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Each year, a group from the choir goes to Montreat Conference Center in Black Mountain, North Carolina to experience worship and music with others from all over the United States. Not only do PCUSA Presbyterians attend, but you will find Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, and other people of other faiths there, as well. There have been as many as 1,000 participants for the week in the past – the conference is still building up numbers since the onslaught of the pandemic. Worship happens every day at 11 am, with the addition of an early morning and evening service. Classes in professional development, worship, Bible studies, art, instrumental including drumming, organ playing, handbells, service planning, and children and youth choir classes are offered during the day. At night, there is an organ concert, a chamber choir concert (auditioned groups – youth and adult), a hymn festival, a youth talent show, and a final concert featuring handbell choirs, a children’s choir, a middle school choir and band, a senior high choir, and adult choir and instrumental group. This is all accomplished by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians (PAM). Your music staff gets a lot of ideas from this week. It is also a chance to relax with one another and talk about the upcoming year of worship and music. Those attending this year: Suzanne & Hal Morrison, Rhonda Hambright, Kate Helton, Amy Bishop, Lisa and Mary McNeal, Judy Stipp, Laurie Bentley, Mary Jo Townsend, Ed Jackson, and Anne Marie Stirewalt. Some of us will be leaving as soon as the anthem is over in choir on Sunday, June 25th. Opening Worship begins at 7:30 pm, so we need to be there in time to get to that. It will be exciting to see old friends and colleagues and make some new friends. This will be my 16th conference to attend (one year was online due to the pandemic). We are staying in a house on Tennessee Street – very close to the conference center and steps to Mary Ann and Bob Brearley’s cabin. We will all enjoy the mountains' cooler weather and return on July 1st. Please pray for safety and travel mercies for this group. Thank you for this opportunity!
I-26 can be a bear this time of year! Did I say bear? Oh yes, many bear sightings have happened in the past. Not to worry, we are all wearing our bells to keep them away (LOL).
This Sunday, 4 men from the choir will sing the Introit. Mark Lochstampfor, Tom Haughney, Richard Hathaway, and Bud Longley will debut our Men’s Quartet by singing “Faith of Our Fathers.” In the last newsletter, I wrote about “Blessings” – this Sunday the Chancel Choir will offer “Blessings” by Laura Mixon Story arranged by Heather Sorenson. Here are the words to the chorus of this song:
“What if Your blessings come through raindrops? What if Your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near? What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?”
On June 25th, we will sing Thomas Tallis’ “If Ye Love Me.” It is a four-part motet or anthem, a setting of a passage from the Gospel of John. First published in 1565 during the reign of Elizabeth I, it is an example of Tudor music and is part of the repertoire of Anglican church music. Mark Lochstampfor will substitute for Amy on the organ on that Sunday when she will be away in Athens on her way to Montreat.
I’ll be sending an update for the next newsletter during the week of Montreat, so stay tuned for news from the mountains!
Love & Gratitude,
Rhonda
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