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Mar 27 2016

Lessons & Carols 2015 Roundup (3 of 3 – The Music)

THE MUSIC

Finally, here are the songs we played and sang. Please follow these links and support these artists! Most of them are independent of any sort of mainstream label and rely heavily on individual music sales. You can listen to and download for free our live album below.

 

Cheer Us By Thy Drawing Nigh (This was my own arrangement based off of Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck’s recording of And Am I Born To Die. Links are for that song.)
Listen | Info | Purchase

Once In Royal David’s City – Sufjan Stevens
Listen | Info | Purchase

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Traditional
Info

I Wonder As I Wonder – Jeremy Goodwyne
Info

Joy to the World – A Jesus Church
Info | Purchase

The Trumpet Child – Over the Rhine
Listen | Info | Purchase

Gabriel’s Message – Traditional
Info

What Child Is This? – Eric Moore (Yes! OUR Eric Moore!)
Info

The First Noel – Lady Antebellum
Listen | Info | Purchase

King of Kings – Ordinary Time
Listen | Info | Purchase

Of the Father’s Love Begotten – Traditional
Info

May You Find a Light & A Light (Reprise) – The Brilliance
Listen | Purchase

Hark the Herald Angels Sing – Rend Collective
Listen | Info | Purchase

Here’s to the next Lessons & Carols!

Written by JDGoodwyne · Categorized: Thoughts

Mar 27 2016

Lessons & Carols 2015 Roundup (2 of 3 – The Art)

(Part 2 of 3)

THE ART

We took a different approach to the art this year. The last two years I simply asked one person who I knew was a competent artist to create three pieces. (Cate Miller in 2014; Tyler Dirks in 2013). But I knew we had untapped artistic talent in the church, so I put out a general call to the congregation for artists to create works for L&C. We had seven people sign up to create nine pieces of art; one piece for each lesson. The results were better than I could have imagined and I am so, so proud of these folks! Most of them aren’t regularly making a lot of art, so part of this is a desire I have to see artists in our midst be driven to create. My hope is that they find more reasons to keep creating. As in previous years, each piece was auctioned off in the annual silent auction held by JWU RUF. If you would like to commission work, leave a comment and I’ll put you in touch.

Artist: Dave Kulp
Title: All Creation Groans
Acrylic Paint and Oil Stick on Canvas
36 in x 28 in

1 - 2015_LessonsCarolsArt_HighRes-Kulp

Artist: Rebecca Olson
Title: Abraham’s Choice
Pen & Ink on Paper
22 in x 28 in

2 - 2015_LessonsCarolsArt_HighRes-Olson

Artist: Ryan Bowen
Title: Heaven and Nature Sing
Gold Spray Paint & Acrylic on Canvas
36 in x 12 in

3 - 2015_LessonsCarolsArt_HighRes-Bowen1

Artist: Brittany Ford
Title: They Shall Not Hurt or Destroy
Acrylic & Gold Leaf on Canvas
20 in x 24 in

4 - 2015_LessonsCarolsArt_HighRes-Ford

Artist: Nicole Perri
Title: The Messenger
Oil on Canvas
18 in x 24 in

5 - 2015_LessonsCarolsArt_HighRes-Perri1

Artist: Reebok Brown
Title: Immeasurable Hope
Watercolor on Paper
11 in x 15 in

6 - 2015_LessonsCarolsArt_HighRes-Brown

Artist: Nicole Perri
Title: The Glory of the Lord
Oil on Canvas
18 in x 24 in

7 - 2015_LessonsCarolsArt_HighRes-Perri2

Artist: Ryan Bowen
Title: Hallelujah
Gold Spray Paint & Acrylic on Canvas
20 in x 24 in

8 - 2015_LessonsCarolsArt_HighRes-Bowen2

Artist: Cate Miller
Title: Beget
Acrylic Mixed Media on Canvas
24 in x 48 in

9 - 2015_LessonsCarolsArt_HighRes-Miller

Written by JDGoodwyne · Categorized: Thoughts

Mar 27 2016

Lessons & Carols 2015 Roundup (1 of 3 – Theme & Publicity)

(Part 1 of 3. Better late than never!)

