Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
A full Choral Evensong service broadcast from the Church of the Incarnation, Dallas, TX. Each Sunday afternoon, the Incarnation Choir presents Choral Evensong, one of the Anglican tradition's finest liturgical offerings. Begin your week with rest and quietness, surrounded by the beauty of the Church of the Incarnation. Join in prayer and reflection through the exquisite music.
Welcome to Choral Evensong from Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas. I invite you to tune in each week as we gather at today's end for a sacred time of prayer, music, and scripture. An invitation to pause and lift our hearts and minds in thanksgiving toward the creator of all truths and beauty. The rich Anglican choral tradition spans repertoire from ancient monastic chants to the soaring anthems of the Victorian era to masterpieces of the twentieth century. This afternoon, the choir will sing Psalm 145, the king's college service or Collegium Regale by Herbert Howells, and as the anthem, Almighty and Everlasting God by English Renaissance composer Orlando Gibbons.
Christopher Jacobson:We begin with an invocation of God's presence asking him to open our lips that we may rightly sing his praise. Please join us now as we begin together in prayer.
Father Oliver Lee:When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.
Reader:A reading from the book of Exodus. God said to Moses, go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, the lord, the god of our ants of your ancestors, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has appeared to me saying, I have given heed to you and to what has been done in Egypt. I declare that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. They will listen to your voice and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, the lord, the god of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us now go a three days journey into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the lord our god.
Reader:I know, however, that the king of Egypt will not let you go except by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it. After that, he will let you go. I will bring this people into such favor with the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty handed. Each woman shall ask her neighbor and any woman living in the neighbor's house for jewelry of silver and gold and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters so that you shall plunder the Egyptians.
Reader:Then Moses answered, but look, they may not believe me or listen to me, but say, the lord did not appear to you. The lord said to him, what is that in your hand? He said, a staff. And he said, throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground and it became a snake.
Reader:And Moses threw it grew back from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, reach out your hand and seize it by the tail. So he reached out his hand and grasped it and it became a staff in his hand. So that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the god of Isaac, and the god of Jacob has appeared to you. Again, the lord said to him, put your hand inside your cloak.
Reader:He put his hand into his cloak and when he took it out, his hand was diseased as white as snow. Then god said, put your hand back into your cloak. So he put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his body. If they will not believe you or heed the first sign, they may believe the second sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to you, you shall take some water from the Nile, pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.
Reader:But Moses said to the Lord, oh my Lord, I've never been eloquent neither in the past nor now that you have spoken to your servant, but I'm slow of speech and slow of tongue. Then the Lord said to him, who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go and I will be your with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.
Reader:Here endeth the lesson.
Father Oliver Lee:A reading from the gospel according to Saint John. Jesus said to the crowd, which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is from God hears the words of God. And the reason that you do not hear them is that you are not from God.
Father Oliver Lee:The Jews answered him, are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? And Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it and he is the judge. Very truly I tell you, whoever keeps my words will would never see death.
Father Oliver Lee:The Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. Yet you say, whoever keeps my word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? The prophets also died.
Father Oliver Lee:Who do you claim to be? And Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, he is our God, though you do not know him. But I know him. If I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you.
Father Oliver Lee:But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. Then the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old and you have seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, very truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.
Father Oliver Lee:So they picked up thrones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. Here ended the lesson. Welcome to the Church of the Incarnation and the service of Choral Evensong. If you are a guest or new to Incarnation, I invite you to use the gold top communication card in the pew rack in front of you and let us know you are here so we can help you find out more information about the parish and our activities. And following the Evensong, you are warmly invited to a reception in the Narthex, the rear of the church.
Father Oliver Lee:We hope you'll be able to attend. Let us kneel to pray. Almighty God, father of all mercies, we, thy unworthy servants, do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving kindness to us and to all men. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life. But above all, for thine inestimable love, and the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, Christ for the means of grace and for the hope of glory.
Father Oliver Lee:And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies that our hearts may be unfailingly thankful, and that we show forth thy praise not only with our lips, but in our lives by giving up ourselves to thy service and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen. Almighty God, who has given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee and thus promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy name, thou will grant their request. Fulfill now, oh lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants as may be most expedient for them, granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.