAY

many_coffeemugs.jpg This Sunday we invite you to a virtual Zoom coffee hour following the 10 a.m. service. 

This is a recurring meeting, so the information will be the same each week.  You will still receive the details in the service access email on Fridays.  

There is a high demand on Zoom and the Internet Sunday mornings, so please keep trying if you see "link invalid".

You can join online on your computer or mobile device, or dial-in on your cell phone or landline.  Here's a helpful PDF on how to access and use Zoom.

OrganNotes
ORGAN NOTES: Music is next to Godliness, even when it isn't

By Linnea Wren

Seated on an elegant balcony, Anna Magdalena and Johann Sebastian Bach make an attractive, decorous couple. But they are a threesome. Below their table is the goat-like Greek god, Pan. A randy rogue, he is the god of forests and flocks, ribald songs and sex.

And, we might ask, just why is Pan included with the Bachs, the couple so famously associated with liturgical music?

The answer might lie in the wedding music created by the Bachs to celebrate the joys of earthly love. The most famous example of wedding music composed by Johann Sebastian is his Wedding Cantata, Weichet nur, betrubte Schatten (Be gone, mournful Shadows). Anna Magdalena may well have sung the cantata at her wedding and soon afterwards at the wedding of Leopold of Anhalt-Kothen, the employer of both Bachs.

The text of Weichet nur betrübte Schatten centers on the Roman goddess Flora, whose entrance brightens the muted atmosphere of the cantata's opening. Flora is the symbol of spring, natural fertility and human procreation. The music consists of five arias interleaved with recitatives. A small chamber ensemble supports the radiantly expressive and often flamboyantly virtuosic of the single soprano line. Anna Magdalena's "clear soprano" would have shone in this piece.

The Wedding Cantata hints at the sexual desires that accompany marriage, both in the text and the rhythms of the music. Much clearer language peppers Bach's Quodlibet. Latin for "What Pleases," a quodlibet is a light-hearted collage of melodies and texts, and Bach's extended clan loved to gather and extemporize such pieces. Bach's surviving Quodlibet was concocted when he was twenty-two, presumably in celebration of his first wedding to Maria Barbara Bach in 1707. A piece of musical nonsense, it combines folksong, and student song fragments, street cries, imitations of liturgy and fugues, word games, sexual allusions, punning, and word painting.

We don't know Maria Barbara's reaction to the Bach family's taste for off-color puns and ill-concealed innuendo. But we do know Anna Magdalena's. In her musical notebook of 1725, she inscribed her own racy verses to celebrate her marriage. And she placed these verses right after her transcription of Johann Sebastian's liturgical chorale, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O Eternity, Thunderous Word).

What emerges is a humane portrait of Anna Magdalena. She was pious and playful, devout and ribald. She was a musician who embraced the soaring uplift and the physical sensuality of song and sound. She was a mother who endured bereavement and experienced joy. She was a wife who shared a radiant partnership in music with her spouse. She was, above all, her own accomplished, resilient and fully present person.
EXTENSION

Bishops Gates and Harris extended the current restrictions on in-person public worship and gatherings in churches until July 1. Essential office and maintenance functions and life-sustaining neighborhood ministries may continue, provided they follow the protocols set by Governor Baker.  The diocese is preparing guidelines for resumption of church acitvites in stages and the guidelines will be available next week.   Click here  to read the directive.
NEWMUSIC

Thank you to Bruce and Pam Goody continue to make and share music with us.  Most recently, they recorded Hymn 125 - Let Us Break Bread Together (arranged by Kenon D. Renfrow).  Click here to link to the music section of our website and the recording is shared in the "Music Highlights" box on the left.
aprilvestry

Please click here for the minutes of the April Vestry meeting.  They are also linked in the "Quick Links" section at the end of this email.
refreshingprayers

We are refreshing the prayer list for Eastertide.  Please email the office with your prayers.

HealthLinks
Health Links: Gun Safety, Domestic Violence and Food Support

GUN SAFETY    
 
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE     
REACH    

FOOD SUPPORT
Sign up to shop at the Food Pantry  here
Donate here  



WeekAhead
THE WEEK AHEAD

Monday, May 18
10:00 a.m.    Virtual Staff Meeting

Tuesday, May 19
8:00 a.m.      Men's Prayer (via Zoom, email Stan for the invitation) 
9:30 a.m.      PRM (via Zoom, members will receive an invite in their email)
7:00 a.m.      Vestry meeting (via Zoom, email the office for information)

Wednesday, May 20
10:00  a.m.       Final Morning Bible Study of the church year (via Zoom, email Tracy Rubin for the invite)
7:00 p.m.        Final Evening Bible Study of the church year (via Zoom, email Tracy Rubin for the invite)

Thursday, May 21
4:30 p.m.      Altar Guild Virtual Afternoon Tea

Sunday, May 24
10:00  a.m.      Morning prayer via Facebook
           

QuickLinks
QUICK LINKS
Just click on the links below for...

If you or someone in your family is in the hospital or in need of pastoral care, please call the church office so that our clergy or the Pastoral Response Ministry team may be notified and tend to the need. The office number is 781-444-1469, and you can reach Nick at ext. 113.