On December 12, 2015, we had our annual Festival of Lessons & Carols at Uptown Church. If you are not familiar with this service, it comes out of the Anglican tradition, specifically King’s College in Cambridge. More on that here and here. Following the 2014 L&C service, I posted a Roundup which was well received, so here is the next one.

Note: All of the musical selections are in the third part this post. I put them last because I want to draw recognition to all of the other amazing talent that is so important to this event. But if that’s what you are looking for, just click here.

THE THEME

This year, we themed our service “In the Fullness of Time,” a reference to Galatians 4:4-5:

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

This is such a compelling image to me. I imagine the brokenness of all of creation waiting, groaning in anguish, impatient for the day when she would be redeemed from the curse. Then, at just the right time, salvation came in the person of Christ. Not a moment too soon or late.

THE PUBLICITY

This year Uptowner Mandie Spear collaborated with Tyler LaCross to develop an invitation and poster that well captured the spirit and ethos of the night:

 

L&C_invite_11.9L&C_poster_11x17

I love everything about this design. The intertwining holly and thorns is a sobering reminder of the reason Christ came which was to suffer and to die the death we deserved to die. But this is good news worth celebrating because we know that death could not hold the maker of life, and defeating death he bought us life. Mandie did the beautiful hand lettering. The black and white image on the left was for these beautiful letter-pressed invitations by Emory Cash. The color image on the right was for posters printed by Mom & Pops Printshop here in Charlotte.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography this year was provided by Rebecca Lynn Olson and it spectacularly captures the atmosphere:

[FAG id=247]

Written by JDGoodwyne · Categorized: Creativity, Liturgy, Music

Jan 07 2015

Lessons & Carols 2014 Roundup

On December 14 in the Year of Our Lord 2014, we conducted our annual Festival of IX Lessons & Carols at Uptown Church, or as we affectionately refer to it, #L&C. If you are not familiar with this service, it comes out of the Anglican tradition, specifically King’s College in Cambridge. More on that here and here. Every year I intend to write a follow up blog post about the service, but this year I’m actually going to post a follow up blog post about the service. So here goes.

Note: All of the musical selections are at the end of this post. I put them last because I want to draw recognition to all of the other amazing talent that is so important to this event. But if that’s what you are looking for, just scroll down.

THE PUBLICITY

This year, I hired Emory Cash to do some hand-lettering for me. Emory is an extremely talented artist, designer and entrepreneur from Greenville, SC, as well as a dear friend and brother. (If you have seen the giant blue painting I have in my office, that is also his handiwork.) I asked him to letter out Isaiah 60:1, and this is what he came up with:

HandLettered

For print publicity, we hired Mom and Pop’s Printshop, a local business and they printed posters and invitations for us.

uptown lessons carols 1

uptown lessons carols 2

 

THE WREATH

We always hang a large wreath on the organ pipes, but this year local florist and Uptown member Aubrey Rich created something pretty unique. This wreath is made entirely of pages from old hymnals. It is 6 feet in diameter, and Julie buried white lights in between the pages to make it glow. It was pretty special. Aubrey is the owner and operator of Willow Floral Boutique in Huntersville. She arranges flowers (and hymn book pages!) like nobody’s business.

