Silence and Music

Every Sunday morning we offer two different ways to worship God. The 8am service features silence, the 10am service features music. Both provide strong paths to the culminating event of sharing the one cup and the one bread.

Next Sunday, December 2nd, for one time only, the 8am service will go even more deeply into the mystery of silence. Brigitte and Tanner have read a book called Silence: A User’s Guide by Maggie Ross, an Anglican Solitary who lives in Oxford, England. Inspired by her book and with my encouragement they have spent weeks developing a lay lead Eucharistic service centered in silence. Each week they have been in the church revising and deepening the worship service they will offer on December 2nd.

I am looking forward to being led in worship by Brigitte and Tanner. Maggie Ross teaches that we all harbor a homesickness for silence that we hide even from ourselves. There’s a beautiful holy power in the experience of sitting in silence with fellow Christians.

I am so grateful that at St. Paul’s we are stewards of a sacred space that is both a home for the joyful noise of music and an  invitation to be still and know that God is God.