Choir-led Worship: “Ave Rex”

When asked why he chose Ave Rex for the choir-led Sunday worship service on Sunday, Dec. 17, our Director of Choral Arts, Randy Buikema replied: “I wanted to push against ‘mall’ music.”

Anyone who has heard Ave Rex will attest that it is music that celebrates Christmas with attitude. It is in your face. It will make you sit up and listen. It is refreshing, jubilant, uproarious, complex, and joyful! Welsh composer, William Mathias, has written a sequence of carols using traditional medieval texts, but the harmonies and sonic impact are anything but traditional. Instead, the music reflects a truer reading of the Christmas story and its meaning. As poet Quinn G. Caldwell writes, “If you came to this place expecting a tame story, you came to the wrong place. If you came for a story that does not threaten you, you came for a different story than the one we tell.” Mathias’ uproarious harmonies say: this is a story about reversals, a story about dissonance and the world being stood on its head, where single mothers are powerful beyond belief, where wise ones can be found in undocumented travelers, and bravery, adventure, and kindness win.

Please join us for a powerful service of music, poetry, and telling the radical story of Christmas.