Benchmarks What s the first thing you look for when you open the annual brochure listing the Summer at the Tabernacle programs? Is it the date for the Massed Choir concert? Or do you look to see if the Sacred Orchestra with Dave Stahl is returning for one of the Sunday morning worship services? Is Elisabeth von Trapp scheduled? Or is Marie Barlow Martin coming back? Will there be another Hymn Festival with the inimitable comments of Darrell Woomer and the inspired improvisations of Rodney Shearer at the piano? Those names, all past participants in Summer at the Tabernacle series, suggest how varied our programs are. Full details will be in the mail in late May, but this is an opportunity to get a short preview of what s in store this summer. First of all, some of the favorite speakers and musicians are coming back. The team of Darrell Woomer and Rodney Shearer, who put so much life, humor, and talent into their Hymn Festivals will do it again with different hymns and scripture on Sunday evening, August 12. It took a few years, but persistence paid off, and the Program Committee is pleased to be able to say that Tony Campolo, the internationally known and respected Christian commentator and writer from St. Davids, PA, where he is professor emeritus at Eastern University, will be in the Tabernacle on Wednesday evening, August 1. There is a lot of music on the schedule this year, and one group that many of you have hoped would return after their initial appearance in 2004 the Brandywine Harp Orchestra will bring their magical music to Gretna on Sunday evening, July Tony Campolo 22. see Benchmarks on page 2 Brandywine Harp Orchestra
Benchmarks Dr. Joseph Martin 1967 Massed Choir It s not hard to complete that old saying is it? You may be repeating it to yourself during 2007 s Summer at the Tabernacle. Things are changing a little bit as the Program Committee works to maintain the traditions of a Campmeeting summer while adapting to the changing cultural environment.. The mission of the Program Committee is to Provide an opportunity for Christian spiritual renewal in a unique Victorian setting. That opportunity is certainly what many United Brethren congregations were seeking (although they would continued from page one The more things change As he has for the past two years, Mt Gretna s own Andy Roberts will bring his jazz quartet to the Tabernacle on Sunday evening, June 24 for the opening program of the 2007 season. The Rev John Roberts will again comment on the spiritual and scriptural intertwinings with jazz. The Massed Choir concert that so many of you look forward to every year will have a new sound and a new date. Dr Joseph Martin, renowned composer and choir director, will direct the group this year. We are hopeful that the choir loft in the Tabernacle will be filled to overflowing. (There have been times in the past when as many as 200 singers joined their voices in praise could this be another such time?) See the story Massed Choir for all the details. The worship service led by The Sacred Orchestra with Dave Stahl has become one of the most popular programs of the summer series, and Dave will be back, on Sunday morning, July 29. Other eagerly anticipated programs include the nationally famous Susquehanna Chorale, directed by Linda Tedford, and the ever popular Lancaster Brass. have expressed it in different words) when they began meeting at Mt Gretna in July of 1892. No doubt there was a certain amount of Let s get away from the routine at home in their thinking, but the attraction at Gretna was largely spiritual. Mount Gretna was also widely known for what one newspaper writer called its salubrious air. Some area churches are reported to have closed their doors and transferred all their activities to the salubrious air of Mt Gretna. (The Mount Gretna United Methodist Church maintains the tradition of summertime church services in the Tabernacle by holding its 10 o clock worship there during July and August.) Looking at the 2007 Summer at the Tabernacle schedule, it is easy to feel that the music programs have overshadowed the worship and the Bible study, but music was always an important component of the campmeeting experience. Even in the first year, Isaiah Baltzell was permitted to sell music books and hymnals on the campgrounds. In the ensuing years, as campmeeting grew in popularity, there see Change on page 6 2 Spring 2007
Massed Choir Concert Something has already been said in this issue about the Massed Choir (see Benchmarks on page 2), but there is much more to the story. Several innovative actions have been taken by the Program Committee as they grapple with the dilemma of maintaining a tradition in the face of a vastly changed culture. First, and most obvious, the date has been changed to August 5 the middle Sunday of the two traditional core weeks of Bible Festival. Second, the concert now has a co-sponsor. Loser s Music Store in Lebanon, in connection with their annual choral workshop directed by Joseph Martin, graciously agreed to cooperate with us. Mr. Martin, a nationally known composer and conductor and Director of Sacred Doth fifteen years a tradition make? Maybe not, if you re a folklorist, but to many of us, fifteen years is a good start. That s how long handbell choirs from area churches have been part of the Bible Festival programs. Bobbi Schmidt, of St. Paul s UMC handbell choir has been a key figure in establishing and maintaining this tradition. This year, the St. Paul s choir will be joined by four others the Mutt Choir from Lancaster, and choirs from Holy Trinity Lutheran church in Lebanon, Zion of Iona UMC, and Lower Marsh Creek Presbyterian church in Gettysburg. Returning as guest conductor will be Dr. Michael Joy, from Philadelphia, who responded so willingly two years ago after longtime director Douglas Smith was tragically killed two weeks before the concert. Publications at Shawnee Press, will direct the workshop s Sacred Choral Reading Session at the Lititz