July 23, 2025
by parishioner, Art Buck with support from “The Camel” (Dick Fichter) and Rev. Dina
Music has been a part of the church service for hundreds of years. Some of the music that we sing occurs at virtually every service. Various settings of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei are a regular, recurring part of each Sunday service; they are called the “Ordinary” as the words remain basically the same each week.
The hymns that are used in other parts of the service vary from week to week and are generally tied to the church season or the lessons and gospel for the week. There are 720 hymns in the 1982 prayer book, and many of the hymns we use through the year are taken from other supplementary hymn books, such as Wonder, Love and Praise, and Lift Every Voice and Sing.
The idea of a sequence hymn goes back to the Middle Ages, a hymn to be sung just before the Gospel as the clergy processed to the place of Gospel. By the 15th century, Sequence hymns had become so numerous that the Council of Trent (1545-1563) barred the use of all but four of the hymns in an effort to streamline the liturgy. These four can be found in our current hymnal amongst the other 716 hymns. For example, Victimae Paschali laudes, “Christians to the Paschal victim” (Hymn 183) was written as an Easter sequence about 1,000 years ago.
Like other parts our service, the use of music has evolved. Apart from specific Sequence hymns, another term for the hymn sung immediately before the reading of the Gospel is the ‘Gradual’. This does not mean that it has to be sung very slowly. The name ‘gradual’ is derived from the Latin word ‘gradus’, meaning a step. So ‘gradually’ originally meant ‘step by step’. It can take the form of a psalm, hymn, or an anthem.
Although the Gradual, which we now call a Sequence hymn, is optional in the Episcopal Church, it is considered by many to be an essential part of the liturgy of the word (the first half of the service).
It dates from the mid-fourth century, representing the oldest regular liturgical use of psalmody in the eucharistic liturgy.
In very early churches, there was a pulpit on either side of the sanctuary. The scripture lessons (Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament readings like the epistles (fancy word for “letters”) were read from one and the Gospel from the other, followed by the sermon.
During the procession from the Epistle side to the Gospel side a cantor would lead the people in the singing of a Psalm or Antiphon, music to accompany the steps in the procession.
Today, churches might have two places to read from. Typically, the more ornate one is called the pulpit and the other is called the lectern.
Here at Epiphany EC, the Gospel reading takes place amongst the congregation, and we continue the centuries-old tradition of accompanying the procession with music.
