A musical expression of worship

Suzie Harrison

The fifth concert in the 2002-03 Friends of Music “First Sundays at

Five” Series at Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church will be

held Sunday. Called “A Winter’s Night,” it will feature the calming

and deeply spiritual music of Taize.

Tim Getz the church’s minister of music said that it’s less of a

concert and more of a musical expression of worship.

“Taize is named for a monastery in France,” Getz said. “It’s known

for meditation through music and silence, and as a pilgrimage site

for people from all over the world who want to come to pray with

others.”

He said it’s an extraordinary retreat center because people come

from all over the world for the music and meditation, which can be

learned easily and has evolved into what people call a Taize chant.

“Taize chant is really short little pieces of music, almost like

mantras,” Getz said. “All have really easy melodies and are short,

about one sentence. It’s basically repeated over and over. We might

do the same fragment of music 15 or 20 times.”

It’s really introspective and meditative, and the service is

essentially a lot of these pieces put together for an hour.

“During evening services, the church presents a variety of

different forms of expression worship,” Getz said. “Each one is an

effort to show how we can worship in a variety of ways.”

Getz started the series last year.

“The idea came because people were asking for a regular evening

event,” Getz said. “I thought of doing this and exposing people to a

variety of worship with music. I hoped to reach out to the whole

community and not just our church.”

Five hundred to 100 people on average come for the event, with

around 150 for the more popular ones.

“It seems to be very successful,” Getz said. “People have really

enjoyed it, those who have come. In November, we had a Gospel Choir

that drew in 150 people. There seems to be a lot of groupies of that

choir.”

Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church is at the corner of

Pacific View Drive and Marguerite Avenue in Corona del Mar. For

information about the series or upcoming events, call the church at

(949) 644-0436.

* SUZIE HARRISON is a reporter for the Daily Pilot. She may be

reached at 494-4321 or [email protected].