Musicians Guide to Hippos

Well, I stand corrected.

I have finally had some time to read through the text "Musicians Guide to Evangelical Worship", and I was completely wrong when it came to what I should have expected in regards to the Vigil of Easter. (If you missed my original thoughts, I'd read this blog entry first: The Hippo Song)

Here are some excerpts from the Guide:

• portions of the Vigil of Easter are very flexible in many ways
• the musical possibilities are endless
• the assembly gathers at the fire in silence
• the procession of light moves from the first to the place of the word
• a significant part of the Easter Vigil is hearing stories from salvation history; at least 4 are prescribed every year: Creation, Deliverance at the Red Sea, Salvation Freely Offered to All, Deliverance from the Fiery Furnace
• whatever instruments, bells, or percussion are available may be added to the assembly song
• the baptism continues...alleluias should be sung in abundance whenever possible
• the service continues with a simple by joyful service of holy communion

Hip, Hip Hooray: Now, my blog gets more hits per week because of "The Hippo Song" than any other reason. People type in some version of "hippo song" into a google.com search, and VOILA, they end up on my blog. Welcome, completely random visitors.

One visitor in particular, a Christian author from Virginia named Betty Benson Robertson, stopped by my blog today, and gave me a great idea: she listed the website for Mary Rice Hopkins, the lady who wrote "The Hippo Song" - I should have included her website link in my original post. So, I need to make sure not to double my mistake, and will include the link to both Betty's website (she has a blog, too) and Mary's song website. Enjoy.

Back to hippos. I guess the inclusion of the song in the Easter Vigil would certainly fall under "the musical possibilities are endless" category. Looking back, it did engage the younger children in the congregation, and allowed the adults a time to stretch. Plus, it directly connected to one of the 4 prescribed stories (Creation). Now knowing what an ELCA Easter Vigil is all about, I stand corrected.

Or, rather, I stomp corrected.