Westminster Presbyterian Church
  • Home
    • Current News >
      • Calendar
  • About
    • Who We Are - Our Present
    • Who We've Been - Our Past >
      • Timeline of Presbyterian History in Auburn NY
    • Staff and Leadership
    • Ministry Teams
    • Tour
    • Weddings, Funerals, & Other Building Use
    • Links
  • Worship
    • 2023 Sermons
    • 2022 Sermons
    • 2021 Sermons
    • 2020 Sermons
    • Sermon Archive
    • Music
    • Children's Worship
  • Education
    • Adults
    • Journey through the Bible
    • Children and Youth
  • Mission
  • Blog
  • Give
    • Ode to Joy Skinner Organ Restoration Campaign
  • New Page

Downtown Churches to Host Sacred Music Concerts in May 2022

4/15/2022

0 Comments

 
by Audrey McNally 

May will be a sacred concert month for Auburn’s downtown churches with opportunities to hear musical programs offered by a 35-voice chorale, featured soloists, a chamber orchestra, and outstanding organists. 

On Sunday, May 1, at 4 PM, MasterWorks Chorale of Central New York, conducted by Kip Coerper, will present “Mozart, Mary, and More” at St. Mary’s Church, 15 Clark Street. The program will include Mozart’s “Missa Brevis” (or Sparrow Mass), three versions of the “Ave Maria” from different centuries, and a work written for the pandemic last year by Central New York composer Dan Forrest entitled "Light Beyond Shadow”. The concert will conclude with the singing of the Ukrainian National Anthem. Soloists include Emily King and Nancy Hart; the choir will be accompanied by a chamber orchestra, pianist Barbara Mushock, and trumpeter Lee Turner. Tickets for this concert are not needed, but a suggested donation of $10 is encouraged, with a portion of the proceeds to fund medical supplies for Ukraine. 

Westminster Presbyterian Church, 17 William Street, will celebrate its newly restored E.M. Skinner pipe organ with a rededication and recital on Friday, May 6, at 7 PM in the sanctuary, as one of Auburn’s “First Friday” events. The program is free and open to the public and will feature three talented organists, who will demonstrate both the versatility and majesty of the “King of Instruments”. 

Lori Rhodes-Pettit, organist and music director at Westminster Church, will play the hymn version of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” in tribute to our church’s capital campaign of the same name, which raised nearly $300,000 in grants, donations, pledges, and stock transfers for funding the $350,000 organ restoration project. Ms. Pettit will also accompany soprano soloist Diane deRoos, who will reprise two songs from the original 1926 organ dedication recital: Gounod’s “Ave Maria” and Mendelssohn’s “O Rest in the Lord” from “Elijah”.

Also featured will be organist Toni Sullivan, Director of Music at the Congregational Church of Brookfield, Connecticut, who has studied church music at Westminster Choir College and Hartt School of Music. Ms. Sullivan will play Widor’s Toccata from his 5th Symphony for Organ.

The third organist at the May 6th dedication will be Kip Coerper, Organist and Choirmaster of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Skaneateles, NY, and an organ and choral conducting graduate of the College of Wooster in Ohio. He furthered his musical education studying at Westminster Choir College, the Hartt School of Music, Catholic University of America, and the University of the South. He is also a member of the American Guild of Organists and has received its Service Playing and Choirmaster Certificates. Mr. Coerper’s selections will include “Rhosymedre” by Ralph Vaughan-Williams and J.S. Bach’s “In Thee is Gladness”, another piece that was played for the original dedicatory recital. The concert will conclude with the congregational singing of a rousing hymn “When in Our Music God is Glorified”.
 
On Friday, May 20, at 7:30 PM, the Syracuse Chapter of the American Guild of Organists will host a concert on Westminster’s restored E.M. Skinner (Opus 579) pipe organ, which will be played by Colin MacKnight. Called “a stunning player of exceptional ability,” Colin has won prizes from the 2019 Paris Music Competition, 2017 West Chester University International Organ Competition, 2016 Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition, 2016 Arthur Poister Scholarship Competition, 2013 Rodgers North American Classical Organ Competition, first place at the 2016 AGO Northeast Regional Competition and the Clarence Snyder Third Prize in the 2016 and 2019 Longwood Gardens International Organ Competitions. He is currently Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Little Rock, AR.

