Music: Mass setting to premiere at General Convention
Composition is tribute to ministry of Presiding Bishop
By Matthew Davies
Monday, June 05, 2006

[Episcopal News Service] A new Mass setting, composed in honor of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, will receive its premiere performance during the 10 a.m. Eucharist on Saturday, June 17, as part of the Episcopal Church's 75th General Convention in Columbus, Ohio.

Composed by Craig Phillips, associate director of music and composer-in-residence at All Saints' Episcopal Church, Beverly Hills, the "Festival Eucharist" is structured in the same way as a standard Mass setting and includes the movements Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus, Christ our Passover, and Agnus Dei.

For Phillips, it was a great honor to be asked to write a piece for the entire church, and especially as a tribute to the ministry of Bishop Griswold whom, he says, he has never met, but has admired for many years.

The Rev. Canon Anthony Jewiss, deputy executive officer in the Office of General Convention, contacted Phillips in 2004 about writing the new Mass setting. Both agreed on music that would be accessible and easily learned by congregations throughout the Episcopal Church, while also being "a work of substance and musical interest -- one that would endure over time," Phillips said. the rest