Featured Choral Evensong from November 29, 2017

Kamehameha & Emma
King and Queen of Hawaii, 1864, 1885

This week’s featured Choral Evensong was sung on Nov. 29, 2017 by the Trinity Chamber Singers. The Rev. Rosalind Hughes (Rector, Church of the Epiphany, Euclid OH) was homilist as we commemorated Kamehameha and Emma, King and Queen of Hawaii, who played large parts in spreading the Gospel to those beautiful islands in the 19^th century.

The Responses were sung to the lyrical setting by American organist, teacher and church musician, Gerre Hancock (1934-2012). The canticles were the famous setting in G by Charles Stanford (1852-1924). Kristine Caswelch sang the soprano solo in the Magnificat, and José Gotera the baritone solo in the Nunc Dimittis. The constant running 8^th notes in the organ part of the Magnificat are said by some to represent Mary at her spinning wheel.

Is “politics” a good thing, or something to be avoided in polite company? So often, we boil an important and complex question about building a common life – also known as politics, in the best sense of the word – to the question of whether or not it’s polite to talk about politics in church, at work, or around the dinner table. Yet we know that the questions of prosperity and equity and human flourishing often overflow our tight compartments and find their way into our wider conversation, whether we like it or not.