MAKING A WAY:
The Process of Repentance and Repair
Remembering an era of history we wish never to repeat nor forget
The Rev. Sarah C. Stewart, Rector
"This book is definitely worth your time and attention. If you only have time to read one chapter, I would suggest Chapter Six on Justice Systems. There is a lot there to ponder and discuss.” - Jill Lighty
FANNY -- THE MUSICAL
Susan Jane Matthews, Director of Music
In our Lenten read, On Repentance and Repair, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg draws on the work of the 12th-century Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, and his 5-step process of repentance and repair:
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Naming and owning harm (confession)
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Starting to change
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Restitution and accepting consequences
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Apology
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Making different choices
This Lent, we invite you to practice empathy and compassion by recognizing harm and injury experienced in our world. God's own compassion led Jesus to enter into human brokenness, fully embracing our suffering and pain, to be with us in the fullness of our experience.
"Repentance—tshuvah—is like the Japanese art of kintsugi, repairing broken pottery with gold. You can never unbreak what you have broken. But with the sincere and deep work of transformation, acts of repair have the potential to make something new."
“We must constantly urge the organizations and institutions in our lives along the path of repentance, to show them that the way forward can be an ongoing process of more transparency, more accountability, more amends, more taking ownership, more structural change, more focus on care for those who were harmed and those who were impacted.”
- excerpt from “Institutional Obligations” in On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in An Unapologetic World (109)
Standing in Berlin, gazing across that open, abstract Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, with its sloping outdoor spaces, 2711 concrete stelae of varying heights, and disorienting visual lines, I was lost to the world: What inspired New York architect Peter Eisenman (winner of the design contest sponsored by the Bundestag in 1999) to this
artistic vision as an enduring witness to the people whose lives had been snuffed out in the Shoah? Did Eisenman wonder who might have chosen to stand against the tide in the German Parliament on that fateful legislative day, when the so-called Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich was passed? How many elected leaders turned a blind eye to the tactics of intimidation that Hitler and the Nazi Party officials used, detaining political opponents in camps so that they could not be present to vote against the Enabling Act, on March 23, 1933? Did any of the judges on the Supreme Court raise an eyebrow about the legitimacy of the process by which Hitler's dictatorship was ushered in? As he enacted laws, including ones that violated the Weimar Constitution, without approval of either parliament or Reich President von Hindenburg, did anyone dare to speak out? Visitors walked those intersecting paths in silence on that overcast summer morning as I and my colleagues in the travel seminar gathered to reflect on our experience of remembering an era of world history we wished never to repeat nor forget.
This Lent, the Choir School has begun a journey to write and perform a musical about the German Romantic composer and pianist Fanny Hensel (1805-1847). Until the past few decades, Fanny Hensel’s compositions have remained in the shadow of her younger brother, Felix Mendelssohn. When Fanny suddenly died of a stroke at the age of 41, she had only been publishing her music under her own name for a year, though she composed over 450 works. She was a virtuoso pianist, but she did not perform publicly. Her music was heard by the guests at the Sunday concerts (Sonntagsmusiken) that she hosted at her Berlin home.
The Choir School gathered at the home of two Choristers, Anna and Alice Malhotra, to begin research for the musical by watching a 2023 film documentary directed by Fanny’s great-great-great granddaughter, Sheila Hayman: Fanny, The Other Mendelssohn. The film both tells of Fanny’s life as a musician and traces recent sleuthing which brought her gorgeous Ostersonate (Easter Sonata) for piano to light in 2010. Choristers insightfully responded to 36 questions as they viewed the film, which includes a recording of St. Paul’s organ in the wedding scene. They began to consider broader lessons that might be drawn from Fanny’s life on vocation, the work to which a person is called by God.
In coming weeks during their Wednesday rehearsal time, guided by poet and writing coach Mia Malhotra, the Choir School will draft a script and take on roles in the musical. They will be learning music Fanny highlighted in her Sunday concerts by Bach, Beethoven, Gounod, Felix Mendelssohn, and Fanny Hensel herself, and will consider how Fanny has opened the door to women musicians beyond her time.
For those attending the parish retreat at the Bishop’s Ranch, I will offer a sneak preview concert of the Easter Sonata on Saturday afternoon, along with the first four movements (months) of her Das Jahr to which the sonata is linked.
Make sure to save the date of 4pm Sunday, May 18 for the Choir School’s production of Fanny-The Musical!
This week the choir begins rehearsing Johann Sebastian Bach’s Osteroratorium (Easter Oratorio, BWV 249), which will be offered at both the 9am and 11:15am celebrations on Easter Day, April 20. Easter Oratorio was first performed by J. S. Bach in Leipzig, Germany three hundred years ago, on Easter Day, April 1, 1725. French horns, oboes, flutes, string quintet and timpani will join with the choir and 1929 Skinner organ in this profoundly joyful Baroque music.
The text freely draws on the resurrection story of Luke 24:1-12, the appointed gospel reading for this Easter Day. Following an instrumental sinfonia and adagio, to be offered at the prelude to our service, the chorus Kommt, eilet und laufet (“Come, hurry and run”) dances with the great joy of the empty tomb, telling of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. This chorus frames a duet for tenor and bass (Lachen und Scherzen, “Laughter and merriment”) that seems truly the music of unrestrained joy. A tenor aria expresses hope that death will be but a brief sleep from which one awakens to eternal life. In a bass recitative, Jesus’ victory over death is proclaimed. The jubilant fanfares of the final chorus Preis und Dank (“Praise and thanks”) close the oratorio with praise and thanksgiving that Christ conquered death and opened to all the gates of everlasting life.
You are invited to consider underwriting the instrumentalists for this special music offering on Easter Day. One player may be underwritten for $500, though all size donations are gratefully received. Dedications to loved ones may be submitted for inclusion in the Easter Day bulletin.
Susan Jane Matthews, Director of Music
