Who knew that the installation of a bishop could be such a blast?!? All two hours and twenty minutes of it ?!? (Believe it or not, a lot of people told me afterwards that the time flew by. And Jeff quipped in his final remarks that as far as he knew, it was still Lent!)
Pastor Jeff Barrow is now Bishop Jeff Barrow, and he has been bishop of the Great Milwaukee Synod for over a month now – but yesterday afternoon was when we lit the candles on the cake and serenaded the man of the hour and made all of this real in a way that it hadn’t been before. Of course, the folks of Holy Communion have known this was real from the first Sunday in December, when Pastor Jeff rose to give the announcements at Holy Communion that morning and was greeted by a standing ovation, an extra- ordinary gesture of respect and love from his congregation for his election which had happened just the day before. (I’ll never forget his first words, once that ovation subsided: “What was that about?”) And we knew it was true on the last Sunday in January, which was his last Sunday as Holy Communion’s pastor – a day drenched with tears yet brimming with joy. But yesterday made it real right to the bone- Pastor Jeff is now Bishop Barrow. (It doesn’t feel right to call him Bishop Jeff, at least to me.)
It was literally three days after he was elected that Jeff asked if I would be the central musician for his installation service. I almost typed the word “coordinate” but there were other people behind the scenes who really did that part- and thank heavens for that! Coordination, whether of the throw a football kind or the plan the details kind, has never been among my gifts, and I was only too happy to yield that to others more gifted in the matter of details. But I gladly and humbly took responsibility for shaping a lot of what happened.
The service was really Jeff’s vision, right down to the specific musical pieces, and what I mostly did in that initial meeting was nod my head a lot and say “that sounds great.” Over and over again. Jeff really crafted a lovely service which featured several of my own compositions and a couple of things for Caritas to sing, but also including some other elements to reflect the diversity of the synod and his own walk of faith. What he/we proposed had to be approved at both the synodical and national level, which was a rather nerve-wracking proposition- but pretty much all was approved (except the part where in the middle of the official rite of installation, Jeff wanted to smash a beer can against his forehead. For some reason they didn’t want that to happen.) After that was the process – almost as nerve- wracking – of ironing out all of the details of exactly who would be doing what/ and also of crafting the printed program and laying everything out in clear and sensible fashion. I’m not sure that printing the first Guttenberg Bible was as complicated as putting this bulletin together, but it got done, thanks to the able assistance of people far more skilled than I am. (Remember, I’m the guy who fashioned the printed program for Carthage’s Magic Flute by literally cutting and pasting / or should I say cutting and taping.) Once all of that was done, it was time to wait for the big day to roll around and to not lose too many night’s sleep over it.
Sunday did finally arrive and we roared out of Racine almost before the last chord of the choir’s second service anthem had died away. Kris Capel, a former assistant pastor under Jeff and dear friend of ours, drove down to attend the service, and she rode up to Milwaukee with us, which gave us a wonderful chance to get caught up and also helped me stay calm and loose. And we got to the church in plenty of time for me to look around and get comfortable with the space, the keyboards, the balcony, the stairways etc. It still didn’t feel quite like home but by the time I had roamed around for an hour or so, it felt like surprisingly familiar.
Jeff decided right from the start that he wanted a mass choir to sing for his service, which could have been assembled in any number of ways- but we ended up just issuing a blanket invitation for anyone interested to just show up Sunday at 1:00 for our one and only rehearsal. No registration beforehand or anything- just come and sing. That was scary because we could have easily ended up with the Holy Communion Senior Choir plus 3. . . or the Holy Communion Senior Choir plus 103. . . and neither of those scenarios would have been ideal. (23 people does not a mass choir make. And the choir balcony only seated 63, so the latter would have been a little too much mass!) As it turns out, we had a grand total of right around 80 singers- exactly what Jeff had hoped for – and they proved to be a talented, flexible, wonderful group who learned my piece- Refuge and Strength – with almost no trouble at all. And once we came up with a seating arrangement which put the Holy Communion choir members downstairs (they came up to the balcony for the anthem) we actually ended up with room for everyone . . . . sort of. It was cramped up there, and I spent most of the service with a soprano saxophone and a trumpet playing three inches from my right ear – to say nothing of the pipe organ and choir as well – but that’s okay. It was all a magnificent Joyful Noise in the best sense of the word and it was thrilling to be one part of it.
