The summer holidays are gone, and the ‘summer’ never really made an appearance. A good day here, a good day there, but for the most part, a washout! Likewise, my first trip to Germany was mixed: the trains that never ran on time, the rain bouncing off the streets when we arrived in Cologne… and the football? Don’t mention the football!
Of all the cities visited: Berlin, Cologne, Stuggart, by far our favourite was Leipzig, and not because that was where Italy were playing and losing. Nor was it because the temperature was around 30 degrees. It is a stunning city and worth a visit, a place where Bach and Mendelssohn composed music, Goethe created the figure of Faust and Nietzsche studied.
What a pleasure it was to see inside Thomaskirche (St Thomas’ Church), the home for Bach. It was rebuilt as a late Gothic Hall church up to 1496 and later gained a Baroque tower and has a tradition of music going back over 800 years. There are reminders of the great composer on every side: a statue of him stands in the churchyard, a portrait adorns one of the windows in the south side of the church and his mortal remains rest below a bronze tomb-cover in the chancel. It is also a church where, in 1539, Martin Luther preached.
My children often switch the radio in the car when I am listening to Classical pieces of music, preferring to listen to Capital, Smooth or Clyde. I try to tell them that the theme tunes of many movies they have enjoyed are classical pieces, but it seems to go in one ear and out the other. Who can forget the film Gladiator and the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer; Schindler’s List by John Williams; Dances with Wolves by John Barry and The Mission by the wonderful Ennio Morricone?
Music plays an important part in how we worship. It is part of our Reformed tradition that singing is so significant to our faith where we participate more fully. I have been at services from other Christian denominations and have noticed who are the Church of Scotland members and who are not!
Mind you, I have stood in front of a full crematorium and then sung a solo despite the hymns of Abide with Me and The Lord’s my Shepherd been the most well-known!
Whilst CH4 is our standard hymn book, we try to sing hymns from Songs of God’s People, Mission and Praise and CH3. I can often remember songs that I sang in Sunday School, hymns from CH2 and The Redemption Hymn book, which was used in an evening service at Cessnock Parish Church where I was baptised.
We all have particular tastes, and it is easy to fall into the trap of preferring a hymn, a song, a piece of music, because we know it so well, reluctant to try some new-fangled modern one, forgetting that the old ones that stir us and that we can sing without looking at the words on the screen, were new once.
The Church of Scotland have produced a new supplement which I will try and introduce over our new session. A particular favourite of mine has always been ‘Thou are before me Lord, thou are behind’, to Sursum Corda or Highland Cathedral – but do you see what I have done, I have remembered the hymn with the ‘thee and thou’!!
Once a year, we sing ‘Summer suns are glowing’, guessing when the correct time is to choose it! Each year it gets harder. Never mind.
The new session approaches. Praise God no matter the weather.
I hope you all had some rest.
Your friend and minister,
George C Mackay
