Long Branch Pentecostal Holiness Church…

The name is long in our family lore.  The church was established by my grandfather in 1911, as were many of the Pentecostal Holiness churches of this area.  My father pastored the church for most of the 1960′s, and it is here that I have my earliest memories of church.

The church was small, and our large family made up a sizable bit of the congregation.  My father preached and led the singing, and my mother played the piano after Mrs. Annabelle Brown left that position.  It was just a tiny, unique country church, but its effect on us was indelible.  The place is etched in our memories, and the myths and legends of Long Branch have grown over time, and have been embellished through retelling.  So, today, nearly forty years since I last set foot in the church, I decided to see how close those myths were to today’s reality. (more…)

Last night was the first night of Passover.  According to Wikipedia…

Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which corresponds to the full moon of Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew calendar, in accordance with the Hebrew Bible.

This is also the first full moon after the vernal equinox, and Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the equinox.  Easter, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, and Pentecost are the original “moveable feasts,” so-called because the dates are variable.  However, all are calculated from the Paschal Moon.

So, let’s say you don’t have a calendar handy, but need to know the date of Easter for some random year.  There are are some algorithms you could use.  If you have your copy of “Practical Astronomy with your Calculator” by Peter Duffett-Smith you could use that.  Duffett-Smith used an algorithm by Samuel Butcher published in Nature in 1876 (Nature, 1876 April 20, vol. 13, p. 487.)  It was described by M. J. Montes as follows:

This algorithm holds for any year in the Gregorian Calendar, which (of course) means years including and after 1583.

In the text below, / represents an integer division neglecting the remainder, while % is division keeping only the remainder. So 30/7=4 , and 30%7=2 .
a=year%19
b=year/100
c=year%100
d=b/4
e=b%4
f=(b+8)/25
g=(b-f+1)/3
h=(19*a+b-d-g+15)%30
i=c/4
k=c%4
l=(32+2*e+2*i-h-k)%7
m=(a+11*h+22*l)/451
Easter Month =(h+l-7*m+114)/31 [3=March, 4=April]
p=(h+l-7*m+114)%31
Easter Date=p+1 (date in Easter Month)

The algorithm uses a series of successive divisions to reach the answer.  In case you don’t have your calculator handy, but do have online access, I’ve created a Google Docs spreadsheet that does the calculation for you.  All you have to do is enter the year in question.  Of course, you could just use this handy form, or refer to this chart.

Saturday I attended the William Walker Memorial Shape Note Singing at Wofford College in Spartanburg. This was a special occasion, marking the bicentennial of Walker’s birth. An entire weekend of events had been planned for the event. In addition to the singing, there would be an evening showing of the documentary Awake My Soul, and on Sunday a special service at Morningside Baptist Church celebrating the life of William Walker.

Despite the rain, a good crowd gathered for the singing. I showed up armed with all of my cameras and recording gear, and immediately fell into the “documentarian’s dilemma.” It’s very hard to both record and participate in an event. If I’m going to sing I have a hard time also taking photos. I set up the camcorder and portable field recorder in a corner and just let them run. I would take photos as I could during the singing.

The morning started with singing school. Jonathon (aka The Melodist on Flickr) did a great job explaining the four shape system of the Sacred Harp and the seven shapes of Walker’s The Southern Harmony. He also explained the mechanics of being a song leader, differentiating the “song leading” style with normal choral conducting.

At 10:00 am things really got under way. This event always begins with songs from The Sacred Harp in the morning, then after lunch singing from The Southern Harmony. The tradition is to begin with “Brethren, We Have Met to Worship” followed by an invocation.

This is a very participatory activity. People sign up to lead songs, and the chairman (chairwoman, in this case) calls out the next two leaders, giving the second person a head’s up so that they can get their song prepared. The songs are first sung through on Fa-sol-la or Do-re-mi syllables, depending on the book, then we sang two or three verses from each song.

As with most of these singings, I found myself stumbling over the syllables, or simply singing “la” just to learn the part. Often I would use the syllable verse to take a few pictures, then rejoin the singing when we got to the text.

The chairs are arranged in “four square” arrangement, with basses, altos, trebles, and leads (tenors) facing toward the center. Anyone can really sing any part with which they feel comfortable.

I had foolishly signed up to be a leader. I tried my hand at it at last spring’s singing at Furman, and thought I would be OK leading a song. For my song I picked a familiar one – “How Firm a Foundation.” Below is a video of me leading:

What I didn’t realize was that the names on the leaders list rotate. So the second time I was called out to lead, it really caught me off-guard. I had to scramble to find a song I knew passably well and that I could lead. I wound up leading four songs – two from The Sacred Harp in the morning and two from The Southern Harmony in the afternoon.  The best sound is where the leader stands in the four square arrangement, so everyone should try leading at some time.

There were several familiar faces, folks I recognized from the Owings and Furman singins. There were also a couple of Shape Note luminaries in attendance. Hugh McGraw is the editor of the 1991 edition of The Sacred Harp, and even has a couple of his songs published in it. Harry Eskew helped organize the William Walker singing at Wofford fifteen years ago, and is a regular participant.

The tradition at this singing is to head out to William Walker’s grave in Magnolia Cemetery and sing a final song. Since it was raining I decided to skip that portion and head on home.

I was able to get lots of good audio and video footage from the singing. I’ll try processing it and posting online when I get a chance.

Last week I mentioned about my chance encounter with a book in the South Carolina Room of the Greenville County Library.  I had picked up a random book off the shelf entitled “Life Sketches and Sermons” by “Reverend N. J. Holmes and wife” and had opened it to a random page to find my grandmother’s name.

My sister, Glynda, had read about my encounter here, and over dinner last night was asking if the book were available.  My reply was that unless she could find it somewhere else, she would have to read it in the SC Room.  Well, guess what?  I found the book.

I was searching for the title to see if the Pentecostal Holiness Church or some other organization still had the book in publication.  I found that Google Books had it available online in its entirety.  It can even be downloaded as a PDF file.

I’m not recommending this book for everyone.  I find it interesting from a family history standpoint.  Prior to entering Pentecostalism, my family had been Presbyterian.  The book gives some insights into that transition and conflicts that arose.  It’s also interesting to see the history and attitudes of a traveling tent evangelist in the days long before televangelism besmirched the field.

I had written several weeks ago about this being the earliest Easter any of us were ever going to see. With temperatures dropping into the 30′s at night and flowers just now opening, it does seem like Easter is too soon. Regardless, we decided that early must be the theme, so we went to the early service at Fourth Presbyterian.

Easter Sunday two years ago was my last Sunday as choir director at Fourth. While not exactly two years ago, it still amazes me that it’s been that long. Last Easter we were pagans – driving back from Florida on Easter Sunday instead of attending church.

Hank Hinnant had been doing some wonderful things with the choir throughout Lent. However, since usually attend the early service, this was the first time we had heard the full group in quite awhile. Both the early and late service choirs combined for the special music this morning, and were joined by several musicians. The music was quite good, and this year’s rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus was the best I’ve ever heard them do it. The new organist, David Cole, is phenomenal, and ended the service with the rousing Widor Toccata.