Church of the Brethren on Saturday, August 4 for choral directors. On the following day, he will rehearse the Massed Choir from 2:00 to 5:00 pm in the Tabernacle, and conduct the evening concert at 7:30 pm. The Choir program will feature compositions by Mr. Martin, in a variety of musical styles, including an anthem for men s chorus that has not yet been published. In addition, Mr. Martin, an accomplished concert pianist, will play several piano solos. Program Committee members Don Zechman, Doug Troutman, and Bob Kettering have been working closely with Grace Marquette at Loser s Music Store to work out the the more they stay the same. To Bobbi Schmidt, fifteen years is indeed enough to establish a tradition one that we have enjoyed on fourteen different occasions and look forward to enjoying again on Saturday evening, August 4. The Brandywine Celtic Harp Orchestra gave us such an outstanding program three years ago that another tradition may be in the making. Program Committee members have been hearing lots of When are they coming back? questions ever since 2004. And now they are coming on July 22. Fifteen harpists, under the direction of founder Janet Jackson Witman, will perform in the Tabernacle, a venue particularly well suited to the acoustics of the harp. The orchestra regularly performs in churches and retirement homes and has been featured at details of this cooperative effort, and it promises to be a wonderful evening of sacred song and music. If you re a singer, help us fill the chancel as we did in 1967. (See Snapshot From the Past.) With over one hundred registered singers now, we re halfway there. There is a $5 registration fee for singers; registration materials may be obtained at Loser s Music Store or by visiting don@mtgretnatabernacle.org. Music will be supplied free of charge by Loser s to each registered singer. Rehearsals to learn the music are scheduled for several different locations, beginning the end of April and extending through June, led by local choir directors. Longwood Gardens and at Winterthur s Enchanted Gardens. Now we can hear again the magical musical notes one listener called an absolutely ethereal sound. Dr. Michael Joy Spring 2007 3
Community Worship Service Rev. Ed Zeiders There will be a slightly unusual aspect to the return of the Rev. Ed Zeiders, a longtime Tabernacle favorite. Ed will be the preacher on Sunday morning August 26, the date of the annual Mt. Gretna Community worship service, to which all friends of the Bible Festival are cordially invited. This service, near the end of the Mt Gretna season, alternates annually between the Tabernacle and the Chautauqua Playhouse. A quirk of the calendar this year puts the Community Service on the last Sunday of the Summer at the Tabernacle series. The Community Worship Service has its roots in an earlier Mt Gretna tradition. For twelve years, beginning at least as early as 1917 and continuing until 1929, the Bible Festival preacher conducted the Sunday morning service in the Tabernacle and then repeated it that afternoon in the Chautauqua Auditorium. The somewhat modified tradition of a joint community worship service was revived in the 1980s. The Rev. Dr. Ed Zeiders, former President and Chief Executive Officer of United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, is well known to members of the Central Pennsylvania Conference; he was a district superintendent for eight years and then was appointed Director of the Conference Council on Ministries. After seven years in Dayton, Ed has been appointed to a charge in State College, PA. A graduate of Lebanon Valley College in 1970, Ed is married to the former Joan Keefer. The couple has three children and three grandchildren. A Roof Over Our Heads One of the reasons why the Tabernacle has lived so well into its second century is that it was well designed and well built by Lebanon s self-educated entrepreneur John Cilley. Another reason is that the Campmeeting Board of Managers has always been faithful in maintaining the structure. The current superintendent of buildings and grounds, Merv Lentz, carefully implements the recommendations of the structural engineer who inspects the building annually. And when snow is predicted, Merv immediately arranges for professional clearing of the famed circular roof. All of us who enjoy the serenity and the pleasure of the Tabernacle owe a debt to John Cilley and the faithful stewards who have followed him and kept his building alive and well. It goes without saying that all this maintenance does not come free. While it may seem that clearing the snow from the roof is a simple operation, actually there is considerable danger to the people working on the roof, and if the weight of the snow is not properly distributed while it is being removed, there could still be a disastrous break. The charge for removing the snow and ice from the winter storms was $7,800, a cost Prayer Support The Bible Festival programs and the Tabernacle Association have been blessed over the years by the generosity of their supporters and friends. Some of this support can be counted and measured in terms of dollars, and it has been very important in maintaining the kind of programs you want to hear and in preserving the Tabernacle building. And there is also the prayer support of the many people and congregations who look forward to the Summer at the Tabernacle programs and the continuation of the old campmeeting traditions. Prayer support is harder to measure, but it is just as important to the wellbeing of the Bible Festival and to the preservation of the building. So, as you are making your contribution, add a little prayer to it. And encourage your pastor and groups in your church to include the Mt Gretna Summer at the Tabernacle programs in their prayers as well. that is shared by the Campmeeting and the Tabernacle Association. As you make your contributions to the Bible Festival and the Friends of the Tabernacle this year, you may want to participate directly in the continuing preservation of the historic Tabernacle by making an extra contribution marked for the Tabernacle roof. Such extra contributions will be put into a separate fund, that will help to pay for future snow removals and eventually help towards replacing the entire roof when that becomes necessary. 4 Spring 2007
