Peace I Leave with You
On Sunday, July 20th, I worshipped at Duke Chapel as part of the leadership team of the Royal School of Church Music in America Carolina Course. At the conclusion of the service, the choir offered a short choral benediction between the post communion prayer and the spoken benediction. The piece was “Peace I Leave with You” by Amy Beach. You can hear it here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/4gEXv0LARoI?si=o3MPkmDNuk5jNNIi&t=5010
It transported me back to a tradition that I have encountered in many Protestant churches, a short choral benediction or blessing at the conclusion of the service. I always found it to be one of the most meaningful moments of my Sunday morning.
My first experience with the sung blessing was at First United Presbyterian Church in Belleville, Illinois. My piano and organ teacher, Glenn Freiner, was the organist/choirmaster. My family did not attend church regularly, but Mr. Freiner would invite me to play when I had something worked up at the piano or organ. At the conclusion of their Sunday service, the choir would sing a short piece that was composed by Don G. Fontana, director of the Crystal Cathedral Choir. It was a setting of words by famed televangelist Robert Schuller. I can still hear the choir singing, “Lord, make my life a window, for your light to shine through, your light to shine through, and a mirror, a mirror, a mirror, reflecting your great love, to all I meet. Amen. Amen. Amen.”
I loved to watch Robert Schuller’s, The Hour of Power. For a teenage church nerd, the beauty of their choir, the majesty of hearing Fred Swann on an instrument that Virgil Fox described as “the ultimate organ,” and to hear Dr. Schuller’s message of love and positivity, was something I adored and looked forward to every week. Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power is gone, and his Crystal Cathedral has been transformed into the Roman Catholic Christ Cathedral, but his words and his message, through that choral benediction, remain with me.
When I was 16 years old, I took my first church job as the handchime director at Immanuel United Church of Christ, in East St. Louis, Illinois. Immanuel was an interesting church in that it was the last white church in what had become a black city. During the era of white flight, the congregation had refused to leave the city they loved, although their Christian brothers and sisters all moved “up the bluff.” By 1994, when I started serving there, the congregation had dwindled and was aging, but they were still determined. At the end of their service, as a benediction response, everyone would join hands and sing the following, “So send I you to bind the bruised and broken, to eyes made blind because they will not see, to labor long, and love where men revile you, so send I you, to love, Immanuel.” It was a reworking of the great 20th century missionary hymn written in the 1930s by Canadian schoolteacher Margaret Clarkson, a meditation on John 20:21, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Even now, singing those words in my head, I can remember how that 1960s A-frame church smelled, how the colored light from the stained-glass windows cast on the altar, and how eighty-something year-old hands felt intertwined with mine while we all stood around the church singing.
When I served as the organist and music associate at Central United Methodist Church, Phoenix, from 2002-2008, the choir would recess into the central aisle during the concluding hymn. Then, after the spoken benediction, there would be a choral benediction sung by the choir in the central aisle. There was a series of about 15 choral benedictions that the choir utilized to create a moment of holiness. I was on the organ bench in the chancel, but as the Director of Music conducted it from the aisle, I would close my eyes and just let the words and the music wash over me.
Locally, this tradition is followed at The Village Chapel. For decades, the choir has concluded each service by singing Joyce Eilers, “Go Ye Now in Peace,” after the spoken benediction. In services of The Episcopal Church, I have only encountered the choral benediction at Choral Evensong, but the more Protestant side of me really misses those choral blessings and benedictions.
Last Sunday, I had the good fortunate to see Rosalee Ackerman and Molly Gwinn sitting together in church. Close friends for years, it was a joy to see them together. Molly moved to the Chicago area after the death of her husband Byrd during the height of the pandemic. Now, Rosalee is moving to Colorado to be near her family, following the death of her husband Pete.
Rosalee sang alto in the Emmanuel Choir for many years before health issues with Pete required her full attention. The choir will certainly find an appropriate expression of love to thank Rosalee for her gift of music and service to the church, however, this week I found myself thinking about her and those beautiful choral benedictions I know and love. In particular, I found myself singing “The Lord Bless You and Keep You,” by Peter Lutkin (1858-1931). Lutkin spent most of his musical career in the Chicago, starting as a chorister at St. Peter and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. He was one of the most influential sacred musicians of his era, and his musical benediction remains a universal favorite for choirs.
The text is from Numbers 6:24-26, a blessing for God’s favor, peace, and protection. The text has a long tradition in Jewish liturgy and perhaps serves as the model for benedictions in Protestant worship.
For Rosalee and Molly, Pete and Byrd, the Holy Spirit knit us together in this place called Emmanuel. To have known and loved one another in Christ has been a great gift. As I farewell, I send you, and all reading this article, Lutkin’s anthem as sung by the Westminster College Choir. Godspeed on your journey.
https://youtu.be/w4C9zVg5X_A?si=9Pbt9KUasJMzSM2r
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord lift his countenance upon you,
and give you peace;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you,
and be gracious unto you. Amen.
Dr. Homer A. Ferguson III
Organist/Choirmaster