Wreath_4818

THE ART

The original art this year was created by our own talented musician and painter, Cate Miller. There are three pieces, and each piece was inspired by a section from John Donne’s divine sonnet, La Corona. The pieces were breath-taking which pictures do not fully capture. She used metallic paints in each pieces to capture light in a unique way, and they really came to life in the sanctuary. Images of the paintings are below and are each followed by the verse of La Corona that inspired them. Also, these paintings will be for sale at the JWU RUF silent auction dinner in a couple of months, so make sure you are there if you’d like to bid. To commission art from Cate, you can email her at “a[dot]cate[dot]miller[at]gmail[dot]com”

Title: Entwine
30×30 Acrylic, Salt and Sand

Cate Miller - Entwine - 2014

Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and praise,
Weaved in my lone devout melancholy,
Thou which of good hast, yea, art treasury,
All changing unchanged Ancient of days.
But do not with a vile crown of frail bays
Reward my Muse’s white sincerity;
But what Thy thorny crown gain’d, that give me,
A crown of glory, which doth flower always.
The ends crown our works, but Thou crown’st our ends,
For at our ends begins our endless rest.
The first last end, now zealously possess’d,
With a strong sober thirst my soul attends.
‘Tis time that heart and voice be lifted high;
Salvation to all that will is nigh.

 

Title: Imprisonment
30×30 Mixed Media

Cate Miller - Imprisonment - 2014

Salvation to all that will is nigh;
That All, which always is all everywhere,
Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,
Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo! faithful Virgin, yields Himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb ; and though He there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He’ll wear,
Taken from thence, flesh, which death’s force may try.
Ere by the spheres time was created thou
Wast in His mind, who is thy Son, and Brother;
Whom thou conceivest, conceived; yea, thou art now
Thy Maker’s maker, and thy Father’s mother,
Thou hast light in dark, and shutt’st in little room
Immensity, cloister’d in thy dear womb.

Title: Heaven Came Down
30×30 Acrylic

Cate Miller - Heaven Came Down - 2014

Immensity, cloister’d in thy dear womb,
Now leaves His well-beloved imprisonment.
There he hath made himself to his intent
Weak enough, now into our world to come.
But O!  for thee, for Him, hath th’ inn no room?
Yet lay Him in this stall, and from th’ orient,
Stars, and wise men will travel to prevent
The effects of Herod’s jealous general doom.
See’st thou, my soul, with thy faith’s eye, how He
Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie?
Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high,
That would have need to be pitied by thee?
Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go,
With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe.

THE MUSIC

Finally, this was the song lineup. I hope you’ll follow the links and go support the artists who write this music. The overwhelming majority of the music that we use is not written by artists who are getting wealthy off their work. They’ve chosen to work independently of the mainstream music industry (hence the term,”indie”) so they depend greatly on word of mouth advertising and individual music sales.

(Side note: I always intend to mix down the audio of the service and make it available, but I just never get it done. This year I’m finally just paying someone else to do it. Hopefully in a couple of months, we’ll have a recording. So stay tuned!)

Rejoice, Rejoice! – The Oh Hello’s
listen | purchase

Once In Royal David’s City – Traditional
listen | info | purchase

Out of Heaven – Bifrost Arts
listen | info | purchase

Creator of the Stars of Night – Cardiphonia
listen | info | purchase

Do You Hear What I Hear? – Copeland
listen | info | purchase

Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light – Andrew Pressley
listen | info | purchase

Song of Simeon – Good Shepherd Band
listen | info | purchase

Little Drummer Boy – Erin McCarley
listen | info | purchase

Angels We Have Heard On High – Evan Wickham
listen | info | purchase

Glory Be to God On High – Chicago Metro Presbytery Music
listen | info | purchase

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree – Traditional (I’ve often received questions about the imagery and language in this obscure hymn, so here’s an interesting writeup about it)
listen | info | purchase

Of The Father’s Love Begotten – Traditional
listen | info | purchase

Begin and Never Cease – The Oh Hello’s
listen | info | purchase

That’s it! Looking forward to #LandC2015!

Written by JDGoodwyne · Categorized: Creativity, Liturgy, Music

Dec 27 2014

Book Review // The Liturgy Trap: The Bible Versus Mere Tradition In Worship

Many young Americans (myself included) have become increasingly disillusioned with an American pop-evangelicalism that is an inch deep and 2500 miles wide. Like sugar, it’s fun at first, but at some point you realize if you don’t get something a little more substantial, you are going into a coma.

