Worship and Music at Diocesan convention

Terry Eason, Delegate from the Chapel of the Cross

The entire Convention of the Diocese of North Carolina was opened with worship and closed with worship, and each legislative session was framed by the proper liturgies of our church. It is one of the glories of Anglicanism that our common prayer book holds such useful and meaningful acts of praise and thanksgiving that are, at once, both historic and timeless. As many attendees have noted, the worship and its vigorous singing 'set the tone' for a convention characterized by listening, humility, and strength.

The Daily Office from The Book of Common Prayer, those ancient prayer services of the monastic church that have been retained and augmented in our most recent Prayer Book, were the source for Evensong at the opening session on Thursday and Morning Prayer and Noonday Prayer on Friday and Saturday. Friday evening, the work of the Convention culminated in the Convention Eucharist which was held in an adjacent space specially set up for gathering the entire assembly around the Altar. It was here that two new congregations were welcomed into connection with the Diocese, including our own Church of the Advocate, and a third was raised from mission to parish status. It was here that prayerful concerns were heard and the bread broken and the cup shared.

Common to all of these services was the guest Chaplain to the Convention, Dr. Horace Boyer, who is a wonderful musician and artist and who is also the Editor of one of the Episcopal Church's supplementary hymnals, Lift Every Voice and Sing. This hymnal is named for its opening hymn by that name, but the hymn also appears as Hymn 599 in The Hymnal 1982. "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which has a 1921 copyright, has sometimes been known as the "Black National Anthem" and is a song of surprising optimism, joy, and American nationalistic loyalty. Dr. Boyer, whose homilies throughout Convention related his African American experience in music in America and in the Episcopal Church, noted that people hearing this anthem sung would stop and stand wherever they were. His rich singing and deep understanding of the music and texts contained in the whole hymnal was most edifying for the many attendees not so familiar with the meaning and musical nuances of this African American church music.

It would not be possible to end a review of Convention without mentioning the powerful and extremely effective leadership of our Bishops in the form of their Addresses to Convention. Bishop Suffragan Gary Gloster's address was tender and loving and culminated in the announcement of his impending retirement later this year. Bishop Michael Curry's first Address called for the Church to be "the Church for all people" and to tear down the walls that divide us. His analogy was the movement of salvation history from the very hierarchical and physically segregated Jerusalem Temple at the time of Christ until the Church today where all might come together as one true Body of Christ. His second address recalled for us that most Episcopal parishes read the Gospel lesson at Eucharist from the middle of our church spaces, not from a lectern on the side. Similarly, Bishop Curry developed and delivered an impassioned plea, but with a distinctively Anglican thoroughness, for the Church to put the Gospel at the center of all our lives and in all we do in the name of Christ.