The
St. John Orthodox Church Choir
The
St. John Orthodox Church Choir sings during every service, leading
worshipers through prayers and worship. It is currently under
the direction of Ann Dugan.
This
hardworking group has recently led the service in some ancient
hymns translated from the Greek.
These
"new" hymns, called "megalynaria" (sing. "megalynarion"),
actually date back to the 8th century. St. Cosmas, the Melodist
(or Hymnographer), who wrote the original megalynarion to the
Theotokos, "More honorable chant the Cherubim..." for
the 9th Ode of the Canon of Great and Holy Thursday. All subsequent
megalynaria in Greek follow the same metrical pattern. The melody
should should familiar to many, because it comes from the end
of the Paraclesis service to the Most Holy Theotokos, where the
megalynarion of a church's patron saint is chanted. From there,
the magalynaria to various saints found their way into the Divine
Liturgy, at the same place where the first one was chanted for
St. Basil the Great on his feast day, January 1st.
Last
year, at the request of Bishop Basil, parishioner Mickey Hodges
began translating some 220 megalynaria for various saints and
feasts from Greek into English. His Grace has given permission
to St. John Church to "test chant," on the appointed
day in the Church calendar, each megalynarion as it is translated
and arranged to fit the melody by Mickey and our former choir
Director, Reader Andrew Moulton. Most of these have never been
chanted in English before.
Eventually,
the hope is to make these available to other Orthodox churches,
so that all can sing to those who have "fought the good fight
and kept the faith."