Friday's thoughts

Sunday at 9:15 and 10:45 the adult choir is singing the "Gloria" by John Rutter. My short sermon will be designed to lead into that wonderful piece of music. At 8 and 11:30 we will not have the adult choir singing and I have written two sermons for Sunday morning.

One of the sermons exposes the peculiarities of each of the sections of an adult choir (especially ours), and the other sermon is directed to the struggle for meaning through the illness and death of a child as grief yields to glory.

I have done some research on John Rutter. He was born in 1945 and is still living. He was an only child for the first 10 years of his life. He is ten years older than his sister.

His father was a scientist and his grandfather was an engineer. I haven't read much about his mother except that she introduced him to the piano which was in their home in England. He had little formal training on the piano and mainly picked out melodies by himself. Thus, he learned to play for the ear and not follow the dictates of a highly structured technique.

He struggled the talent he had to compose music and his need to direct it. I think he found the need to do both.

I have listened to our choir practicing the "Gloria". It is lively, and powerful and I hope to be able to do something in a sermon that will add meaning to their work so that it is an appropriate compliment.

If you have thoughts about the church, the economy, Rutter's music, or anything else write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have others read your response click on the box below.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles