Music Ministry

Music at Cornerstone Services

The purpose of music at Cornerstone is to worship and glorify God in the weekly Lord's Day morning and evening services and beyond. The Music Outreach Committee was formed in 2003 to assist in spreading this music past the doors of our church.

Music is part of our corporate worship during Lord's Day morning and evening services. For the morning this consists of a prelude, hymn of the month, the Gloria Patri, Doxology, Benediction Song, songs picked by the congregation, and a postlude. In the evening we sing songs chosen by the congregation. At both services these are accompanied by piano and often by trumpet, flute, violin, or clarinet.

Most of the music is taken from the Trinity Hymnbook (revised), which contains words and tunes spanning many centuries. Following the admonition of Psalm 98, we sing new songs, some written by Karen Green.

My Song Is Love Unknown

In June 2004, a performance of “My Song is Love Unknown,” a cantata/oratorio written by Karen Green, took place at Gordon College. This was conducted by Steve Weibley of the Carlisle Congregational Church. There were three church choirs involved (Carlisle Congregational Church, First Congregational Church of Revere, and the Presbyterian Church of the North Shore).

Also involved were individuals from our own church (Paul Beaulieu, and Zobeida Herrera), others in the area who wanted to sing with the big choir for this special occasion, the Jubilate Singers (a women's group) and various soloists, duets, etc. One of the pieces, “Praise the Lord in Hindi,” a song encouraging the praise of God in every tongue on earth, was introduced by the reciting of Psalm 34:1 in several languages. Betsay Van Cleef began by speaking Tagalog.

Cornerstone instrumentalists included Eric Modahl, clarinet; Jonathan Green, trumpet; Elizabeth Green, flute; and Nathaniel Green, violin.

"My Song is Love Unknown" was performed twice in 2005: June 9th at the Carlisle Congregational Church and June 11 at the Dane Street Congregational Church in Beverly.

Other Music

Karen Green has written four other musical offerings, three of them are available on CD.

For the last two yearly Cornerstone retreats Karen has written new congregational music: “Rend Your Hearts,” based on the book of Joel, and “Meek and Quiet,” based on Matthew Henry's “Quest for a Meek and Quiet Spirit.”