We’ve programmed a truly classic anthem this Sunday: Herbert Howells’ “Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks.” Written in 1941 and sung in Anglican churches and cathedrals throughout the world during Lent (the text is based on Psalm 43:1-3), it describes the psalmist’s spiritual thirst for God, comparing it to a deer searching for water.

Sunday’s offertory anthem is by Imogen Holst (pictured), the only child of British composer Gustav Holst. In A Hymne to Christ, she sets the first two verses of one of John Donne’s Divine poems, including the text “In what torne ship soever I embarke,/ That ship shall be my embleme of thy Arke.”

This Sunday is Woman Composer Sunday, as recognized by the American Guild of Organists, the Society of Women Organists, and other organizations. The organ prelude and postlude are by Brenda Portman and Maureen Howell, respectively, who are both winners from the American Guild of Organists’ 2025 Woman Composer Sunday Organ Composition Competition.

Now we need more than ever to keep celebrating joy, bravery, and expression in all its forms. Our choir members are voluntarily putting themselves out there for our Broadway Night fundraiser: singing, dancing, memorizing lyrics and choreography, preparing a welcoming, beautified space with silent auction items, wine and dessert.

To wrap up Black History Month, Sunday’s organ prelude will be by Betty Jackson King (1928-1994), who taught at Dillard University in New Orleans and in New Jersey public schools. King was part of Chicago’s Black Renaissance and was especially known for her vocal works, but this prelude was from her only organ suite.

For this season after the Epiphany, and in recognition of Black History Month, we have programmed the works of several prominent African American composers. Our service music that remains the same each week for a season includes the Gloria or Song of Praise, the Sanctus (“Holy, holy, holy”), and the Fraction (the sung moment at which the bread is broken).

It’s Black History Month, and one way we are honoring and celebrating the achievements of the African diaspora is through our music choices. This Sunday, February 9, at 9:00 am, the St. Michael’s Singers will offer an arrangement of the African-American spiritual “Children, Go Where I Send Thee” by Dr. André J. Thomas.

The St. Michael’s Singers will present a Choral Evensong for Candlemas (also known as the Presentation of Christ or the Purification) on Sunday, February 2, at 5:00 pm.

Please join St. Michael’s Music Director & Organist Hannah Brewer in the Nativity Hall on Saturday, January 25, at 4:00 pm as she collaborates with her Episcopal musician colleague Emma Mildred Cowell in a program of vocal and piano music by Hungarian, Czech, and Polish composers.

Thank you to all of our music-making volunteers for making the Christmas and Epiphany services so meaningful! We head into this new season looking forward to our Candlemas Evensong on Sunday, February 2, led by the St. Michael’s Singers, as well as our annual Broadway Night fundraiser for the music program on Friday, February 28, and Saturday, March 1.