February 21, 2016 - Northeastern Presbyterian Church

Northeastern Presbyterian Church
2112 Varnum Street, NE, Washington, DC 20018
Telephone: (202) 526-1730 Fax: (202) 526-5900
Email: nepc1@verizon.net
Website: http://nepc-dc.org
February 21, 2016
10:00 a.m. Worship Service
The Rev. Nancy E. Thornton, Pastor
Northeastern Presbyterian Church
First Sunday in Lent
Welcome to the Northeastern Presbyterian Church! We thank God for this time together! We
pray that the grace of God will heal your hurts; that the strength of God will give you courage to
face the week before you; that the power of God will prepare your way; and that the peace of God
will keep you secure and steady in Christ Jesus.
**We stand with our hearts or our postures Do Not Enter SOZ refers to the “Songs of Zion” hymnal WE GATHER AS GOD'S PEOPLE IN PRAISE AND PRAYER
Prelude
Choral Introit
"God Is A Spirit" - Phillip McIntyre
The Chancel
Choir
Greetings
**Invocation
**Call to Worship
One:
Many:
One:
Many:
One:
Many:
The psalmist sings,
One thing I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after:
to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in God’s temple.
Sisters and brothers, God is good,
and in love and mercy greets us here.
**Hymn
#420, Hymnal
“God of Grace and God of Glory”
Prayer of Confession
One:
The Lord is our light and our salvation; whom shall we fear?
With humble hearts, let us confess our sins before God and one
another.
Merciful God, you have made us citizens of heaven, but we confess that
we have set our minds on earthly things. We have let our desire for
security restrain our commitment to serve the poor. We have let our fear
of danger curb our obligation to love our enemies. We have let our love
of things dull our generosity to the needy. We have let our craving for
public status prevent our honesty about hidden sins. Yet, you know the
desires of our heart and nothing is hidden from you. By the power of
the Holy Spirit, conform our sin-weakened bodies to the glory of Christ,
that we may be the body of Christ for the world. Amen.
All:
God’s Good News
One:
God, our light and salvation, does not forsake us or leave us with our
sin.
In Christ we are forgiven and offered the gift of healing
repentance!
Many:
Announcements
Welcome to our Visitors
**Passing the Peace
#114, SOZ
“Ain’t Dat Good News?”
One: May the peace of Christ be with you!
All: And also with you!
WE EXPERIENCE GOD'S WORD
Children’s Message
Elder Cynthia Gervais Mr. Glen Grier
Response
#304,
Hymnal
Pastor
Nancy “Jesus Loves
Me!” Invitation to the Offering
Christ has given his life for us. Let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God.
Offertory
-
Rock-a- My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham”
Arr. Howard Roberts
The Chancel Choir
*Doxology #592, Hymnal
"Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow"
*Prayer of Dedication
O God, we have beheld your goodness to us. Accept the offering of the work of our hands, and
use us for the sake of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Anthem “Ride the Chariot” – Moses Hogan The Chancel Choir
Prayer for Illumination
Lord, open your Word and your Holy Spirit, so that we, like Abraham, may believe your
promises to us. Amen.
۩ Scripture Readings : Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18, p. 10, Pew Bible
Psalm 27, pp. 437-38, Pew Bible
Philippians 3:17-4:1, p. 955, Pew Bible
Luke 13:31-35, p. 835, Pew Bible
One: This is the Word of the Lord.
Many: Thanks be to God!
Sermonic Selection
Mrs. Patricia Renfro Message
Rev. Nancy Thornton
WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD
* Affirmation of Faith
excerpts from The Brief Statement of
Faith
We trust in God,
whom Jesus called Abba, Father.
In sovereign love God created the world good
and makes everyone equally in God's image
male and female, of every race and people,
to live as one community.
But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator.
Ignoring God's commandments,
we violate the image of God in others and ourselves,
accept lies as truth,
exploit neighbor and nature,
and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.
We deserve God's condemnation.
Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation.
In everlasting love,
the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people
to bless all families of the earth.
Hearing their cry,
God delivered the children of Israel
from the house of bondage.
Loving us still,
God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant.
Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child,
like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home,
God is faithful still.
