Our worship on Palm Sunday continues to observe the season of Lent, the seven weeks of the church year preceding Easter. Recalling Jesus' 40-day temptation in the wilderness, Lent invites us through introspection and penitence to consider the costliness of Christ's sacrifice for our sin. Lenten worship is hence more subdued, signified by the purple liturgical color as well as by the temporary absence of flowers and "alleluias."

Dr. Brian Alderman , an ordained Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA), serves as Chaplain and Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at King University. A native of Galax, Virginia, Brian pastored Madisonville Presbyterian Church and served as Chaplain at Hiwassee College in Madisonville, Tennessee, before joining the faculty of King. He also taught Biblical Studies and Religion at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, for six years. He and his wife, Monica Cooley Alderman, have one daughter, Ella Kate.

Please plan to worship with us during Holy Week, which begins this Sunday. Here is the schedule of the week's six worship services:

 

March 25, Palm Sunday
8:30 a.m.	Worship, Fellowship Hall
9:45 a.m.	Sunday School
11:00 a.m.	Worship, Sanctuary
March 29, Maundy Thursday
7:00 p.m.	Worship, Sanctuary
March 30, Good Friday
7:00 p.m.	Worship, Sanctuary
April 1, Easter Sunday
7:30 a.m.	Sunrise Service, Courtyard
8:00 a.m.	Breakfast, Hallway & Chapel
9:30 a.m.	Sunday School
10:30 a.m.	Worship, Sanctuary

 

OGHS ministries around the world.

On Easter Sunday, April 1, the offering we collect in ONE Worship will go to the PCUSA's One Great Hour of Sharing program, enabling us to share God's love with our neighbors in need around the world. The many ministries and projects in this program provide relief to those affected by natural disasters, food to the hungry, and empowerment to the poor and oppressed. More information, including the map's extensive legend, is available at http://specialofferings.pcusa.org/oghs.html.

Children at our partner school in Dembi Dollo in 2013.

In the wake of continuing political unrest and subsequent violence in different parts of Ethiopia, our mission partners in Dembi Dollo have contacted our church and requested prayers for peace and safety. A state of emergency throughout the country was declared in recent weeks upon the resignation of the country's Prime Minister and will remain in effect until another is selected. Of most recent and significant concern has been the movement of 20,000 government troops into Dembi Dollo, where our brothers and sisters in Christ reside. Our prayers are urgently needed.

Dan Kreiss

Next Wednesday night's fellowship gatherings are suspended while we observe Holy Week. We will meet again April 4.

Sunday's music participants: Pat Flannagan, Bob Greene, Sanctuary Choir, Sanctuary Handbells.

Sunday's music: Sunday's anthem is the familiar hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" in an arrangement by Gilbert Martin (b. 1941). Martin is currently a free-lance

	Gilbert Martin

composer and an editor of choral music. For more than 40 years, organists, pianists, schools, and churches have performed and enjoyed his many and varied original compositions and arrangements. He received a B.Mus. from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and was recently honored at Westminster as a distinguished composer and graduate. Martin now lives in Dayton, Ohio.

Organist's footnotes: In the spring of 1980, my parents and I were driving to Lititz, Pennsylvania, to attend the baptism of my brother's infant daughter. Just six miles from our destination, we had a horrible accident that sent all three of us to the hospital. To help pass the time, I purchased a book of piano music, The Complete Lyric Pieces of Edvard Grieg, and spent those days working and playing through all sixty-six pieces. By the end of the three weeks, I had fallen in love with the music of this most celebrated of Norwegian composers. Grieg (1843-1907) incorporated native Norwegian folk music into his compositions. The range of expression between each of these miniature musical gems is enormous. The mood of "Ballad" (our prelude) is one of the darkest in the collection. My transcription for handbells makes use of some our lowest bells to help capture that mood.

William Billings (1746-1800) is regarded as the first American choral composer. "When Jesus Wept" (our offertory) appears in his earliest published collection, The New-England Psalm-Singer (1770). The entire text reads: "When Jesus wept, the falling tear In mercy flowed beyond all bound; When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear Seized all the guilty world around." Sung as a four-part round, the haunting melody with its moving text has made this one of Billings's most enduring compositions. This handbell transcription plays the entire melody once, then as a four-part round.

We conclude this Sixth Sunday of Lent with the last of our selections from Elf Choralvorspiele für die Orgel ( Eleven Chorale Preludes for the Organ), Op. 122, by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Brahms wrote these short pieces in 1896 near the end of his life; they were published posthumously in 1902. They are based on verses of nine Lutheran chorales, and this is the second of the two settings of "Herzlich tut mich verlangen." In 1611 Christoph Knoll wrote the lyrics, a prayer for a blessed death, beginning "Herzlich tut mich verlangen nach einem sel'gen End" ("I do desire dearly a blessed end"). The melody, which we know as the Passion Chorale, was adapted from a secular song by Hans Leo Hassler. Unlike most of the pieces in this collection, the melody in this setting can actually be heard clearly! It is played in long notes (quarter and half notes) in the pedals, while the manuals engage in a quicker continuo-like accompaniment (sixteenth and eighth notes).

Church Officers
ELDERS
Class of 2018	Class of 2019	Class of 2020
Aaron Brooks	Anna Booher	Nancy Allerton
Randy Cook	Lee Galliher	Rebecca Beck
Debbie McMillin	Pete Holler	David Hyde
Stuart Parker	Han Ong	Jordan Pennington
Chuck Thompson	Pete Stigers	Jerry Poteat
DEACONS
Class of 2018	Class of 2019	Class of 2020
Adam Abel	Sujean Bradley	Blake Bassett
Nancy Butterworth	George Linke	Rhonda Comer
David Ginn	Greg Roberts	Brenda Lawson
Rett Stocstill	Nate Sproles	Barbara Thompson
Ann Woods	Bill Whisnant