Christ the King

For the punctuation of the 2007-2008 liturgical year, I have chosen a musical exclamation point – the Vaughan Williams ‘Antiphon’ – to frame our worship today.

The last of the ‘Five Mystical Songs,’ originally for big, big chorus and orchestra, the title ‘Antiphon’ refers to a statement, usually sung between sets of verses of a Psalm in order to clarify and delineate the message…

And so, this mornings’ message:

‘I proclaim that: ‘Christ is King of my Life…’

And for the Anthem, we’ll be taking this thought one step further as we offer an old white Spiritual, ‘And Can it Be,’ an infectious and blunt crowd-shout, in a foot-stomping mountain-flavored rhythm, of the delirious freedom brought on by this authority of Jesus…

At the Offertory, Robin Angly affirms the quiet penitence and supplication of the Wholeness and Healing litany with the exquisitely formed and chromatically pleading ‘Angus Dei’ from the monumental ‘Mass in B Minor.’

Onward into the new liturgical year…!

-Keith Weber