sports in their place

Yesterday's Reporter had this "sound off" letter and I quote:

"As someone who had two children involved in sports...I would gladly melt all their trophies and burn all their ribbons if either one of them could play a musical instrument." Whoah! Off to a daring start.

Then: "Sports is so overrated. When you're in your 40s, 50s, and 60s you're not going to be out there throwing a ball. But if you can play a piano, or a flute, or a saxophone, wouldn't that be enjoyable?"

As a church musician I gotta add--or if you sing in a choir. I've had singers in their late 80s singing away in choirs making a great contribution.

all-team session

Here's Barry Murphy. He's a musical bridge between types of music and groups. He leads one of the worship teams.

Mar. 8 I had the three worship teams together for a coordinating session. Here's the gist of the agenda:

What brought your team together, when?
What defines your team now?

Some reflections and handouts, exceprts from articles and books about worship and music.

As interim minister of worship, how can I best relate to your team?

What are you hearing from the congregation about worship teams?

One thing I learned is that the teams are the successors to the contemporary choir.

how early can Easter be?

This year Easter falls on March 23. Could it ever be earlier? Technically, yes. It can fall on March 22. That is quite rare. The last time it did was the year 1818, when James Monroe was President of the US.

Think you can stick around for the next time Easter falls on March 22. Good luck trying. The next year it is that early is the year 2285.

March 23 happens a little more frequently. The last time Easter was on March 23 was in 1913. If you're 95 years old or older you were around then. The next time it comes March 23 will be 220 years from now, in 2228.

What's the deal? The celestial spheres, that's the deal. Easter is fixed to come the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, which is March 20 or 21. How do I know all this? I read it in the Christian Century.

Easter can come anytime in your subjective heart you want. But I like the objective reality of the system we have had for centuries. It also makes it harder for secular societies to co-opt it and make it fit in the commercial flow of things. Oh, those daffodils are not from this year. I had to use a late March, 2007, photo, taken behind my barn.

Easter is a response to universe-wide reality. Hallelujah!

new organ at Hesston, Kansas

I you keep track of tracker organs (such as ours at Zion) or of organs in the Mennonite world, you'll know that a new one has just been installed at Hesston Mennonite Church, Kansas.

Tracker means mechanical. It means that when you press a key on the keyboard or a pedal on the pedalboard you are physically opening a pipe and it sounds. So inside, there are many lines of cord connecting the keys to the pipe valves. Most organ keys throw a switch which opens the pipe valve. Tracker action is kind of like rack and pinion steering on a high end car.

You can take a tour of the organ on YouTube online. You can also find the video on the Hesston College web site (hesston.edu). Go to academics, departments, music, and finally find the tour link down the page. Earlier I posted a photo of its installation. In the video you can hear it and take a tour of its insides.

Might not be a bad idea to have a little video of our own organ.

high school musicians

Know any of these young musicians? Some of the youth at Zion would. About half of these students are C Dock and half are Lancaster Mennonite. The ocassion is the annual festival of Mennonite high school instrumentalists. This year, yesterday, it was held in Lancaster and Dorcas and I went. Part of being a church musician is tracking the young musicians of a church and encouraging them or at least caring about what is going on. What is going on is some really high level of music.