Mercy Seat » Liturgy

Resonance

admin — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:04:04 +0000

In July 2011 Holly Newsom (of Zoo Animal) will debut the meditative and minimal liturgy called Resonance. As Holly describes it,

I’ve really been learning sometimes you have to position yourself so that you resonate with the truth. At first it may not feel natural, but once you allow yourself to relax, your being becomes in sync with the spirit and you find yourself able to move freely in the truth and it doesn’t feel binding. I used very minimal, repetitive notions musically in this liturgy to give the mind room to concentrate on it’s own being and how it is relating to Christ. It is meant to allow the partaker to meditate on the words and how real they are.

Listen to live recordings of the debut:

Vox Humana Mass

admin — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:27:24 +0000

Vox Humana Mass was envisioned as an occasional liturgy by Wes Burdine that would try to incorporate more members of the church community in creating the music for the liturgies. It is an a capella composition with roots in blues (a la Nina Simone), Eastern Orthodox liturgical singing, and traditional ballads.

Reunion Day Mass

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:53:02 +0000

The Reunion Day Mass came from a long-standing desire to pay homage to musicians such as Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. It was an attempt to change up the alt-country moods of some of our liturgies and inject some new melodies into our theological bloodstream at Mercy Seat. Thematically, it takes up the promise of deliverance, especially in the Song of Praise, “All My Friends are Comin’ Back to Jesus” and the cross-lament of the Sanctus, “I Cry, ‘Holy!’. It also includes the song “Reunion Day” that encloses the service parenthetically, promising, “It won’t be long ’til that fine reunion day.” The band is composed of liturgy regulars, Scott Munson and Jayanthi Kyle (of Black Audience), plus Mike Berger (of Cincinnati punk outfits toolshed and The Bushrocks) and Kim Larson.

Take a listen to some live recordings from the debut of the Reunion Day Mass.

Good News Bad News Mass

admin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:44:35 +0000

With the Good News Bad News Mass I sought to incorporate the passion of the Negro spirituals that I love into the sonic context of a western high-church setting, with its enormous acoustic space, refined grand piano, and explosive church organ. The resulting songs have a bit of ache and a bit of old time gospel to them.

Agnes Liturgy

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:18:09 +0000

Named after my departed Mother who was and is my spiritual mentor.

It was written over a 2 week period in late 2008. I am not a lyricist, so all words are from the traditional liturgy. As a composer I speak in melody and the Agnes liturgy is my voice. Performing it brings me joy and I hope it has a similar effect on the congregation. Agnes can be performed by a single musician or an ensemble.

The Agnes Liturgy is performed with a roving list of musicians that may or may not include: acclaimed jazz vocalist Nancy Harms, Dana Thompson (of Hothead Fiasco and Minor Planets), Hal Longley (of Century Brass and Chooglin’), Bob DeBoer (GST and Chooglin’), Tony Watercott (GST), and Joe Cline (GST).

Brandywine Mass

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:55:02 +0000

I wrote the Brandywine Mass in the Summer of 2009 as a liturgy for lost friends, family, and lovers. The name comes from the river running through Eastern Pennsylvania where I lived for some time and where one can find the Brandywine Art Museum, where one can find some of my favorite art by my favorite artist, Andrew Wyeth. The liturgy opens with an Introit that invokes our lost loves and asks, “Will we see our sisters there? Our brothers there? Our lovers there?” The rest of the liturgy follows this mood and sets the stage for a service asking for mercy and imagining a resurrection with choirs singing, “Hallelujah.” This liturgy is performed with Linnea Mohn of Rogue Valley and The Alpha Centauri.

You can listen to some live recordings of the Brandywine Mass below.

Massa

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:38:08 +0000

One of Mercy Seat’s first adventures into pop liturgies, Massa is an alt-country take on the Lutheran Mass. Taken right out of Ben Kyle’s playbook, it combines a soaring pedal steel, soulful harmonies, and fantastic melodies. This liturgy is performed by James Orvis and “Lucky” Luke Jacobs of Romantica, Jimmy Osterholt of The Small Cities, Jayanthi Kyle of Black Audience, and Marty Martinson of the Martinson Family Singers.

Mass for the End of the World

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:31:33 +0000

Debuted during Lent of 2007, Mass for the End of the World is pop music for the resurrection. It was written to transition from the mediation on morbidity of the Lenten season to the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. It opens with the Biblical paraphrase in the Antiphon: “Oh Lord reveal my end so I may measure out my days and pull my string taut so I see how fragile it may be” and closes with the 60s inspired: “Gimme the End of the World.” In writing the liturgy, I wanted to celebrate the idea of apocalypse and the end of the world as a daily invocation of the resurrection and rebirth. The liturgy is typically performed by Jimmy Osterholt, David Osborn, and Leif Bjornson of The Small Cities, Linnea Mohn of Rogue Valley and The Alpha Centauri, and Charissa Osborn, formerly of Wes Burdine & the Librarians.

About Mercy Seat’s Liturgies

admin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:41:06 +0000

As part of Mercy Seat’s mission to rethink the Lutheran Church, we believe that the Church’s long liturgical tradition is a way in which we–as just one community–fit into two thousand years of worshiping Christ and celebrating redemption. We also have committed to taking that tradition into our lives and living inside it. For this reason, we commission musicians to set the liturgy to music. Whether it be jazz, alt-country, 60s pop, or soul, our services are continually re-imagining the ways in which the ancient words of our liturgy can work in our lives.

What is a liturgy? The liturgy is the traditional service of the Lutheran Church, from the Lord’s Prayer to the confession of sin. In a Mercy Seat liturgy we take many of these parts and set them to song, so that we sing “Lamb of God, have mercy on us” and “Holy is our God.”

For some, the liturgy is an old concept, something they’ve repeated since they were kids, “Lord have mercy, Kyrie, etc…” The ritual of the liturgy can seem an all-too-familiar husk of routine. For them, we’re trying to rework these words and breathe new life in them.

For others (and much of our community), though, the notion of tradition can seem off-putting. Evangelicalism has told us that spontaneity is the key to faith. For them, we want to emphasize the continual “becoming” of the Church. We participate in tradition–not because our ancestors in faith we’re so much more right–but because we, like them, come to church as part of a continual admission of our need for mercy and grace. The liturgy is a way in which we make celebration, brokenness, and humility part of our routines.