Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Music Ministry Musings at St. Andrew's
Advent season has arrived; hope, peace, joy and love.
St. Andrew's continues to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Noon Hour Concert Series! On December 10th, the Premier School of the Arts Flute Choir will be performing. There will be around 20 performers and the instruments range from bass flute to piccolo. The program is varied and will include Christmas selections. The final concert will be on Wednesday, December 17th. Once again the Fiddlesticks Cambridge Girls’ Choir will be performing a selection of music. There will be a couple of Christmas carols that the audience will be invited to join in and sing accompanied by the organ. Upcoming concerts and information about the artists is available on the church website.
Mark your calendar to attend these amazing performances!
The sanctuary choir continue to meet and rehearse the weekly service music. December 14th is the third Sunday in Advent. The anthem is called Advent Hymn by Joseph M. Martin. The Christmas season is a wonderful time to sing and share favourite carols.
The handbell ringers will be playing on Sunday, December 21st. Music includes two carols; Bring a Torch and Carol of the Bells.
Don’t miss our “Signs of Promise” Christmas Cantata. It will be on Sunday, December 14th at 4:00 pm followed by a spaghetti supper in Iona Hall. The service will feature the Sanctuary Choir. Rev. Wendy Paterson and Dave Mitchell will be the readers. The handbell ringers will join in the anthem “Guide Us To Your Perfect Light”. Guest musicians will be Wendy Wagler (flute) and Easton Page (percussion). Ann-Marie will be playing the piano and organ.
Here is a brief introduction. There are nine elements in the Christmas Cantata, each comprising of a reading followed by an anthem or a solo. These tell of the signs and portents of the appearance of the Messiah, the events leading up to the conception and birth of Jesus and the promises of Jesus’ ministry.
One of the elements of the Christmas service is a poem and an anthem by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894). Rossetti was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children’s poems. Her work includes six advent poems and eleven Christmas poems. Many of them have been set to music. The best known are “In the Bleak Mid-Winter” which was set to music by Gustav Holst and “Love Came Down at Christmas” which is most commonly sung to the Irish melody know as Garton. We are presenting a different setting of “Love Came Down at Christmas” written in 2007 by Howard Helvey, a composer, arranger and pianist, organist and choirmaster of Calvary Episcopal Church in Cincinnati. “Love Came Down at Christmas” will be introduced with a reading of “Christmas Eve”, also a poem by Christina Rossetti.
Christmas Eve will be a time of carols.
The children’s service will be at 4:00 pm. A quartet will lead the songs and sing the anthem “The Little Road To Bethlehem” by Michael Head.
There will be a concert at 7:00 pm. The handbell ringers will play two carols; I Saw Three Ships and O Come, All Ye Faithful. Amanda Jeffreys will be singing; O Joyful Children and The Snow Lay On The Ground. KatrinaLisa Keeler will be playing the oboe. Ann-Marie will be sharing some piano selections.
The evening service will begin at 7:30 pm. The Sanctuary Choir will lead the carols and sing special anthems.
Together everyone will share in the celebration of the birth of Jesus on this magical holy night!
The 2025 year will conclude on December 28th. Debra Lacoste will be playing the trumpet. There will be many carols to sing and enjoy!
“Good news from heaven the angels bring,
Glad tidings to the earth they sing:
To us this day a child is given,
To crown us with the joy of heaven.”
~ Martin Luther ~
Ann-Marie MacDairmid
Director of Music