Joyful Jazz

Music Ministry at St. Augustine's

For many at St. Augustine's, a highlight of Sunday worship is the Peace.  Midway through the service, friends, family and parishioners turn to share greetings, handshakes, and (before Covid), kisses and hugs.  Up front, a joyful jazz combo (piano and saxophone, often drums) rolls into an old standard, jazz, or variations on an African-American hymn.  A basket of percussion instruments passes around -- claves, cabasas, maracas, tambourines -- and suddenly the music is coming not just from players on the altar, but from the whole congregation.

The moment is magic.  

As an historically-black and now multicultural church, St. Augustine's is enriched by its incorporation of music from all walks of life.  Services trade between two hymnals: the standard Episcopal 1982 Hymnal, and a collection of African-American songs, Lift Every Voice and Sing.  On any given Sunday, you may hear Isaac Watts nestled against "Every Time I Hear the Spirit" or "This Little Light of Mine."  

The music makes services fun.  But the effect runs deeper than that.  The songs are about love, and love is in the singing.  Everyone joins in; there is power in the participation.  Sometimes the music lifts a collective spirit to what one parishioner calls a "pentecostal moment," when worship transcends reason or words.  But always, you leave a service at St. Augustine's feeling better than when you came.  And the reason for that? The music.

Please sample this medley, with a few of our favorite tunes.