With believers in every time and place,
we rejoice that nothing in life or in death
can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayers of the People
The Prayer Jesus Taught
WE GO FORTH TO LOVE AND SERVE GOD AND NEIGHBOR
**Hymn Insert
“We Are Marching in the Light of God”
*Charge and Blessing
Choral Benediction
“Three Fold Amen”
Postlude
(Please Be Seated until after the Postlude)
LECTIONARY: GENESIS15:1-12, 17-18; PSALM 27; PHILIPPIANS3:17-4:1; LUKE4: 1-13
Liturgist: Elder Charles Barber
Greeters: Mrs. Ethel Walker and Mrs. Arris Simmons
NORTHEASTERN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH VISION
STATEMENT
As we rely on God’s guidance, the vision of Northeastern Presbyterian
Church is to fulfill the command of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to
promote Christian faith and practice through evangelism, outreach,
3-­‐ Valencia Hawkins; 5-­‐Harold Thomas; 9-­‐Blossom Roach; 10-­‐Lilllian Berry; 11-­‐Ida Robinson, Shawn Thomas, Jr.; 12-­‐Mack Burnell; Thaddeus Mumford; 16-­‐Jeffery Carr; 17-­‐Glynis Pegram-­‐Higgs, Charles Barber; 28-­‐Ethelyne Wilkes, Eleanor Wood, Gloria Mumford PER CAPITA
$37.50
Northeastern Presbyterian Church
2112 Varnum Street, N.E.
Washington, DC 2018
202-526-1720
nepc1@verizon.net
Lenten Bible Study
Palm Sunday
Hallelujah! The Bible and Handel’s Messiah”
Tuesdays, 2/16 – 3/22/16 – 6-7:30 p.m., Jamison
“Sunday School Easter Production”
3/20/16, following worship, Auditorium
Maundy Thursday Worship
Good Friday Worship
3/24/16, 6:30 p.m., Auditorium
“The Seven Last Words of Christ”
3/25/16, 6:30 p.m., Sanctuary
Announcements
TUESDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY: We are studying the Book of Acts on Tuesday
mornings. This book is the first written history of the Christian church. The life of the early
church is recorded: introduction to the beginning of the church, the church in Jerusalem, the
church scattered into Palestine and Syria and the church advancing to the end of the earth.
Please join us.
INTERPRETATION AND STEWARDSHIP (GGC): As Stewards in God's Kingdom, we are
open to giving and receiving the gifts of spirit. This includes supporting the "Mission" of
Northeastern. When we give we may be of service by sharing our TIME, TALENT AND
TREASURE. With gratitude and an open attitude, we see that life is filled with the gifts
we give and receive.
1Corinthians 12:4
LIFTING HELPING HANDS OFFICER (PCUSA) TRAINING RETREAT is
scheduled for Saturday, March 5, 2016.
LENTEN BIBLE STUDY:
HALLELUJAH! THE BIBLE AND HANDEL’ MESSIAH,” Tuesdays,
2/16 – 3/22/16, 6:00 -7:30 p.m., Jamison
THIS MONTH @ NORTHEASTERN
Feb. 21
Feb. 22
Feb. 23
Feb. 24
Feb. 25
Feb. 27
Feb. 28
Church School for All Ages, 9:00 a.m.
Sunday Morning Worship Service, 10 a.m.
Trustees’ meeting following worship, 3rd Floor
Deacon Board meeting following worship, Jamison
AARP General Meeting, 10-2:00 p.m., Auditorium
COM, 10:00 a.m., Jamison
Tuesday Morning Bible Study: 11:00 a.m., Jamison
Noon Day Prayer Service, Chapel
Lenten Bible Study, 6 p.m. Jamison
Cherub Choir: 6:30 p.m., Choir Room
Celestial Choir: 7:30 p.m., Choir Room
Classical Conversation, 8a – 3p, 2nd floor
Session Meeting, 7:00 p.m., Jamison
Thankful Thursday. E-mail your reason to be
thankful to nepc1@verizon.net
NA/AA Anonymous, 6:30p.m.
Food and Friends
Church School for All Ages, 9:00 a.m.
Sunday Morning Worship Service, 10 a.m.
Soul Food Pot Luck, following worship, Auditorium
The Worship and Music Committee Invites you to
a Soul Food potluck.
When : Sunday February 28, 2016
Time: after worship service
Please bring your favorite soul food dish to share. Complete the form below and return it to
the office by February 24th
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---------------------------------- - - - - I, _________________________________________________ will bring
Meat: _______________________________________________________
Vegetable: ___________________________________________________
Dessert: _____________________________________________________
Other: _____________________________________ Are you a church officer? Have you been recently elected? Are you a Presbyterian
interested in the responsibilities and ministries of church officers? Then this event is
for you!
