The Pittsburgh Compline Choir is a cooperative ministry of the Lutheran Campus Ministry in greater Pittsburgh and First Lutheran Church, in downtown Pittsburgh. Members of the choir represent various Christian traditions. They are graduate and undergraduate students, parish & professional musicians, clergy, and lay people from the metropolitan Pittsburgh area and the surrounding areas of southwestern Pennsylvania.
Founded in 1988 by John W. Becker, The Pittsburgh Compline Choir is a mixed choir of approximately 16-24 members, that exists for the purpose of singing and praying the monastic office of Compline. Each Sunday night, the choir joins with members of the community at Heinz Memorial Chapel on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh for 40 minutes of music, prayer, and silence.
The following videos are of the Compline service on September 14, 2008, directed by Andrew Scanlon. (Click here to view the playlist on YouTube.)
“Alleluia Canon” by Leo Sowerby
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“Orison” by Sir Edward Cuthbert Bairstow
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Office Hymn: “O Lux Beata Trinitas“
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Psalmody: Psalm 4, music by John W. Becker
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Psalmody: Psalm 134 (Plainsong)
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Congregational Hymn: “In the Cross of Christ I Glory” (Tomter)
Words by John Bowring
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Motet: Crux Fidelis by John IV, King of Portugal
(att. Venantius Fortunatus c. 530-609)
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Paul,
I am certain you and I are cut from the same spirtual cloth
Dear Paul,
Surely you and I are cut from the same spiritual cloth. I grew up Methodist and became Unitarian at the First Church in Boston in 1961. Then went to HDS and the GTU. I have always been an interfaith-friendly, liberal, and decidedly, adamantly Christian, but within the UU fold have always been strangely estranged. In the 1990s I became the church critic for WQED-FM in Pittsburgh, and there found the Compline.
I chanced on your fantastic website, while searching out that of the Pittsburgh Compline, as a fellow Unitarian, Tom Ammons, and I are trying to get those stunning worship jewels on national broadcast. That you have included the Universalist service, the King’s Chapel vespers, and the Taize from Unity Church thrills my soul. Night services have gone the way of all flesh in mainline circles, although they were a part of the Unitarian tradition (as indicated by hymnal content) and may still be a part of English Unitarianism. They ought to be revived. The Pittsburgh Compline’s services remain largely unattended as the pictures reveal. I hope current publicity via the net will change that.
Your website makes me aware that I have always found services of the deepest spiritual impact to be night services. Such they were in Charleston with a group devoted to experimental, experiential worship called God Within (1987-1989) and in Pittsburgh with a similar group called the Spiritual Co-op from 1993-1997–both of which I headed as the spiritual leader. As church critic, I had access to evening services in Milwaukee, Phoenix, and Dallas where evening hours, in contrast to 11:00 AM Sunday mornings, were always open to explore the few gems that were available–mostly monastic.
Of course, Taize services are widely available, with and without Biblical readings (the one disappointment about Unity’s service). I would draw to your attention the meditative Taize services at Pittsburgh’s East Liberty Presbyterian Church–a great building and a great place of spirit. These gather, as they have since the early 1990s, at 7::00 PM on Wednesdays. (www.cathedralofhope.org) I would also commend to you the services from Dallas’ Cathedral of Hope–the place I top rated for “‘D’ Magazine” in 1997. Today it’s even better. This church has become a part of the UCC, having been birthed in 1970 at the First Unitarian Church of Dallas as a MCC congregation. (www.cathedralofhope.com). It is now the planet’s largest GLBT congregation and working to build a Philip Johnson cathedral, the first of the 21st century.
PS: Clever of you to include Unitarian hymn writer John Bowring’s “In the Cross of Christ I Glory” on the Compline post. Though I’ve never been fond of of the common tune, RATHBUN, TOMTER is really off-the-wall for most congregants to sing. DUNDEE would be far better IMHO. Heinz Chapel uses the “Yale Hymnal,” as I recall, and that hymnal favors esoteric, dissonant hymn tunes, as well as very orthodox texts.
Thanks for your wonderful comment, George! So many suggestions, so much information you share! I am happy you accidentally found your way here and liked what you found.
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