Somehow the sung word reaches us deeper than many sermons or devotions can. And so it’s always special when a church sings from the bottom of its heart. We had such occasion on Feb 8th with Rev. James Hart Brumm, pastor of the Blooming Grove Reformed Church in DeFreestville, NY, across the Hudson River from Albany.

James met with the Senior Choir for a rehearsal in the morning and shared numerous stories from his rich life in the church. The he led the singing during worship, assisted by our organist and choir director Ben Berman and our Bell Choir director Erie Beemsterboer. Prior to his coming, we had furnished James with a wish list of songs and hymns from Sing! A New Creation and asked that he would introduce us to these. We could not have found a better teacher – James had contributed to this hymnal and was a member of the committee that had created it.

Following worship, we had a great lunch and a little autograph party with James in the Randolph Room. Here participants could obtain a copy of Liturgy Among the Thorns, an introduction to Reformed worship, Christian education, architecture, etc. James edited this book; it is part of the Historical Series of our denomination. All proceeds above the production cost of the book will benefit our historic preservation project. Thank you, James, for a wonderful Sunday at church. And thank you to our Education & Worship Committee that put a beautiful lunch together.