Between Monday 8 Jan 2007 at 1pm EST and Friday 19 Jan 200 5:15pm I am scheduled to be in class for 2,295 minutes for WM100: Introduction to Worship and Music. At the end of which, if all goes well I will have another class down and 3 more credits to my transcript.
In truth, it will be more than 2,295 minutes of worship and music as that number does not count the out of class workload, which I have already started.
Among what I have done thus far is go through the current hymnals of Community of Christ to try and determine the hymns that “the congregation I am most familiar with” could be reasonably expected to know and sing and which ones are favorites. As my experience with the hymns come from being in many congregations, often part of several at the same time, I have no idea which congregation I am most familiar with. So the list is perhaps a bit broader, or perhaps not. As I went through I think I skipped a few hymns that probably are somewhat known, and perhaps added some that are not as well known. It was an interesting experience, last Saturday I went through 368 of the 618 numbered pieces within the four current Community of Christ hymnals and supplements , and on Monday went through the remainder. As I did so I found myself singing a lot, either parts or entireties of pieces, which lead to my throat getting slightly sore both days, but it was a wonderful experience.
Thursday and Friday I spent a bit of time doing the reading assignment for the first day of class and may take time today and tomorrow to get ahead in the reading. (Yes, I know doing school work in advance is odd behavior, but I thought I would give it a try and see how it goes.) I may also start my sketching of the congregational worship space I know best. This too may be difficult, though I have decided to attempt and sketch out the Tuality Community of Christ Sanctuary, and perhaps I will also sketch out the sanctuaries of a few other Community of Christ Congregations, and if I am really get into it, the lower inner court of House of The Lord (Kirtland portion of the Temple), and then if I really, really feel motivated the worship spaces of the Temple in Independence, so that I can reflect on them as we discuss worship space. I know that going above and beyond the requirement here, probably will not happen, but if for some reason I feel the need to give up sleep they might. . .
In addition to the required resources for the course which I purchased (or in the case of Denominational Hymnals and worship books already had) I made several inter-library loan requests on Tuesday for books and related material dealing with elements of worship from Community of Christ perspectives. I hope they will arrive before the two weeks so that I uses them to supplement what is in my library when working on the assignments.
I’ve rambled on long enough now, so I will end with. . .
Peace be with you,
— Lyle II