Chancel Choir and Orchestra Concert
Sunday, May 16, at 7:00 p.m.

 A milestone musical event will occur on May 16th, when our Chancel Choir, soloists and Orchestra will perform Johannes Brahms famous German Requiem.  Sung in English and featuring soprano Laurinda Nikkel and baritone Scott Gregory, the Requiem is unlike almost all other works of that name in history. 

For this Requiem, Brahms selected texts from the Bible, drawing from the Psalms, Song of Solomon, books of the New Testament, and the Apocrypha.  It is in seven parts or movements, composed by Brahms as a memorial service to the great composer Robert Schumann.  Each movement begins with the theme of sadness or grief, but immediately turns into comfort, consolation, and joy.  

Since its first performance in 1865, the Requiem has been hailed as on of the great major choral/orchestral works in all of history, and our Choir members are excited to have the opportunity to learn and share this music. 

The concert will be conducted by William Hatcher, Director of Music.  Janice Stewart will be at the organ, and the contractor for the orchestra is Nancy Swanberg.  

Scott Gregory, received his B.S. Choral Education from Dickinson State College; his Masters Degree from the University of New Mexico, and pursued doctoral studies at the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati.  Mr. Gregory has sung with various opera companies, including leading roles with Chicago Opera Theater, Whitewater Opera, and the National Opera Company. He spent five years in Hamburg, Germany in the German production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera in the roles of Raoul and Viscount de Chagny.  Last February, he appeared in a double-bill of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial By Jury and the world premier of Rumpelstiltskin, and this spring he appeared in A Little Night Music at the Lyric Opera. 

Laurinda Nikkel, hailed by Opera News for her “consummate singing and acting technique”, has excelled in a wide range of operatic roles with leading companies throughout the U.S. and holds the distinction of having sung professionally in every state of the Union with the exception of Alaska. Ms. Nikkel’s credits include Micaela in Carmen, Musetta in La Boheme, Yum-Yum in The Mikado, Mimi in La Boheme, Norina in Don Pasquale, Marguerite in Faust, and many more.  Her orchestral performances include Messiah, the Brahms Requiem, the Mozart Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah. 
In 2005 Ms. Nikkel was appointed Coordinator of the Voice Department at San Diego State University.  She is a recognized master class technician in both classical and musical theater techniques and has performed art song recitals throughout the United States and Canada.  She is a Past President of the San Diego Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

At SDUMC we opened our hearts, our minds and our doors for two weeks for a very successful Interfaith Shelter Network rotation, concluding on Sunday, February 14th. Over 14 days we provided 42 meals to 14 adults, one two year-old and a dog. We received over $1000 in donations for food and equipment from our generous congregation. Three guests found permanent housing and two found jobs during their stay at SDUMC.

A BIG thanks to the more than 100 members and friends who made the shelter such a success. We could not “minister to the hopes and hurts of a troubled world” without you.

 Dear Friends,

There is no cost for this benefit concert, but you will have an opportunity to make a difference in Haiti with a free-will donation if you choose. 

Dear Friends,

We’re good at respecting the “individual” in our culture.  We value individual rights, individual options, individual claims, individual freedom.  We boast of our freedom to do just about anything we want to do with our lives, but rarely do we have people in our lives who can help us figure out what in the world might be worth doing. We need mentors, friends, leaders, examples in our lives to show us the way, to show us how to be faithful, to show us what we can be.  But we live in a culture in which people prefer to be admired rather than imitated – do as I say, not as I do, they say. 

That’s what makes Paul such a rare and necessary leader.  “Join in imitating me,” he told the Philippians.  It wasn’t that he thought of himself too highly.  It wasn’t that he thought himself perfect.  Paul simply understood that to be a Christian is to assume that, whether we like it or not, we are always exposed to the imitative stare of those around us.  All of us teach others by the very way we live our lives.   

Who’s watching you today?  Your children, your neighbor, your spouse, your co-worker?  Chances are it’s someone you do not even know is there.  Who will you be?  How will you live?  What will you do?

See you Sunday,

Rev. Mark

Dear Friends,

The Season of Lent seems to have arrived sooner this year than in years past.  Indeed, just yesterday I saw a brown, forlorn Christmas tree sitting at a neighborhood curbside awaiting pick-up.  Unlike Christmas, which occurs on a fixed date each year, Easter’s arrival is determined by the date of the spring equinox (the first Sunday following the first full moon of spring).  The liturgical season that precedes Easter is called Lent – a forty-day season (excluding Sundays) of “fasting” and “penitence” that ends on the Saturday before Easter.  “Lent” comes from the Old English word, Lenten, which means spring – a reference not only to Mother Nature, but to that season of the soul in which, after deliberate preparation and attention, we blossom in the full light of God’s grace.

With our observance of Ash Wednesday this week, our Lenten journey has begun.  Our gospel story from Luke this Sunday sends us immediately into the wilderness with Jesus where, for forty days and forty nights, we learn to live without the comforts, distractions, and addictions of our everyday lives.  Lent is intended to be very much like a wilderness experience, where we learn what it’s like to live by the grace of God alone and not by what, for better or worse, we can supply for ourselves.

If you haven’t already done so, it’s not too late to “give something up” for Lent.  Nothing is too small to give up.  All you have to do is set it aside and ask yourself, “How does it feel not to have it?  How, by giving it up, might that void become for me an impetus to grow personally – in my relationship with God, in my understanding of myself, in my encounters with strangers, enemies, and those whom I love?”

Join us this Sunday as we head out to the wilderness with Jesus — learning to live without so that we can be sure that we’re indeed even living at all.

See you Sunday,

Rev. Mark

Dear Friends,  

Every one of us knows what it’s like to take a giant step out on a limb in life, only to experience that lonely feeling of doubt, dread, or regret moments later.  It’s something like “buyer’s remorse” where, after the thrill of the moment is gone, we wonder if we made the right decision.  Why is it that, in the face of some significant decision, we can feel so bold and confident one minute yet tremble with self-doubt the next?  Did I make the right choice?  Can I trust God?  Do I really want to go through with this?  Do I have what it takes? 

According to Luke, there came a time when the disciples experienced that hard moment of self-doubt.  It wasn’t so much that they did not trust Jesus; it all came down to whether or not they could act on that trust.  When Jesus told them that his mission was to suffer, die, and be raised back to life, their entire world was turned upside down.  This was not the kind of mission they had signed up for.  Following Jesus wasn’t supposed to include death and darkness. 

What the disciples couldn’t see was the light at the end of the tunnel – how it was all going to end, the purpose behind this mission with Jesus, the outcomes.  That’s when Jesus gave them a glimpse of the end, a luminous moment in which they could see, however faintly, how the story would play out, and where it all was leading.  When all they could see was the suffering and death part of the story, Jesus showed them the glory that would follow it.  It is called the story of the Transfiguration, when Jesus appeared before a few of his disciples all lit up in his future, resurrected glory.

Such luminous moments may seem rare in our lives, but they do happen.  While there is no way around the death and darkness part of life, Jesus reminds us this Sunday that even the darkness can be transfigured into something far more luminous that we might have imagined.

See you Sunday,

Rev. Mark

Dear Friends,
 
This Sunday is an exciting time for the Youth Program, as it is “Youth Sunday.”  The youth of our church have such a vibrant growing faith; it is a special privilege that they have the opportunity to lead worship. 

The youth will be sharing through personal testimony how God is working in and through their lives.  What an incredible lesson we should take away to always be ready to share our own perspective and story of this journey of living as a Christian.  I am inspired by the strength and faith of our youth.

See you Sunday,

Rebecca Hensley
Youth Director