The proceedings began with a half-hour prelude that featured the bell choir from Holy Cross Lutheran (where the service took place) – followed by musical offerings from five different congregations from around the synod- culminating in a wonderful song by a Waukesha pastor, Frank Janzow, titled “It’s a New Day.” Then wonder of wonders, Sue Daniels- an indispensable backstage organizer of this service, slipped up to the balcony just as Pastor Janzow’s song was finishing, to tell me that the throng of pastors gathering to process were not close to being assembled and ready, and I would need to fill a little time. Those words are like music itself to someone like me- and Carthage campus pastor Harvard Stephens (soprano sax) and I played a beautiful communion hymn out of the hymnal that we had prepared in the unlikely event that we needed extra music during distribution. Hearing the sweet sound of his saxophone fill that sanctuary just made me smile- and also filled me with new assurance that everything was going to be great.
After the welcome, the service itself began with Caritas singing our arrangement of Marty Haugen’s song “Gather Us In” – with Kate Barrow herself starting things off in that unique way of hers that seems to make time stand still. It was just the right thing to draw everyone’s focus. Then Walter Hermanns, Jeff’s long-time colleague at Holy Communion, did the confession of sins- in the midst of which was “Come unto me” with Holy Communion’s own Tom Hagemann as the soloist. That was the first instance in which I really got the shivers on Sunday- as I listened to that enormous throng, led by Tom and the choir, singing something that i had written. It does not get much better than that for a composer.
After that was the opening hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” preceded by a neat bell choir processional that set just the right festive mood. There was some lovely liturgical dance right before the first lesson (from the sixth chapter of Micah) – and then the mass choir raised the roof with my “Refuge and Strength,” based on Psalm 46 with Jesus Loves Me as its essential melody. Preceding and following the gospel was another of my songs, “Steady my footsteps in Your Word” with two good friends of the Barrows, Robbyn Wilks and Bob Benson, serving as cantors.
The sermon was quite a pulpit-pounding affair, courtesy of Rev. Ken Wheeler from Cross Lutheran Church in the heart of Milwaukee. This had to be the most Baptist-sounding Lutheran sermon I have ever heard in my life, but I mean that in a good way. I don’t think anyone who was there will ever forget the sheer force of his voice and his words, which made it feel like we were in the presence of Dr. King himself. It was amazing – and I think it’s one reason why we rose and sang the hymn of the day, “We are called” with such fervency.
As I mentioned, Jeff did not get his beer can moment during the Rite of Installation, but he did get Caritas singing the hymn “Spirit of God descend upon my Heart.” I had several people come up to me afterwards to marvel at how Kate was able to sing the first verse of that as a solo while looking down and seeing her husband kneeling amidst his fellow bishops. How did she retain her composure? Of course, this is the woman who sang to her own son just before he was baptized, as she held him in her arms, so obviously Kate Barrow was born with an emotional fortitude that most of the rest of us can only dream of possessing. It was quite a wonderful moment. So was the spirited passing of the peace which led into a very lively performance from down front of “O Sifuni Mungu” by Holy Communion’s choir and youth- with none other than Anneka and Jackson Barrow singing the solos, and Kate conducting. That was SO right! And after that came the singing of my hymn “Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts” as an offertory. This was the piece that almost didn’t make the cut because it had been slotted for the hymn of praise but vetoed by the national office as not ideal for that point in the service. I don’t remember who came up with the idea of switching it to the offertory (it wasn’t me) but i played that piece with a special sort of joy and gratitude.
The communion liturgy was sung in Spanish- appropriate since Jeff himself is fluent in Spanish- and the distribution time included rather soulful renditions of Amazing Grace (with trumpeter Ed Bergles) and Blessed Assurance (with Harvard on sax.) My wife Kathy said that perhaps her favorite moment of the whole service was when she walked down the middle aisle to receive communion as the congregation let loose with “this is my story. . . this is my song!” And actually, that was a favorite moment of mine as well as I looked over at one point and saw that the young man running sound was singing along on the chorus, swept up in the joy of the moment. And bringing it all to a close was one of the best hymns of them all, “My hope is built on nothing less.”
As Kathy and i walked out of that church, a little after 6 (so I had been there for more than 6 hours) it was with the most profound sort of exhaustion- the kind of exhaustion that permeates your whole soul, from head to toe, but in the happiest sort of way- because it was like being wiped clean to begin anew.
So there you have it – a blow-by-blow account which really doesn’t do justice to this amazing celebration. It was one of those rare moments in life when you are part of something SO much bigger and better than you are – and one of those moments where you work and prepare and pray, and then just hang on for dear life and let it happen in all its splendor.
pictured above: Bishop Jeff Barrow sitting in the congregation (next to his sister and brother-in-law) listening to the extended prelude. How thrilling it had to be for those musicians to have their bishop listening so attentively and appreciatively.