Church of the Messiah & The Gathering

Our busy weekend continued this morning with an awesome service at Church of the Messiah. We love visiting Messiah because they're very open to all kinds of musical voices. This morning, we lead most of the music, but we also had organ and choir for certain pieces.

Messiah's beautiful Sunday school room. The mural spreads around the room and over the ceiling.

For the Kyrie (Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy), I decided to try something different. I took a very traditional setting, shifted the metre a little, and turned it into a round. I lead from the centre of the church, directing each side in their part. It sounded so beautiful!

After the service, we met with Laura and Betsy to rehearse for next week's service. Betsy has chosen an Indigo Girls song that she thinks will resonate with the congregation. The four of us will trade off on the verses, Gerald will play guitar, and Betsy will play violin. I think it's going to sound great.

Betsy and Gerald rehearsing for next week.

This afternoon, we met for the Gathering service at St. John's York Mills. Our friend, Susan, had originally been assigned to piano for the night, but when she showed up with her guitar, it changed everything. She's a great guitar player, so to have her and Gerald playing together was just awesome. Susan is also a songwriter, so after the service, we took some time to share some of our songs with each other. It was a great way to end a musical weekend!

Gerald and Susan, trading axes.