School’s out for summer! Temperatures are rising, there are more days of sunshine than rain, and gardens are coming to life with flowers, birds, and the increasing sound of cicadas. For many of us, it’s the best time to take a break from our busy schedules and refresh ourselves by taking time away from work or school. With COVID restrictions lifting, we might be able to use that time to take a vacation and adventure.
The Church year uses the summer to refresh, too. Most major feasts and celebrations take place between October and May, and once they are over, we have several months in which we hear stories about the growth of Christ’s ministry and the building of the original discipleship. Our paraments on the front of the altar and lectern will change to green to symbolize this growing period.
At Lord of Life this summer, we’re using this time of growth to introduce some new hymns from our new hymnal supplement, All Creation Sings, at 8 am worship. The current hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) was published in 2006 and ends at hymn 893. All Creation Sings (ACS) is meant to add to, not replace, the ELW, and begins at hymn 901. It refreshes our selection of music by adding texts by current authors to old tunes as well as entirely new songs. We’ve been singing Liturgy music (Gloria; Alleluia; Holy, Holy, Holy; etc) from ACS since December.
We’re excited to showcase the rest of the new hymnal supplement and we hope our new hymns add to your own time of refreshment and growth.
Yours in song,
John Johns