Lifting Helping Hands Officer (PCUSA) Training
Seminar
Saturday, March 5, 2016 (rescheduled from 1/24/16 blizzard)
8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Northeastern Presbyterian Church
2112 Varnum Street, NE - Washington, DC 20018 - 202-526-1730
8:30
9:00
9:30
10:00
12:00
12:45
1:15
Continental Breakfast
Worship - Edward Harding, Prince George Community Church
Overview of Form of Government - Wilson Gunn, NCP General
Presbyter
Breakout Training Groups
Deacons - Margaret Washnitzer, 15th Street Presbyterian Church Elder
Elders - Sara Coe, NCP Stated Clerk
Nominating Committee - Jochebed Jordan, Church of the Redeemer
Elder
Trustees - Todd McCreight, NCP Director of Business Affairs
Lunch
“Black and Presbyterian” - Gayraud Wilmore, NCP Retired Clergy
Feedback
2:00
2:30
Closing Worship – Edward Harding
Dismissal for all except Clerks of Session -- Sara Coe
Please RSVP by calling the church office by Wednesday, February 24, 2016.
Sponsored by Black Presbyterians United
Black History Month
Biographies of Music Composers/Arrangers
For Today’s Worship Service
February 21, 2016
Richard Smallwood (1948 - )
Richard Smallwood was born in Atlanta Georgia. A world-class
composer, pianist and arranger graduated cum laude from Howard
University with degrees in both vocal performance and piano. His gifts
were stirred up early in life. At age five, he was playing piano by ear,
at seven, began formal training, and at eleven, formed his first gospel
group. Richard Smallwood is attributed with many gospel 'firsts'. He
was a member of the first gospel group on Howard's campus, The Celestials. They were also the
first gospel group to appear at Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival. In addition, Richard was
one of the founding members of Howard's first gospel choir, and The Richard Smallwood
Singers were the first black gospel group to go to the Soviet Union.
Richard Smallwood has been honored by the Smithsonian Institution as a "gospel innovator and
songwriter," and his hometown, Washington, D.C. heralded two separate occasions as "Richard
Smallwood Day," also, distinguishing him with the Mayoral Art Award for "precision and
excellence in artistic discipline." Smallwood's gift has made room for him to minister to
presidents and dignitaries at all of D.C.'s halls of fame, including the Smithsonian, the Kennedy
Center and the White House. Richard and his singers toured with a theatrical musical, "Sing
Mahalia Sing" starring Jennifer Holiday, which segued into a guest appearance on television's
"Ryan's Hope" for ABC.
Richard began his recording career in the late seventies with an album simply titled, The Richard
Smallwood Singers. The debut project spent 87 weeks on Billboard's Gospel chart. The next
project, Psalms received a Grammy nomination. Two years later, another nomination for
Textures, the album that contained the classic, "The Center Of My Joy" penned by Richard
Smallwood along with Bill and Gloria Gaither. The group continued to amass successive
Grammy nominations with the following projects, Vision, Testimony and Live at Howard
University. Richard received a Grammy Award and Dove Award for his production of the
Quincy Jones' gospel project, Handel's Soulful Messiah.
Richard's music has never been confined to any one artistic genre. His song, "I Love The Lord"
crossed onto the big screen when Whitney Houston sang it in the film, The Preacher's Wife. The
same song was also used in the tune, "Dear God" by R&B artists,
BoyzIIMen on their CD titled, Evolution.
Richard, with his group Vision, have recorded three projects for Verity records, "Adoration",
"Rejoice" and the newest entitled "Healing...Live in Detroit". Bound to be another hit in the
gospel music arena. The song "Healing" is a stirring ballad that ministers to people encouraging
the discouraged, God heals not only the body but also the soul of man. "Faith" is a joyous hiphop song, the Bible says we are not given a spirt of fear but of peace, love and a sound mind. We
can move mountains with faith just the size of a mustard seed. "Holy Thou Art God" is a modern
day anthem.
Howard Alfred Roberts (1924 – 2011) Born in Burlington, N.J., Howard Roberts grew up in Cleveland,
Ohio. He received his post-secondary education at BaldwinWallace College and Case Western Reserve University and
received his Bachelors of Music and Masters of Music from the
Cleveland Institute of Music.
Roberts was musical director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater
and the Donald McKayle Dance companies and was musical
director for Harry Belafonte. As an actor and singer, he created the
role of Robbins in the 1952 international company of “Porgy and Bess”
starring Leontyne Price, William Warfield and Cab Calloway. He was the first African American
tenor soloist for the Robert Shaw Chorale.
Early performing experiences included playing trumpet in the bands of Lionel Hampton and
Lucky Millinder and as both trumpet player and musical director for Cab Calloway. In New
York in the 1950s and 1960s he performed as a singer and actor in “Shinbone Alley” and
“Carmen Jones.” On Broadway, Mr. Roberts was musical director and conductor for the Tony
Award-winning musical “Raisin,” the 1976 revival of “Guys and Dolls,” “Comin’ Uptown,”
“The Wiz” and “Trumpets of the Lord” and was choral arranger for “The Great White Hope.”
