In our Season of Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday, March 2, and continues for 6 Sundays, the choir will be presenting special music selected to accompany Pastor Dave’s “Savior” sermon series.

March 6

The Anthem is a newer arrangement of the familiar hymn, Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed. While the tune is not the familiar one in our hymnal, the new tune calls attention to the text written by Isaac Watts. Born in 1674, Watts was a clergyman in the Independent Church movement in England which served people we know as The Puritans. He wrote the text for more than 800 hymns. Even now, 274 years after his death, 15 of his hymn texts are found in our United Methodist Hymnal.

March 13

We have a very special privilege on Lent to introduce a Blessing Response composed by our very own Connie Heide. She composed it many years ago for her church choir in Indiana. It is our honor to be presenting it to LUMC during Lent. It is a quiet and thoughtful response that features colorful, extended harmonies. It is amazing that Connie, a nurse, also has the musical gifts to compose this beautiful piece. We are privileged to sing it for Lakeview during Lent.

March 20

The beautiful Lenten anthem is an arrangement of the hymn, If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee—hymn #142 in the United Methodist Hymnal. The author of the text was a German man, Georg Neumark (1621-1681). 26 of his hymn texts were found in American hymnals as early at 1878.

March 27

The sermon considers how Jesus makes us clean and calls us to respond with both penitence and joy. The anthem, O God, Have Mercy, was composed by British composer Henry Purcell in 1695. The text is a paraphrase of Psalm 51. The arrangement of Purcell’s composition is by Hal Hopson, a prolific American composer of more than 1200 works.