Goodbye, Easter

Today was the last Sunday of Easter. Yet again, we sang no Easter hymns at the 10:30 service. Hymns were taken from the “Jesus Christ our Lord,” “Holy Eucharist,” “The Church’s Mission,” and “The Church” sections of the hymnal. “Holy Eucharist” was represented by three separate hymns. Next Sunday is Pentecost. Rather than sing an Easter anthem, the choir sang a Pentecost anthem by Thomas Tallis. Couldn’t we have waited a week?

Of course, since St. Paul’s no longer seems to pay very careful attention to the church year, perhaps some of my favorite Easter hymns will show up during Pentecost. After all, we no longer perform baptisms on the traditional days; we do them for the convenience of the families involved. I guess it’s that welcoming thing again.