Enter high liturgical traditions such as Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglicanism. These traditions are old— defiantly old, excepting Anglicanism. They make grand claims of ancient historicity, and everything they do in worship certainly has the appearance of age, even to the point of the use of antiquated dead languages. There is unabashed acceptance of the mystical which stands in contrast to the heightened scientific rationalism of much of the reformed church, and the coarse anti-intellectualism of a lot of the non-reformed church. And apart from all of that, their worship and liturgy are downright beautiful.

My own attraction to these things I’ve had to question and hold in check. One major question I’ve had is this: is this just a fad? Am I just falling in lockstep with obvious generational cultural trends? One can purchase a device from Sharper Image that looks like an old landline phone, but connects to your iPhone. Cassette tapes are almost cool again. And rockstar musicians at the top of their game dress as though they are 19th century farm hands from the Irish countryside. The point is, though much of this “vintage attraction” has behind it some right criticisms and good desires, much of it is a facade.

In “The Liturgy Trap,” James Jordan is conciliatory to the frustrations of those in Reformed and Evangelical camps who are drawn in this direction. But “the cure,” he says, “is far worse than the disease.” The meta-point of The Liturgy Trap is that while church tradition has its proper place and should be shown a great deal of attention and respect, still it must always submit and conform to God’s Word. If it is elevated to be on par with scripture or to stand in authority over scripture then we commit the same pharisaical sins that Jesus condemned. This, of course, is not a new argument; it was at the core of the Reformation. But Jordan’s burden is not to convince Catholics, Orthodox, or Anglicans to leave their traditions.The Liturgy Trap is for Reformed and Evangelicals who are tempted to abandon their churches in search of the greener grass of ecclesial antiquity.

Jordan spends the majority of the book laying out some critical theological differences between these traditions: the veneration of Mary, saints and icons; two-stage Christianity in the rite of confirmation; sexuality and the exaltation of virginity and celibacy; and the nature of the presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.

The final chapter deals with another area in which Reformed and Evangelicals disagree sharply with their Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican siblings, but as previously mentioned it is really an overarching disagreement. At the end of the day, one may make biblical arguments until blue in the face, but if the ultimate trump card, Tradition, is played, then those biblical arguments don’t amount to much . The appeal to church tradition as the authority on what scripture does and does not mean subjugates an objective, infallible, unchangeable authority to a subjective, fallen, ever-changing one. This, Jordan explains, is one of the reasons these traditions have been so susceptible to the errors of the higher criticisms characteristic of liberal theology.

Rebellion is in our blood. Despite the claims of modern philosophy, we can’t control or exercise dominion over scripture. Tradition, however, we can control. Scripture has come to us objectively, passed down faithfully, protected by the Spirit. Tradition, good and helpful as it may be, is a human invention. Jordan says this: “There is a very important difference between Scripture and tradition. We cannot “obey” tradition; we can only follow it. Custom and tradition cannot come to us as law, because they are not authored by God’s voice. They are not written. In the Bible, however, we are confronted by the Person of God, and we are confronted by words He has spoken and caused to be written.”

I highly recommend this book, especially for my Reformed brothers and sisters who’s big hearts and aesthetically oriented minds sometimes lead them astray. I know full well this danger. The Reformed church desperately needs us to stick around! We see the world in a way that our churches cannot afford to lose. We are image-bearers who resemble our Father in creativity, compassion, beauty and justice. At the same time, we desperately need our black-and-white-seeing, proposition-making, truth-loving brothers and sisters to help us rein in some of our passion. They are image-bearers who resemble their Father in truth, steadfastness, and clarity. One body, different parts. The temptation is to say, “I’m an eye, and I’m not really seeing any other eyes here, and the ears are making me uncomfortable, so I’m going to go find a body made entirely of eyes.” That would be a monster! Instead, let us “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [we] have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:1-6 ESV)

Written by JDGoodwyne · Categorized: Book Review · Tagged: liturgy, worship

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