LCH is taking a break from our traditional German service this year. Instead, join us for a short service of music and prayer in English and Hawaiian to celebrate and welcome the New Year.
The service will feature a selection of Hawaiian mele and traditional chants for the new year, as well as a newly-composed oli written for our service by Joseph Leong. Cellist Aris Doike and pianist Reid Ishikawa are joined by members of the LCH Choir and some special guests from Nā Wai Chamber Choir.
New Year’s Day Vespers will be available on YouTube beginning January 1 at 3:45 pm. Order of Worship (PDF in a new window).
Join the LCH family for an evening devotional of art, music, poems, and prayers, featuring readers from the LCH Women’s Book Club and members of the LCH Choir. The event sums up of the themes of Advent and Christmas. To the traditions of the antiphons and the wreath, we add the richness of poetic voices and music and take a little quiet time to reflect on the meaning of these symbols of our faith.
The art of hymn introductions was perfected in Germany, where the “chorale prelude” was developed by Johann Sebastian Bach and other north German composers. The chorale prelude is a relatively short setting for organ that is intended to introduce the hymn tune to the congregation. This concert will feature a wide variety of Advent chorale preludes by international composers from Germany, France, Norway, and the United States: Bach, Johann Pachelbel, Hugo Distler, Marcel Dupré, Egil Hovland, Gerald Near and Paul Manz. A quartet will sing the hymns immediately following each chorale prelude.
The concert originally scheduled to open the series in September has been rescheduled for November 23. In honor of our newly-acquired Estonia grand piano, Taevamuusika (Estonian for music of the heavens) will feature pianists Maika‘i Nash and Mark Wong as they share a concert of works for two pianos. They will be joined by special guest soprano Martina Bingham. Tune in for this livestream concert, exploring themes of the cosmos, featuring selections from Holst’s suite The Planets, as well as a virtuosic 4-hands Star Wars fantasy.
Lutheran Church of Honolulu’s Advent Procession has been a Hawai‘i tradition since 1975. We come to the end of Kingdomtide (Time after Pentecost) and begin a new liturgical cycle with a service that melds music and word. This year we’ve adapted our service for the livestream setting as we offer The O Antiphons by Peter Hallock, invoking ancient titles of Christ through choral music. If one looks at the first letter of each antiphon in Latin — Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, and Sapientia — it spells the Latin phrase ero cras, which translates, “Tomorrow, I will come.”
We warmly invite all people in all places of faith and life to Compline. Offered on the first and third Sundays of each month, this beautiful candle-lit service is a meditative experience of a cappella singing and chanting to commemorate the day’s end. This month, November 1 will feature Women’s Compline. November 15 compline will be led by members of the LCH Men’s Schola. Musical selections include Gregorian chant, Taizé chant, Renaissance polyphony, and more.
Martin Luther believed that music holds a special place in our lives by connecting us to the Divine in profound ways. His own hymn texts and compositions have inspired composers for generations whose works are now inescapably connected to our rich Lutheran heritage.
Vespers for the Feast of St. Bartholomew