Redeemer Ambassadors Visit St. Paul’s, Lansdowne
We’ve been traveling far lately but we decided to make our 36th church visit a bit closer to home. St. Paul’s is in the neighborhood of Lansdowne midway between two of our other recent visits– Upper Darby and Drexel Hill. Despite proximity, the three churches are very different, revealing the profound changes between neighboring communities. Attendance at St. Paul’s was similar to Upper Darby in number, but the smaller sanctuary felt fuller.
St. Paul’s web site noted that worship is led twice each month by a contemporary band, Covenant. We were fortunate to encounter one of these weeks. The band varied in size and participation throughout the service but had an accomplished pianist at its hub with drums, percussion, two clarinets, and a guitar, at least. There were about eight instrumental and voice leaders. They used mostly contemporary hymns. The well-known Advent hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, was starkly beautiful as the band held back and the congregation’s voices carried the tune.
In general, the atmosphere of worship was well regulated to follow the drama of the worship readings and liturgy.
Twelve or more members stepped forward to sing an anthem in the Klezmer tradition. When Will Messiah Come? was well accompanied by the band’s clarinets. This is the largest choir we encountered in a small congregation and may have been as large as the choirs in the biggest congregations we have visited.
There was no fellowship time so there was little opportunity to interact with anyone. We nevertheless enjoyed our 36th congregational visit.