TV credits as musical director or conductor include “The Strolling ’20s,” “Belafonte at the
O’Keefe Center” and variety series “The Leslie Uggams Show” on CBS; and “The Duke
Ellington Special” and “Alvin Ailey: Memories and Visions” on PBS. He drew Emmy
nominations for 1972’s “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” and 1983’s “In Performance at the
White House,” both on PBS. His compositions include original scores for television, including
“Cindy” on ABC, “Ten Blocks on the Camino Real” and “Black New World” on PBS, as well as
the original score for the feature film “Lord Shango.”
Roberts produced recordings at Columbia Records for Tony Bennett, Diahann Carroll, Miles
Davis, Aretha Franklin, Rhetta Hughes, Bobby Scott, Barbra Streisand and Simon Estes. He also
worked as arranger and/or conductor on recordings for Estes, as well as Lena
Horne, Michel Legrand, Galt McDermott, the Roy Meriwether Trio, Billy Taylor, Pat Williams
and the Broadway cast albums for “Raisin” and “Guys and Dolls.”
He conceived, produced and conducted albums under his own name with the Howard Roberts
Chorale: “Dream a Little Dream of Me” on Kapp Records and “Let My People Go: Black
Spirituals/African Drums” on Columbia Records. Roberts composed the full-length musical
theater piece “The Sun Do Move”; the score for the European tour of James Baldwin’s “The
Amen Corner”; the original musical “Blackbirds”; “Harlem Sweet” (from the works of Langston
Hughes); “Black New World”; and the original score for the AMAS Repertory Theater
production and of Langston Hughes’ “Black Nativity.”
He was a member of AFTRA, the American Federation of Musicians and Actors Equity. He was
also a member of the National Association of Negro Musicians.
Moses Hogan (1957 – 2003)
Moses George Hogan, born in New Orleans, Louisiana on
March 13, 1957,was a pianist, conductor and arranger of
international renown. A graduate of the New Orleans Center for
Ohio, he also studied at New York's Juilliard School of Music
Creative Arts (NOCCA) and Oberlin Conservatory of Music in
and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Mr. Hogan's many accomplishments as a concert
pianist included winning first place in the prestigious 28th annual Kosciuszko Foundation
Chopin Competition in New York. Hogan was appointed Artist In Residence at Loyola
University in New Orleans. He began his exploration of the choral music idiom in 1980. Hogan's
former New Orleans based Moses Hogan Chorale received international acclaim.
The Moses Hogan Singers made their debut in 1998 on the EMI record label with the
internationally acclaimed soprano Barbara Hendricks. Hogan was commissioned to arrange and
perform several compositions for the 1995 PBS Documentary, THE AMERICAN PROMISE,
whose soundtrack was released separately by Windham Hill records under the title VOICES.
His discography includes a recording of arrangements of spirituals for the acclaimed soprano
Barbara Hendricks, sung by the Moses Hogan Singers entitled Give Me Jesus, produced by EMI
Virgin Records; An American Heritage of Spirituals, sung by the famed Mormon Tabernacle
Choir, conducted by Moses Hogan and Albert McNeil; Two recordings of spirituals with
renowned countertenor Derek Lee Ragin on Aria Records and on Channel Classic Records; This
Little Light of Mine, featuring Hogan's most recent commissions and dedications, with excerpts
from the Oxford Book of Spirituals, MGH Records: The Moses Hogan Choral Series 2002,
features a collection of thirty-nine spirituals and songs of faith, sung by the Moses Hogan
Chorale and Moses Hogan Singers, with excerpts from the Oxford Book of Spirituals, produced
and arranged by Moses Hogan, MGH Records; Lift Every Voice For Freedom, a collection of
American folk songs, poems, hymns, songs of faith and patriotic songs.
Hogan served as editor of the new Oxford Book of Spirituals, an expansive collection of
spirituals, published by Oxford University Press. His contemporary settings of spirituals, original
compositions and other works have been revered by audiences and praised by critics including
Gramophone magazine. With over 70 published works, Hogan's arrangements have become
staples in the repertoires of high school, college, church, community and professional choirs
worldwide. Hogan's choral style, high musical standards and unique repertoire have consistently
elicited praise from critics worldwide. Hogan is an exclusive arranger and composer for Hal
Leonard Music Corporation and a member of Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity and ASCAP. Mr. Hogan
was increasingly in demand internationally as an arranger, conductor and clinician. Hogan's
choral series is published by Hal Leonard Corporation and by Alliance Music Publishers.
Moses Hogan died at the age of 46.