Tickets for the May 20th Colin MacKnight organ recital will be available at Westminster Presbyterian Church (pre-sale and at the door) and from the Syracuse AGO for $8 (adults), $5 (seniors), and students are free.

The public is welcome and encouraged to take advantage of these three local opportunities to hear outstanding choral and instrumental performances by skilled musicians.   

Audrey McNally is an elder and choir member at Westminster Church and a member of the MasterWorks Chorale of CNY.
0 Comments

A time of sabbath

4/9/2022

0 Comments

 
by Jill Fandrich
I have been writing columns for Westminster Church for over ten years now, and I have often used them to write about events or new initiatives at my church. This column is different. This month, I’m going to tell you about what we’re NOT doing.
 
That’s right. We’re not doing a lot in March and April at Westminster. We are taking a Sabbath. We have made an intentional decision to slow down, take a breath, and use these months to concentrate on the essentials of worshiping God and finding God’s presence in our lives.
 
Like any organization (and yes, churches are organizations), Westminster’s default mode has always been to try to do more. How can we improve worship? Let’s get more people involved, add more diverse music, decorate the chancel creatively, create new worship services with different times and styles. How can we grow in our faith? Let’s have more classes, more workshops, more outreach for all ages and at different times. How do we serve our neighbors? Let’s participate in more mission initiatives and more service projects, let’s partner with other organizations, let’s always say yes when we’re asked to volunteer, and let’s send money to every worthy cause.
 
No matter how much we do, though, it’s never enough. Church leaders and church members often find themselves frustrated, tired, and burnt out, sometimes to the point of pulling away. We’ve all heard of the “nones”- people who claim no religious affiliation. There’s another group called the “dones.” They’re people who were highly engaged in church life, and who then left organized religion with no plans to return. Many of these folks maintain deep personal spiritual lives but they’re “done” with church.
 
The pandemic made things even harder. When all the regular ways of doing things were yanked out from under us, churches had to create new ways to hold worship, to offer educational opportunities, to engage in meetings, and to stay connected. We created (often on the fly) new ways of being church while people still expected the old ways to return. The pandemic brought on double the work, done by fewer people, and sometimes with only half the results.
 
Covid seems to be on the wane, but we still don’t know what the future holds. We know as we emerge from the pandemic that a “return to normal” will not happen. We’ve discovered that some of the new initiatives (online worship, especially) are here to stay, and some things we used to do we might not do again. We engaged in a congregational study to talk about how to move forward. We plan to experiment with a new planning model that will be more fluid and seasonal. We plan to streamline and perhaps eliminate some of our committees. We plan to encourage small groups to form organically when like-minded individuals want to gather over common interests or goals.
 
But like everyone, we are tired. And being tired is a terrible time to make major decisions or major changes. We need a rest.
 
So, we are taking one. We have declared March and April a time of Sabbath. We are cutting back on meetings, programs, events, and demands. We are concentrating on the essentials of worship, which will be simpler, less structured, and less labor intensive. We are encouraging people to say “no” without guilt. We are hoping that this will open time in our personal lives and in our lives together to find God in ways we find life-giving, rather than life-draining.
 
It's very possible that we might find we don’t miss some of the things we’ve given up. And if that’s the case, then we won’t resume them. We also might find that some things were more important than we realized, but maybe had become stale or repetitious. We can resume those things in fresh new ways. We hope that a time of Sabbath will refresh us for more enriching, life-giving relationships with God and with each other.
 
God rested on the seventh day of creation. Jesus retreated from the crowds when he was overwhelmed with his ministry. A time of Sabbath is a gift to ourselves, a gift that will help us realize who we are and to whom we belong.
 
 
0 Comments

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    April 2022
    November 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly