Music to End the Day Sunday, 20 September 2020

Dear Friends

Our ‘music to end the day’ begins tonight with the tranquil ‘Tierce en Taille’ in G by Jean François Dandrieu, the gifted French harpsichordist and organist who gave his first public performance at the age of 5 for King Louis XIV! ‘Tierce en Taille’ refers to a particular organ registration, common in French baroque organs, played in the middle of the keyboard, surrounded by accompanying parts on a separate keyboard and pedal.

Organ prelude – Tierce en Taille in G from ‘Trois Pieces’ 
Composed by Jean-François Dandrieu

Marty Haugen is a prolific liturgical composer, with many songs included in hymnals across the liturgical spectrum. He was raised in the American Lutheran Church, but found his first position as a church musician in a Roman Catholic parish at a time when the Roman Catholic Church was undergoing profound liturgical and musical changes after Vatican II. He soon found a vocation in that parish to provide accessible songs for worship, and has continued to compose ever since.

I remember so well the very first time we sang Haugen’s lovely hymn ‘Let us build a house – all are welcome in this place’ at Cornerstone. People were captivated by its powerful and meaningful text. The consensus was that this is exactly the kind of Church and community that we should be seeking to build here in the centre of Milton Keynes.

Let us build a house
Where love can dwell
And all can safely live
A place where
Saints and children tell
How hearts learn to forgive

Built of hopes and dreams and visions
Rock of faith and vault of grace
Here the love of Christ shall end divisions

All are welcome, all are welcome
All are welcome in this place

Let us build a house where prophets speak
And words are strong and true
Where all God’s children dare to seek
To dream God’s reign anew

Here the cross shall stand as witness
And a symbol of God’s grace
Here as one we claim the faith of Jesus

All are welcome, all are welcome
All are welcome in this place

Let us build a house where love is found
In water, wine and wheat
A banquet hall on holy ground
Where peace and justice meet

Here the love of God, through Jesus
Is revealed in time and space
As we share in Christ the feast that frees us

All are welcome, all are welcome
All are welcome in this place

Let us build a house where love can dwell
Composed by Marty Haugen

To end our evening, a prayer about Building Community.

Heavenly Father, let us build your community.
From brokenness and indifference.
Build love and caring,
For you, for each other, for your creation.

Heavenly Father, let us build your community.
From self centredness and independence,
Build friendship and compassion,
For the marginalised, the abandoned and the despised.

Heavenly Father, let us build your community.
From mistrust and misunderstanding,
Build unity and togetherness,
For other people, religions and nations.

Heavenly Father, let us build your community.
May we build together your living community,
Bound together by love and joy,
interrelated to all God’s people,
to the earth and all creation.

Goodnight everyone.

Adrian Boynton