While we are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and have ceased in person worship for the time being, we are still gathering our hearts and minds for worship as a church. Each week our staff produces and emails an at-home worship packet with words, art, and music. You can find previous weeks’ worship packets here. You can email office@lajollaucc.org to request to be added to the weekly email list to receive these in your inbox.
If you have pastoral requests or concerns please email pastor@lajollaucc.org
With grace
CCLJ Staff
Hello CCLJ Family (and Friends far and wide):
We are still very much a functioning, living, breathing church. This is evidence of that. We are doing something that has never been done in the history of our church.
Below you will find a Weekly worship kit. During these weeks of at home worship we will be reflecting on what this means. Can we be significant staying at home? What does it mean to contend with illness? With an infirm world? Can we change the world from our own homes? Let’s explore these questions together by looking to the past and looking to our sacred scriptures.
Please open the at home worship guide below by clicking on it. It should open with ease. Start on page one and read through the guide. There are four audio files that you will see below as well. Don’t listen to the audio files until the guide instructs you to. They are listed clearly as “Audio File 1,” “Audio File 2,” “Audio File 3,” and “Audio File 4.” This is to make this as simple as possible. Keep the guide open as you work through the worship guide so that you can easily access the audio files when necessary. When instructed by the guide to listen to an audio file, simply click on the audio file that the guide instructs you to.
Also, please read all the way through the worship guide. Your staff put in an incredible amount of time in getting this together for you. There is a fun homework assignment too. We ask that you to send us a photo. This can be a selfie of you at home today, or a photo of the place you choose to worship, or a photo of something that is currently inspiring you. When we come back together we will use these photos in a special way.
With grace,
Rev. Tim Seery, Minister
Dr. Nina Gilbert, Music Director
Bronwyn Allen-Kaeser, Office Manager, Soloist
Week 79 September 12th, 2021
Dear CCLJ,
Attached you will find all of the audio files for September 12 worship. This week we turn our attention to remembrance. 20 years have passed since each of us experienced a tragic event that shaped our modern history.
Melissa Melchor unveiled our final designs for our Blessing of the Animals banner. I will share that with you in the coming week’s worship email. She did an AMAZING job.
With grace,
Rev. Tim
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ONE MORE WEEK FOR ANIMAL SOUNDS! As we get ready for Blessing of the Animals, I’d love to get recordings from you of the animals you hear—pets, birds, crickets, any creature whose sound you think would be fun to include. See attached reminder if you need instructions how to record.
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PERFORMANCE NOTES
Nina GIlbert, music director and pianist
Bronwyn Allen-Kaeser, office manager and soprano
Our piano selections this week represent the beginning and the end of the career of R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943). Born in Canada to descendants of escaped slaves, he spent most of his life in the U.S. In 1908 he became the first Black music graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, and in 1917 he married Helen Elise Smith, the first Black graduate of the Damrosch Institute (precursor of the Juilliard School).Dett’s music evolved from ragtime and salon music to Romantic and Impressionist styles.
R. Nathaniel Dett, “Magnolias,” 1912
Inspired by the magnolia trees on the Lane College campus in Jackson, Tennessee. Dett, who had written a book of nature poems the previous year, placed these lines at the beginning of his manuscript:
“Gorgeous Magnolias,
Spotless in splendor,
Sad in their beauty,
Heavy with perfume.”
Dett, “Barcarolle of Tears,” from 8 Bible Vignettes, 1942-43
Each of the Vignettes has a specific scriptural reference—except this Barcarolle. A program note attributed to both Dett and pianist Clipper Erickson says “‘Barcarolle of Tears’ is like a fantasia describing the suffering of the Jewish people followed by quiet redemption.”
Touch the Earth Lightly
Words by Shirley Erena Murray, 1991
Music by Colin Gibson, 1992
Murray is a prolific and award-winning composer and social justice activist in New Zealand. She and Gibson are frequent collaborators.
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