September 1987

Epiphany season begins twelve days after Christmas, on January 6, and continues until the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. In 1988 the season covers six Sundays.The Sunday lessons during this season center upon events and readings from the ministry of Jesus, all of them concentrating on the seasonal theme: God, in Jesus Christ, personally appeared (Greek: epiphaneia) on earth, revealing himself to us directly rather than through any chosen messenger.

Convert to Cover

I have just received RW 4. I read it from cover to cover and must congratulate you on an excellent issue.

Thank you also for your article on new hymns and hymnals. I am afraid that the solution to better hymn singing is so obvious that we will continue to search for more complex solutions—at least that is the way the city is run here in Chicago.

We have a new hymnal committee, all of whom would benefit from reading this issue.

The sermon about the dragon seemed an intrusion into our Advent and Christmas spirit.

When entering church I was stili thinking about the VCR we had bought after long deliberation. And our children were coming home for Christmas; it had been six months since we had seen them last.

The sanctaury, with its poin-settias and Advent wreath, looked beautiful and peaceful. And the choir anthem was marvelous. The spirit was one of peace, festivity, and joy.

Last winter a news anchorwoman from one of the large television stations in the New York area traded in her expensive business suit for a bundle of rags. Convinced that in order to really understand the plight of the homeless you have to become one of them, she spent a week as a bag lady on the streets of New York City.

The choral music listed on these pages (all hymn anthems) is appropriate for use in worship during Advent, Christmas, or Epiphany. All the tunes appear in one or more of the three new Reformed hymnals: Rejoice in the Lord, Psalter Hymnal, and The Trinity Hymnal. All entries are SATB a cappella unless indicated otherwise.

Our choir has discovered that the hymn-anthem is an effective way of introducing new songs to the congregation. We follow a process similar to the following:

As someone who grew up in a "so-called nonliturgical church, I was confused by my first encounter with the church calendar. I was accustomed to celebrating Easter and Christmas. But Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Septuagesima, and Whitsunday all sounded foreign to me-a proliferation of festivals that could only serve, I thought, to distract believers from the essence of the faith. However, as I became familiar with the church year, I discovered that my initial reaction was wrong.

On a bitterly cold January 6, families from Christ Memorial Reformed Church of Holland, Michigan, expectantly gathered in a circle around a small bonfire in the church parking lot. Children jockeyed for position, eager to have an unimpeded view of the huge pile of dead and discarded Christmas trees.

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a partridge in a pear tree…

As we gather around our Christmas trees to celebrate Christmas, few of us think of Christmas Day as a beginning. For most families Christmas is the culmination, the climax, of weeks of planning, shopping, and anticipation. Not many are even aware that Christmas is but the first day of the twelve-day season referred to in the familiar song.

It's time again to start planning music for the Christmas season and devising ways to involve children in our Christmas worship. Year after year we search for new ways to tell the old story. What many weary children's choir directors and harried church school coordinators aren't aware of is that good complete programs are readily available.

Thirty-five years ago a small congregation, soon to be known as Hessel Park Christian Reformed Church, was organized in Champaign, Illinois. Located next to its twin city, Urbana (well-known in evangelical circles for the large Inter Varsity-sponsored missionary conferences), Champaign is a relatively small midwestern town, dominated by the University of Illinois campus.