This morning I've asked Will Rand, our Director of Music and Worship, to share about Bear Creek's first Community Messiah Sing! If you haven't taken a listen the link is in the article! Thank you Will for doing an amazing job on the Messiah Sing and in being the best co-creator on the planet!
What a wonderful week we have had here at Bear Creek! It was a joy to be a witness to the wonders of community coming together to sing. We had friends from Woodinville Unitarian Universalist, Northshore United Church of Christ, Lake Washington United Methodist, the Kirkland Choral Society, and from around the broader community come together in our space last Saturday to sing Handel’s glorious Messiah. We were also joined by outstanding soloists and instrumentalists from Vancouver BC, Tacoma, Burien, Moses Lake, and Federal Way. From the moment the music began on Saturday morning at 9AM, I had a strong feeling that the entire day was going to be glorious. The Holy Spirit was so present with our gathering.
The pandemic was a stark reminder of the power and necessity of gathering. We are inseparable beings on this planet! We need one another for connection to our collective purpose. We remember together why we are alive and why it is so good to be on this Earth. Singing is one of those beautiful mediums that helps us remember why we are here. It is particularly lovely when neighbors who come in unknown to one another leave the building as new friends. I am so grateful to you, Bear Creek, for meeting our neighbors and embodying the work of love.
We had the unique privilege of journeying with G.F. Handel’s beloved work, The Messiah. This work has smaller pieces within for orchestra alone, soloists (in a speaking manner called a recitative), arias for solo singers, and choruses. We put all of these individual elements together to create the performance that you heard. Together, these movements tell the story of the prophets foretelling Jesus’ entrance into this world, remembering the story of the angels and the shepherds, and ultimately Christ’s birth. It is a marvelous work to bring alive alongside so many other communities here in the Seattle-area, the state, the region, the country, and the world. This work is performed hundreds, if not thousands of times a year!
I was absolutely blown away by our own Bear Creek singers! Each of them sang their fullest voices. It is a deep privilege to watch our own dear singers live into their own God-given voices. I am so grateful to all of them for the deeply thoughtful ways that they showed up to host our guests throughout the day. In the same sentiment, I am deeply thankful for the ways all of you showed up as neighbors, friends, and hosts of our guests. It is a gift to be church together, and an even more tremendous opportunity to welcome friends, old and new, into our space.
This weekend was a light in a season of darkness. I will not soon forget the light of the music that wove between all the souls who attuned themselves to the collective spiritual power of gathering that we all bore witness to last Saturday evening.
It WAS glorious and we are so blessed to have Will among us!