Josh Messner

Grace and Thanksgiving: Songs of Gratitude

Sunday, October 13, 2019
4:30pm | Saint James Episcopal Church, Dexter

[Listen to music from Grace and Thanksgiving]

Early American and European hymns and anthems help us explore God’s abundant love for us and our own grateful response for the fall harvest and all that the land gives us. Readings are from Anne Lamott, Wendell Berry, and the Gospel of Luke. We also read together a Litany of Thanksgiving.

Musical highlights include:

Evensong at Saint James events are a great opportunity to hear beautiful sacred music, experience a unique worship event, and socialize with people in our community.

During each evensong event, a freewill offering is collected, with all proceeds going to a local, regional, or national charity. Our designated recipient for the October event is Faith in Action, which provides essential support to alleviate the effects of hunger and poverty in the Dexter and Chelsea communities.

Receptions follow each evensong event. Service and reception are free and open to the public. Saint James is an open and welcoming community in downtown Dexter.

Download Bulletin PDF

Notes on the Music

  • Prelude. We Gather Together by Adrianus Valerius b.1575 (KREMSER). An arrangement of this classic hymn for brass quintet and organ.
  • Introit. An old folk hymn Green Meadows that quotes the 17th-century melody CAPTAIN KIDD and most often appears with a psalm-like text by Elder Hibbard (Christian Harmony 299) describing the many glorious ways we can see God’s love written in creation.
  • Psalm 37. The psalm verses are chanted by the assembly with Savior, Visit Thy Plantation (SHIELDS, Christian Harmony 260b), a John Newton text, sung by the choir as an antiphon.
  • Anthem. With Johann Crüger’s beloved tune and Martin Rinckart’s august text, Nun danket alle Gott is a classic thanksgiving hymn, here in a moving arrangement by Johann Pachelbel.
  • Offering. John Newton’s poignant text of confession and gratitude with the timeless NEW BRITAIN tune, Amazing Grace is sung here in a setting by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw.
  • Anthem. A classic of many Thanksgiving concert programs, William Billings’s Anthem of Thanksgiving is an energetic proclamation of God’s good creative work based on Psalm 148.
  • Hymn. A classic Dutch hymn written in 1597 by Adrianus Valerius sung here with Julia Cory’s understated, comforting meditation on God’s unending love and steadfast strength.

[Listen to music from Grace and Thanksgiving]

Musical Scores

Download Green Meadows (PDF)

Through all the world below,
God is seen all around;
Search hills and valleys thru,
There he’s found.
The growing of the corn,
The lily and the thorn,
The pleasant and forlorn,
All declare God is there,
In the meadows drest in green,
There he’s seen.

Download Shields (PDF)

Savior, visit Thy plantation,
Grant us, Lord, a gracious rain!
All will come to desolation,
Unless Thou return again.

Keep no longer at a distance,
Shine upon us from on high,
Lest for want of Thy assistance,
Ev’ry plant should droop and die.