Art, Poetry, Music, and Nature for the New Year
Saturday, February 13 2021

The Reverend Dr. Katie Snipes Lancaster

Word
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Luke 6:21

Music

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Pieta by Tom Kendzia

This was the debut virtual duet, our very first attempt at binding together musicians from across many miles. The scale of change for our music ministry has been enormous, and I trust that this past year will continue to shape the way we foster sacred song in the decades ahead. Will it simply be an ever-deeper appreciation for every live music event we attend (never take it for granted ever again)? Will there be reason to continue creating virtual music even when we can be present together in the sanctuary? What lasting influence from our digital lives will linger as our country and community heal from the pandemic?

The Pietà, used in worship for our 2020 Maundy Thursday online service, is heartbreakingly beautiful. If you have been to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, then you have seen Michaelangelo’s marble sculpture of Jesus draped across his mother’s lap after the crucifixion. It moves the story of Jesus’ death from the cross to the intimate place of in-the-moment raw maternal grief. Tom Kendzia takes that sculpture, and others like it, and turns it into song. For me, at least, it held the raw grief of early April life within a pandemic, and the soothing yet still haunting melody made way for that heart-pounding presence of God.

Blessing

Creator of Love, Source of All, linger near. Amen.

April 9 Pieta (Alyssa and Miya, Lisa Piano – virtual duet)

Come and see,
What I have done:
I’ve given my only son.
He lived for you,
And he died for you.
Come and see.

Lamb of God,
Have mercy on us;
Forgive us, Lord.

Creator of love,
Source of all life,
Have mercy on us;
Forgive us, Lord.