Snapshot From the Past The photo on page 2 of this issue was found in the Bible Festival archives. It was taken in 1967 and shows the Massed Choir overflowing the stage area, or chancel, of the Tabernacle. Thanks to 21st century technology it is possible to enlarge this old photo to the point where faces are clearly recognizable. Regardless of whether or not the printed reproduction will permit such recognition, it can be pointed out that the man s head just behind the conductor s right shoulder belongs to none other than What s Really New? The first of the new programs will be heard on Sunday evening, July 8, when Men In Harmony, a Christian male chorus from the Upper Dauphin area, make their first appearance in the Mt. Gretna Tabernacle. They will be conducted by Robert Stoner and accompanied by Doug Troutman. The Chorus grew from a small group of singers motivated by the Oasis evangelistic crusade of 1998 to get together and sing. It now numbers some twenty members who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior. As they say, Men In Harmony isn t only our name; it is also our identity. We find our hearts in harmony with the Lord and each other as brothers in His family. The majority of their programs consist of singing about Christ. Their love of America introduces a substantial number of patriotic songs into their repertoire. Sounds as though they have a great treat in store for us! The second totally new program will be heard on Sunday evening, July 29. This will be a concert by our Program Committee chair, the Rev. Don Zechman. The conductor pictured is Professor Earl Miller. This was the twelfth year that he had led the massed choir, and it turned out to be his last. He did return one more time, in 1969, as Song Leader, and that seems to have been his last appearance in the Tabernacle. The records are tantalizingly incomplete, but Miller is credited by many with originating the Massed Choir concert as a major event of the campmeeting season. the Lancaster British Brass Band. Now, if you re thinking Lancaster? and British? just wait a minute. Walter B l a c k b u r n, the Lancaster British Brass Band s conductor, is well known in area music circles. He has taught at Millersville University, and Elizabethtown and Lebanon Valley colleges and was, for fifteen years, conductor and chorus master of Opera Lancaster. In 2004, Blackburn joined with two other well-known Lancaster musicians, Paul Belser and Rick Staherski, to create a highly professional musical organization that would replicate the repertoire and instrumentation of a traditional British brass band. Twenty eight instrumentalists and one conductor comprise the personnel of the band. Three of those 28 are well know to Bible Festival audiences Doug and Kristen Albert, and Scott Loose, who make up three fifths of The 1967 season focused on the 75th anniversary theme, and on August 19 a musical program entitled Echoes of Music from the Composers was presented. Whether that was the title of the Massed Choir program is not clear from the records, but there were a number of soloists, including Marie Mellman Naugle, harpist, from New Cumberland; Dorothy Landis Gray, soprano, from Batesville, AK; and Marianne Weary, alto, from Lebanon. There was also a quartet, made up of Dorothy Woods, Marianne Weary, Edgar L Simpson, and Alden Biely, Jr. the Lancaster Brass Quintet. The original British bands were often sponsored by 19th century mill and mine owners in Great Britain, who apparently hoped that stirring band music would compensate for the often atrocious working conditions they imposed on their employees. They may have been successful to a certain extent; at any rate, these company bands seem to have been the model for the Salvation Army bands of the late 19th and early 20th century. With instrumentation composed entirely of brass wind instruments and percussion, the sound of the Lancaster British Brass Band has been compared to one big magnificent pipe organ. So join us in the evening of July 29 and judge for yourself. Spring 2007 5
Change and Tradition Traditionally, August 12 would be the date for the Massed Choir concert, bringing the two core weeks of Bible Festival to a close. But this, too, is one of the things that has changed in 2007, although in some ways it hasn t changed. What hasn t changed is that there will still be plenty of hymn singing on that evening, led by the Rev. Darrell Woomer, with the Rev. Rodney Shearer accompanying at the piano. This program will include a Remembrance Service, so give us any names that should be remembered. And speaking of conclusions, the Lancaster Brass will again provide the final concert of the summer series. Hopefully, the players will not have to squint at their music, illuminated by only a couple of wavering flashlights. (The wavering illumination didn t make any difference the music was spectacular vintage Brass.) Lancaster Brass Change continued from page two was a continuing emphasis on music. Workshops for choir directors and church musicians were well attended, and the season ending concert was probably the genesis of the Massed Choir program. Of course, the music workshop idea has transformed itself into musical entertainment, but the old churchly orientation dies hard, and today, even the symphonic band program includes some hymn tunes and other sacred music, and the Program Committee makes a point of selecting vocal soloists for their repertoire of religious and sacred music. PRESORT STD. U.S. Postage PAID Mt. Gretna, PA 17064 Permit No. 2 Non-Profit Organization Mt. Gretna Bible Festival P.O. Box 408 Mt. Gretna, PA 17064 Return Service Requested