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Note #8302 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Anthem to debut in Sunday service
GA04012
June 26, 2004

Anthem to debut in Sunday service

86 year-old hymnodist composed 'O Blessed Church' for Assembly

by Erin Cox-Holmes

RICHMOND, June 26  --  Blessed ... Singing ... Praying ... Preaching ...
Sharing.

"Do you see? These five themes are what the church is all about," says Helen
Kemp. "So pay attention to the words you sing."

Kemp isn't much taller than the children she conducts, but all eyes in the
stadium will be focused on this dynamo Sunday as she conducts the massed
chorus of children, youth and adults in a performance of her original anthem,
"O Blessed Church."

Kemp has been a woman of stature in the choral-music universe throughout her
63-year career.

"O Blessed Church" was commissioned jointly by the Office of the General
Assembly (OGA) and the Presbytery of the James. Kemp wrote the music to a
2002 text by J. Edward Moyer.

"You have to find the text first," she says. "The text gets you started; then
you work it out. I finally found this one, praising what holds us together as
a church. It was commissioned to include children and adults together - not
professionals, but faith-filled singers."

Each of the five verses addressed a different theme. Some are sung by all,
some feature children alone, and one is sung without accompaniment. The Rev.
Susan Andrews, moderator of the 215th General Assembly, will speak a verse,
and women will take the lead in the last one.

"I've been reading Cokie Robert's Founding Mothers: Women Who Raised Our
Nation, and I wanted to evoke all the women who have nurtured the General
Assembly since the first one, the year before George Washington was
president," Kemp says.

A lifelong advocate of music for children, she was determined that any anthem
she composed would include children. "Our theology has to begin at that age,"
she says, "through hymns, things we memorize."

Kemp explained that she still loves to go to church conferences at age 86 and
likes to challenge teachers in their mid-50s who think they're ready to
retire. "I want to say you are an infant," she tells them. "You've got a
whole life ahead of you. Great-grandmothers can be great music-makers. If you
love children, it keeps your spirit young."

Kemp accepted her first church position as a college graduate in 1941. With
her husband, John S.C. Kemp, she served lengthy terms at First Presbyterian
Church in Oklahoma City and Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. An
undisputed expert in children's choirs, she is known internationally as a
specialist in training young voices. Her many books and other instructional
materials are standard resources, and her choral compositions for children
are widely performed.

Upon her retirement as a professor of voice at Westminster Choir College, she
was named professor emeritus of voice and church music, and was awarded an
honorary Doctor of Music degree.

This story and many others may have photos, media, video clips that can be
found at http://www.pcusa.org/ga216.htm.

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