Grace Lutheran Church in State College will hold a 1520s-style worship service at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Oct. 31 marks 500 years since Martin Luther posted his 95 theses in the hope of initiating reforms with the Catholic Church. Luther believed that everyone should be able to read the Bible, and he translated it into German, the language of the common people.
If you had gone to mass in the 1520s, you would have heard the service chanted. Luther composed many hymns and lyrics, which he arranged with one note per syllable for easier singing. From those efforts, the common people could take part in the singing during a service.
“Luther’s music is written to be joyful and rhythmic,’ said Laurel Sanders, worship and music director at Grace Lutheran. ‘We, as a society, have slowed it and changed the rhythms over the years.
‘On Oct. 29, we will share Luther’s Divine service, which will be a cappella and sung, except for the sermon. Three men and two pastors will dramatize a gospel lesson as a story through prescribed chants.”
Ever since Senior Pastor P. Stevens Lynn first approached Sanders about a chanted service, she and her husband, Graham Sanders, a former professional opera singer, have been preparing for the special event. They worked from Martin Luther’s ‘Instruction Book for Music’ to ensure that what has been arranged is authentic to Luther’s era.
All choirs in Luther’s day were made up of men, so the Sanders arranged for the Penn State Male Glee Club to sing music written by Josquin des Prez as part of the service.
The schedule for service includes:
■ 9 a.m. — Festival service consisting of Centre Brass prelude and postlude, combined choirs with brass and organ and composer and organist Michael Costello, a State High graduate who serves at Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Ill.
■ 10 a.m. — Stairwell singing with the youth choir singing a cappella hymns from the Renaissance.
■ 10:30 a.m. — Luther’s Divine Service, with everything sung except the sermon. The gospel lesson will be chanted, and the Penn State Glee Club will sing music by Josquin des Prez.
■ 11:30 a.m. — Luther reception, with Richard Wylie playing lute music on the guitar (Luther played the lute). Actor Russ Rockwell will pay a visit as Martin Luther, delivering a dramatization of a part of the essay ‘On the Freedom of a Christian.’
Grace Lutheran Church is located at 205 S. Garner St.
