Lady Chapel Evensong for Lent

Welcome to the Lady Chapel Evensong for Lent! I am sorry if you are getting this twice! User error! :)

For those who are joining us for the first time, Evensong is an Episcopal / Anglican service of evening prayer that follows a set order of hymns, psalms, readings, and prayers. You can listen via the audio player above or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you want to follow along in the Book of Common Prayer, we’re on page 117. Or you can follow the order of service below. - Allie

PS if you are in the Chattanooga area, I’m leading Evensong over the next few weeks if you’d like to come sing and pray with me:

Sunday 2/25 at 7:30pm at Christ Church Episcopal
Thursday 2/29 at 6pm at Grace Episcopal

If you want me to come and lead an evensong for your community, please get in touch!

---

Order of Service for Evensong

A brief welcome from my daughter

Opening Responses (also called Preces, which in Latin means prayers)

Then follows

Evening Hymn: O Gracious Light (Phos hilaron)

Then follows

The Psalm (read by Rev. Drew Bunting)

Psalm 51:1-17

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.

Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.

The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Then follows

The Lesson (read by Rev. April Berends)

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near-

a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.

Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD, your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly;

gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.

Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep. Let them say, "Spare your people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

Then follows

The Song of Mary (Magnificat)

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer - Sung to the tune of "Lifting Up the Lowly" (music coming soon) Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

A Collect for Lent by Meg Settle

O God of Abundant Mercy. You hate nothing that you have created. As we begin our journey of reflection working to pattern our lives more closely after Your Spirit, grant us courage to let the silence in. As we sit with our shame, our vices, and all our little ways of hiding and forgetting, give us grace to receive the truth that You could not possibly love us any more than You already do so that we may begin again restored by Your undying love to bring about Your kingdom here on earth. Amen.

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Will Levanway

A hymn is sung. Intercessions can be offered aloud or in silence.

The service closes with

Amen.

---

Meg Settle wrote our collect for Lent. She is an audio engineer and producer who runs Good Tape, a podcast production studio. Her podcast, State of Conflict, Meg interviews people of faith who are striving for justice and peace in Tennessee.

This podcast was mixed by Meg Settle and mastered by Edsel Holden. Songs and readings were recorded at the downtown branch of the Chattanooga Public Library and Meg’s House.

Thank you to Chase Floyd for playing guitar and harmonica on O Gracious Light and Lifting Up the Lowly. Thank you to Drew Bunting for playing guitar on The Lord’s Prayer.

Thank you to Rev. Claire Brown, Rev. Dr. Zac Settle, Rev. Murdock Jones, Rev. Casey Andrew Perkins, Chase Floyd, Megan Wesolowski, Rev. April Berends, Rev. Drew Bunting, and Meg Settle for sharing your beautiful voices in this service.

Thank you to Mary Erskine for notating these charts.