Requim

We come...to worship the Christ, Living Water, Sacred Truth, Loving Friend. We come to hear again the story of sacrificial love, we come to remember, and we come to be transformed. - From the Bullitan of Requim performance at Aurora United Church.

A very nice night out at my church to see the musical stylings of the Aurora United Church senior choir accompanied by an extroadinary group of musicians. This combination provided a moving musical tribute to the death of Jesus that Christians mark on Good Friday.

Mark Ruhnke, the Director of Music at Aurora United Church, continues to outdo himself time and time again. Tonight brought my memories flooding back to last summer in New York City. Last year I was able to attend several classical music concerts that I felt were very well done. The New York concerts, as one would expect, were done by professionals who work on this music from day in and day out.

Mr. Ruhnke, however, does not have the luxury of having paid professionals to draw upon to perform. He does have quite a talented senior choir and musical background he can draw upon in order provide an outstanding performance. The performance tonight transformed the historical sanctuary of Aurora United Church into an occoustical masterpiece complete with accompanientment of pipe organ, oboe, flute, timpani, cello & harp.

The wonderous music was in both English and Latin. At times the choir seamlessly changed between the two languages within one song without anything seeming to be amiss.

Following the musical offering of Mr. Ruhnke and his accompaniests the story of Jesus dieing on the cross was presented by the ministry team of John Smith and Ruth Noble using selected verses from the book of John.

A very moving presentation on Good Friday was had by all. There will be, no doubt, more musical masterpieces in the future. Keep watching the church's website for future musical events.

One final note, congratulations to Mark Ruhnke and everyone else for an exquisite presentation of John Rutter's Requim. Also, thanks to the music departments of Aurora High School & Newmarket High School for the use of timpani, glockenspiel & music stands. Aurora is a true community when everyone comes together to put on such a great performance.

We go eagerly and with purpose, For God is with us this night as God was with Jesus on that Friday so long ago.

Photo of New York City Ground Zero courtesy of Mark Ruhnke.