Merry Christmas

Michael and Cheryl are here for the holiday with our two grand-dogs, Tris and Izzy. Cheryl falls asleep pretty these days so she and Michael stayed here while Julie and I went to late night mass.

The service was beautiful and the pastor's sermon was one of the clearest presentations of the Gospel I think I have ever heard. A couple of quiet "Amens" floated down from the organ loft.

I am now the official organist at Good Shepherd Acton. There was a lot of music in the service. It started with a carol sing and included about seven songs throughout the course of the mass. The Episcopal tradition is to sing all the verses. I used the synthesizer on several carols just to keep things from getting boring. I played at a pretty fast tempo. I figured that a lot of us were up past our bedtimes and needed all the help we could get to stay awake.

I think my favorite arrangement was the Silent Night at the conclusion of communion when I played the synthesizer on a simple guitar setting. One of the traditions at the church was to sing Silent Night with a guitar accompaniment; however, the person who played the guitar was one of the thirty families who left the congregation in support of the heretical denomination from which our diocese has departed. It was really beautiful, the simple guitar and the people singing. On the last refrain I let the guitar fade away and the people sang acapella.

People were very appreciative of the variety of sounds and styles. I did put in a lot of time to make the music special, but I enjoyed making the joyful noise.