- Organ: Variations on 'Amazing Grace' – Denis Bedard
- Opening Hymn 432 "Jesus calls us! O’er the tumult"
- Service Music: A Community Mass – Richard Proulx
- Psalm 67
- Gospel Alleluia
This Jesus God raised up: and of that all of us are witnesses. - Offertory Hymn: "And can it be"
- Anthem: “How lovely are the messengers” (from St. Paul) – Felix Mendelssohn
- Communion Hymn 446 "Word of God, come down on earth"
- Concluding Hymn 352 "Amazing grace"
- Organ: Fugue in G major – Felix Mendelssohn
Today we commemorate Paul’s conversion. With reference to that event the offertory hymn this morning is “And can it be”, a text by Charles Wesley. Originally titled “Free Grace,” this hymn is one of several hymns by Wesley that is still widely sung in the present day. Although we do not know exactly when “And Can It Be” was written, it is usually associated with a very early period linked with the Charles Wesley’s own conversion. Regardless of when it was written, the hymn clearly describes the experience of conversion and the wonder of one who is still amazed “That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”.
"Saint Paul," the first of Mendelssohn’s oratorios, was begun in Düsseldorf, Germany and finished in Leipzig in the winter of 1835, the composer being then in his twenty-sixth year. Its three principal themes are the martyrdom of Saint Stephen, the conversion of Saint Paul, and the apostle’s subsequent career. The work was first produced May 22, 1836 at Düsseldorf. “How lovely are the messengers” is from Part Two of the oratorio.
View/download leaflet including hymn, anthem and psalm texts - see here »
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