17 September 2014

A note on this evening’s
service and hymns

Domenico Fetti, Parable of the Wicked Servant (c. 1620) … from the front cover of this evening’s Order of Service

Patrick Comerford

I am presiding at the Community Eucharist in the Chapel of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute at 5 p.m. this evening. The readings, Collect and Post-Communion Prayer at this evening’s Eucharist are those for last Sunday, the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, or Proper 19.

Readings: Exodus 14: 19-31; Psalm 114; Romans 14: 1-12; Matthew 18: 21-35.

The Processional Hymn, ‘Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us’ (Irish Church Hymnal, 652) was written by James Edmeston (1791-1867), an English architect whose best-known pupil was Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878), best-known for the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, the Albert Memorial, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, and Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh. Edmeston was churchwarden at Saint Barnabas, Homerton. He is said to have written 2,000 hymns, one every Sunday, but this is the only one to survive in popular hymnals.

We sing Gloria as ‘Glory in the highest to the God of heaven!’ (693). This was written by the Revd Christopher Idle in 1976 for an earlier tune, Cuddesdon, written in 1919 by the Revd William H Ferguson, who had been an ordinand at Cuddesdon Theological College, near Oxford.

For the Gradual we sing ‘I come with joy, a child of God’ (421). This is one of the well-known hymns by the Revd Dr Brian Wren, and moves from individual worship to the experience of community worship.

Our Offertory hymn is ‘Lord, as the grain which once was scattered on upland acres’ (430). This is an adaptation of words from the Didache by George Seaver (1890-1976), Dean of Ossory and the biographer of Albert Schweitzer, David Livingstone, Scott of the Antarctic and Archbishop Gregg. The tune ‘School House’ is by Thomas Wood of Exeter College, Oxford.

For our Communion Hymn, as we receive Holy Communion, we sing ‘Jesus, remember me’ (617), by Jacques Berthier (1923-1994) and the Taizé Community.

The Post-Communion Hymn, ‘Your kingdom come, O God,’ (509) was written as an Advent hymn by Canon Lewis Hensley (1824-1905). The tune St Cecilia is by the Revd Leighton George Hayne (1836-1883), the organist at Eton College and a keen amateur organ builder.

Collect:

Almighty God,
who called your Church to bear witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
Help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Post-Communion Prayer:

God our creator, you feed your children with the true manna,
the living bread from heaven.
Let this holy food sustain us through our earthly pilgrimage
until we come to that place
where hunger and thirst are no more;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Unmerciful Servant, Sir John Everett Millais (1829–1896), from Illustrations to ‘The Parables of Our Lord’, engraved by the Dalziel Brothers (1864) … the back cover illustration for this evening’s order of service

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